Den of Iniquity

I remember early on in my career that I was given some advice by an experienced teacher. Stay out of the faculty room. It’s nothing but trouble. I soon discovered that he was right and wrong.

When I was a high school student and would walk past the faculty room, if the door was open, cigarette smoke rolled out of the room and I couldn’t see across the room for the smog. If students wanted to smoke, they had to go off school property during the lunch hour. Eventually teachers had to do the same thing due to fire codes, and later due to antismoking regulations on campuses.

Basically, the faculty room is a place where teachers can “hang out”. It will generally have a fridge, microwave, toilet access, and assorted furniture. It is a place where many teachers will gather twice a day, once during a planning period and then during a duty free lunch period.

I discovered early on that when I spent time in the faculty room I got nothing done. In one district there was even a continuous game of pinochle throughout the day. There was often a race to get a seat at the table and I always felt that some players dismissed their students early since the same three were always there first.

The newspaper was read to the point of falling apart, tests were run off on the duplicator, later a photocopier, papers were graded, and gossip flourished. I uncovered more information about various students than I ever really wanted to know. Whenever I wanted to accomplish something, I spent my planning period in my room, provided it wasn’t being used by another teacher.

There are some good points about the faculty room. It is a place to share information about students that can be of value by giving different viewpoints on their skills and behaviors. The faculty room is also a place to unwind from the pressures of the classroom. Teachers also get to interact with their peers and not spend the whole day just in the company of students. It is also a room for sharing (donuts, brownies, cookies, etc.).

One year we had a teacher who was getting married and wanted to make her own wedding cake. Every few days she brought her latest attempt for us to evaluate. One cake couldn’t be cut and another tasted like baking powder. One even flowed when it was cut. She finally gave up and had one of the other women bake it for her.

The typical high school teaching day does not allow time for teachers to exchange ideas and information on shared students nor on their teaching methods and curriculum across grade levels and departments. Even within departments such exchanges are difficult to manage.

The middle school philosophy is badly flawed, but it does allow for teams of teachers who share information on their students. However, there is no such time allowed for sharing curriculum ideas or student information across grade levels- a serious flaw for a number of reasons, not the least of which is “turf wars”.

Unfortunately the “den of iniquity” is usually the only place for sharing information and ideas. The trick is to filter out the gossip while actually focusing on meaningful topics and avoiding pinochle, gossip, football pools, and criticism of the administration.