The Staff Room
February 4, 2010 8:25 PM Subscribe
High school staff rooms are pretty boring, at least the ones that I frequent. Teachers are really too busy to hang out and any socializing takes place elsewhere. Your average teacher's free time is not really free. They are conferencing with parents, students, and meeting with admins. Staff rooms are usually deserted.
Plus (speaking as classified staff), the grazing is far better in elementaries.
posted by Danf at 8:41 PM on February 4, 2010 [3 favorites]
Plus (speaking as classified staff), the grazing is far better in elementaries.
posted by Danf at 8:41 PM on February 4, 2010 [3 favorites]
The reality of the staffroom is that it reflects school life: there are cliques, with popular teachers, jokers, weirdos, etc. At the school I taught at, there was a crowd of teachers that played poker and golf together. They often talk about it, but it was invite only.
The video got the clothing, hairstyles and body types right, but that's about it.
posted by KokuRyu at 8:49 PM on February 4, 2010
The video got the clothing, hairstyles and body types right, but that's about it.
posted by KokuRyu at 8:49 PM on February 4, 2010
I don't really want to say too much here. I teach. These kinds of things are funny in some way, I suppose like The Office is hilarious, if you don't work in a cube farm, and a wince-fest if you do. The staffroom in the school I work in does not sound or look like that one. But what's good tv without ridiculous caricature.
If you want a closer, sobering look at what school actually look and sound like, rent the French film The Class. I watched it the second last day of summer holidays, and had to stop half way through to get some air, a stiff drink, and then decide if I was going to finish it. For me, it's a harrowing, all too close to true portrayal of life (if what happens in school is living) in public schools in the "West."
posted by kneecapped at 9:10 PM on February 4, 2010 [8 favorites]
If you want a closer, sobering look at what school actually look and sound like, rent the French film The Class. I watched it the second last day of summer holidays, and had to stop half way through to get some air, a stiff drink, and then decide if I was going to finish it. For me, it's a harrowing, all too close to true portrayal of life (if what happens in school is living) in public schools in the "West."
posted by kneecapped at 9:10 PM on February 4, 2010 [8 favorites]
Funny. Of course, it bears about as much relationship to the profession as Barney does to paleontology.
posted by kozad at 9:20 PM on February 4, 2010 [1 favorite]
posted by kozad at 9:20 PM on February 4, 2010 [1 favorite]
What kind of PC bullshit got the "Teachers' Lounge" renamed, and am I dating myself by asking?
posted by Clave at 11:52 PM on February 4, 2010 [1 favorite]
posted by Clave at 11:52 PM on February 4, 2010 [1 favorite]
When I taught high school back in the States we didn't even have a staff room. The administration was so fucking ruthless and paranoid that they thought any time two faculty members spoke like adult colleagues to one another they suspected we were trying to unionize or talk about job openings at other schools. ('Twas a private school.)
Fact was, we were talking about what a shitty school we worked at and wondering why the administration was so fucking ruthless and paranoid.
Oh, and we spent a lot of time wondering about which students were sexually active and with whom. Yeah, it sounds creepy in retrospect, but I imagine zookeepers wonder what's going on in the cages at night. But it was usually the female teachers who brought up this particular line of conversation. They seemed to be much more in tune with the local zeitgeist.
But these vids are pretty funny.
posted by bardic at 12:06 AM on February 5, 2010 [1 favorite]
Fact was, we were talking about what a shitty school we worked at and wondering why the administration was so fucking ruthless and paranoid.
Oh, and we spent a lot of time wondering about which students were sexually active and with whom. Yeah, it sounds creepy in retrospect, but I imagine zookeepers wonder what's going on in the cages at night. But it was usually the female teachers who brought up this particular line of conversation. They seemed to be much more in tune with the local zeitgeist.
But these vids are pretty funny.
posted by bardic at 12:06 AM on February 5, 2010 [1 favorite]
Thanks, these are funny. This is Canadian, right? Damn Canadians are funny. Must be a national trait.
Wait, I'm Canadian so, maybe it's not. Or maybe I'm the exception that proves the rule!
posted by From Bklyn at 1:23 AM on February 5, 2010
Wait, I'm Canadian so, maybe it's not. Or maybe I'm the exception that proves the rule!
posted by From Bklyn at 1:23 AM on February 5, 2010
Where I work (or my wife at a different school), staff have very little time to socialize. As noted above, they're already spending hours and hours of their off time doing prep, grading papers, talking to students and parents...why would they waste a single moment of the work day doing anything but trying to get out from under the massive work load...
posted by HuronBob at 7:40 AM on February 5, 2010
posted by HuronBob at 7:40 AM on February 5, 2010
Most definitely NOT "what really goes on in high school staff rooms everywhere."
And what High School teacher calls it a Staff Room? It is the Teacher's Lounge.
This must be what it is like for Doctors to watch Scrubs.
posted by nimsey lou at 7:49 AM on February 5, 2010
And what High School teacher calls it a Staff Room? It is the Teacher's Lounge.
This must be what it is like for Doctors to watch Scrubs.
posted by nimsey lou at 7:49 AM on February 5, 2010
Wish our lounge looked that spiffy. Obviously a TV version of the staff lounge.
posted by Lynsey at 10:05 AM on February 5, 2010
posted by Lynsey at 10:05 AM on February 5, 2010
When I taught our staff room was exclusively for our department, so it was just English teachers.
Our staff room was adjacent to our AP's office, so there was a steady stream of kids peeking in while they waited for their discipline. Piles of books in boxes, cubes, shelves all over the place. Many's the day I'd scrounge around looking for 36 copies of something decent for us to read together in class. (This wasn't exactly what I had in mind.)
It was crowded, ugly, moldy and nearly no one wanted to spend any time in there.
posted by Ruthless Bunny at 11:04 AM on February 5, 2010
Our staff room was adjacent to our AP's office, so there was a steady stream of kids peeking in while they waited for their discipline. Piles of books in boxes, cubes, shelves all over the place. Many's the day I'd scrounge around looking for 36 copies of something decent for us to read together in class. (This wasn't exactly what I had in mind.)
It was crowded, ugly, moldy and nearly no one wanted to spend any time in there.
posted by Ruthless Bunny at 11:04 AM on February 5, 2010
This must be what it is like for Doctors to watch Scrubs.
Funnily enough, the docs I know say Scrubs is one of the more realistic medical series... at least compared to House, or The OC or whatever that show was where someone was shot with a rocket launcher by a pregnant ghost or whatever crazy shit was going on over a few episodes.
posted by FatherDagon at 2:01 PM on February 5, 2010
Funnily enough, the docs I know say Scrubs is one of the more realistic medical series... at least compared to House, or The OC or whatever that show was where someone was shot with a rocket launcher by a pregnant ghost or whatever crazy shit was going on over a few episodes.
posted by FatherDagon at 2:01 PM on February 5, 2010
At 2:20 when they did a closer shot it dawned on me that the large, slightly uncouth lady was the gym teacher.
High school staff rooms are pretty boring, at least the ones that I frequent. Teachers are really too busy to hang out and any socializing takes place elsewhere. Your average teacher's free time is not really free. They are conferencing with parents, students, and meeting with admins. Staff rooms are usually deserted.
I worked at a large private school in residential care for the borders. That is, I worked and lived at the school but wasn't a teacher. Some of the young adults doing their teaching pracs used to come into our quarters to have their lunch because they said the staff room was just poison. All the teachers did was whine and moan and bitch and backstab, apparently.
posted by uncanny hengeman at 5:27 PM on February 5, 2010
High school staff rooms are pretty boring, at least the ones that I frequent. Teachers are really too busy to hang out and any socializing takes place elsewhere. Your average teacher's free time is not really free. They are conferencing with parents, students, and meeting with admins. Staff rooms are usually deserted.
I worked at a large private school in residential care for the borders. That is, I worked and lived at the school but wasn't a teacher. Some of the young adults doing their teaching pracs used to come into our quarters to have their lunch because they said the staff room was just poison. All the teachers did was whine and moan and bitch and backstab, apparently.
posted by uncanny hengeman at 5:27 PM on February 5, 2010
For some reason the link took me straight to ep.4. My comment above refers to that episode.
posted by uncanny hengeman at 5:39 PM on February 5, 2010
posted by uncanny hengeman at 5:39 PM on February 5, 2010
Ep.5 at 1:58. There was a Pulp Fiction moment. What was in her bag?!
posted by uncanny hengeman at 5:55 PM on February 5, 2010
posted by uncanny hengeman at 5:55 PM on February 5, 2010
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"Sometimes."
posted by bwg at 8:36 PM on February 4, 2010