Authority

[Samson]

My office is right next to a corridoor with a dead end. At lunch times, 10 or so students congregate and theyre loud, they bang about, and the mess once the lunch hour is over is absolutely appaling.

Merely asking them to be quiet has never worked, so today, I walked out and moved them on. After arguing and refusing to move, I shouted at them and threatened to take them to their heads of year, at this statement, they cleared off.

As I went to return to my room, there were 2 or 3 teachers peering out of their doors, and some on the Gallery looking at me, all giving me this "down the nose" look, as if I'd done something wrong by asserting my authority.

Yes, I'm not a teacher, but at the same time, I shouldnt have to work in an office which during lunch and break is filled with the foul-mouthed shoutings of students, and the stench of walked in food and drink just outside my door.

I brought the issue up with some other non-teacher staff, and they've had similar experiences, teachers seem to look down their noses at us, beleiving they are the only ones who can shout at kids and be authorative, and most of them have said they dont bother.

To which I replied well im sorry but this is my work place, I have a right to work in a clean, quiet, and most of all SAFE environment. If I had to exit the room quickly, I'd be climbing over a dozen or more students who make no effort at all to move for you.

One lad replied "Mr williams lets us sit here", and I'm thinking to myself, I'm not Mr Williams, therefore I dont care what he says, yet I know those kids are going to go to him telling him what a nasty man I am for moving them on.

Which leads to my question, where do you all stand in terms of authority? Have any of you had similar experiences?

[DSapseid]

I shout at the kids all the time. If any staff are nearby when i shout they normally come and give me a hand shouting at them!! Most of them are quite nice to me as i can block ther internet acess and most importantly to them there emails!!

[Halfmad]

I've had similar experiences although most students make an effort to move out of the way anyway. I'm not friendly with them but do treat them with respect, they give me it back.

I generally don't have any problems, most say good morning to me but perhaps that's because if they want internet access that have to be nice!

[Geoff]

My BOFH hat is overused.

[Butuz]

I'm not a BOFH i am more of a NOFH (nice operator from heaven)

I've only properly shouted once in 6 years as far as i can remember, and that was because a kid put a fire alarm through and set the alarms off just as I walked round the corner

Andrew

[localzuk]

I shout occasionally, and have the same level of authority as a teacher. All staff are on an equal footing and have the same ability to send kids to detention etc...

[DSapseid]

I have a bit of authority over the kids as for the last month or so i have had to look after our new E-Learning zone at lunch times and look after the kids!! I can shout at them through them out of the rooms (not literally!!! - although i wish i could :P ) and also i can ban them from entering it suites for a week or how ever long i deem fit for vandalism etc.

[strawberry]

i'd rather have yobs outside my door than the current craze here, gangs of girls waving at me and shouting hello mr computer man.

[SteveT]

Kids here are a bit scared of me

Sometimes asked to support staff who are fed up of some behaviours (ie "just happen" to be working in a room where the problem lies and intervene if required)

This is helped by:

Small school. We rely on close teamwork all the time. Ethos is very much "Staff" rather than "Teachers, admin, support etc)

Small community. They know I will see their Dad, Mum, older brother in the pub!

20 years experience teaching EBD kids behind me. I've seen it all before .... and won!

[webman]

i'd rather have yobs outside my door than the current craze here, gangs of girls waving at me and shouting hello mr computer man.

Hehe. I usually get "Computer Craig"

[Joedetic]

The most i got was kids shouting at me as i was walking around the school getting requests to unblock stick cricket etc (because i maintained the filtering list and it was well known )

There was a kid that had been sent out of a lesson by one of the ICT teachers and was standing outside the office and was mouthing off at me about this teacher calling her all sorts of names. He soon shut up when i said...."Do you know whether or not i'm a member of staff??" As i was a student whilst i was working in ICT i didnt shout....it wouldnt have had any effect.

[enjay]

Personally, I think it very sad that your colleagues look down on you in that way. If that is the ethos at your school, I am hardly surprised that the students don't move on when you tell them to - kids aren't stupid and they will have seen that the teachers offer you no respect, so they won't either.

I work in a very nice school, so rarely need to doll out any discipline beyond saying "please don't do that" and have never once shouted at a student. I haven't directly given out a detention but the ICT Co-ordinator is yet to refuse my request that he gives one on my behalf.

You are a member of staff and should be treated as such by the students and the other staff (I'm guessing that your admin staff are equally frowned upon by the teachers?). The students should see you as staff and respond to you as they would to any other staff member (although it does still catch me off-guard if I try and sneak into a class to get at the PC and the students all stand up!).

[broc]

My team members always carry radios; the threat of 'move on or we will call SMT & you can explain to them why you have disobeyed a direct instruction from a member of staff.....' works quite well.

The biggest problem I find in a large school is not being able to name the guilty... I sometime wish I had one of those police 'head-cams' to gather evidence

[Domino]

i'd rather have yobs outside my door than the current craze here, gangs of girls waving at me and shouting hello mr computer man.

Hehe. I usually get "Computer Craig"

Its " Hey IT Doood" for me

[philjones2000]

Not knowing their names is also my biggest problem. I can call on the radio and if anything the teaching staff will be harder on the kids if they see me having to deal with them as they know I can't be fixing their machines when i'm doing that.

The trouble comes when they run off and I'm left going "yeah, it was a kid- 11-16 ish, acne, barely literate, weird smelling and with a chip on their shoulder" Anyone for rigging up some sort of open source facial recognition server that talks to sims? No?