The latecomers

[franceslievens]

I finally seem to have some semblance of a schedule. Got some nice classes, some not so nice ones. Got to hand in the first batch of marks on Monday. School is going great apart from that one little thing which annoys me, and I don't know how to come up with a solution. The Islam teacher is always late. Usually we don't know whether she's late or absent, and because she's frequently late we (the other teachers of the world view courses) wait. We can't leave the children on their own, but we can't send them to another teacher either, because if we did, they'd be off the minute she arrived. School starts at 8:45. Because of miss Islam's tardiness, I frequently only start teaching by 9:05. The Head doesn't notice, or doesn't care. Miss Islam comes up with an excuse for every morning she's late, usually traffic or lack of parking space. When you teach in Brussels, and live in another community of the region, you do get stuck in traffic and parking space is hard to find. That is why I decided to start cycling to work. Whenever someone comments on her being late every single day, she considers this an attack on her self. So we don't say anything, which of course leads to her being even more late than usual. How do I tell her I don't like waiting? Do I just take my pupils and let hers stand on the playground? Miss Protestant will cover anyway, whether I leave or not, not giving any message to Miss Islam. What should I say or do?

Comments

[frenchani.livejournal.com]

You shouldn't have to wait for her! I would take the pupils and let her face the consequences of her tardiness. If she's alone Miss Protestant might get fed up with the whole thing as well...

[frances-lievens.livejournal.com]

That's what I plan on doing on Wednesday. We already work together tomorrow on a different school. The head teacher there doesn't like her tardiness in the least, neither does our colleague of Catholic religion. I plan on taking my pupils and starting my class, leaving someone else to cater for the Muslims.

[sister-luck.livejournal.com]

Gah, she's basically counting on you to cover up her mistake which is a really shitty thing to do. I can understand your reluctance to leave kids unsupervised. She seems to be fairly immune to friendly advice, so it seems like escalating is the only thing that might work even though that is something that goes against the idea of solidarity among colleagues. You should probably tell her that she is putting you on the spot and if she can't get her time management problems under control you can't cover (up) for her anymore.

[frances-lievens.livejournal.com]

I don't think she's consciously counting on me. She just presumes she'd do the same for me. Unfortunately this case never occurs. Starting tomorrow, I won't wait.

[lijability.livejournal.com]

Poor example of responsibility to the children. There should be consequences for that.

[frenchani.livejournal.com]

Exactly!

[frances-lievens.livejournal.com]

Yup...