I have mixed feelings about the first week. In some ways it was awesome. In other ways it wasn't so much. And in still more ways it was down right weird. Always it was exhausting. I crashed at 7 last night and didn't regain consciousness until 7 this morning. The last time I did that was jet-lag from going to Florida.
Anyway, some things were weirder than others. There is one particular event that really surprised me and I've talked so some of my cohort mates about it and they think it's really weird too. However, I guess they only got the story from my point of view. And I guess I shouldn't be such a prude about it. But still. I should probably talk to my supervisor about it as well. It was that weird.
Which leads me to dressing and acting professionally. I make it a point never to wear jeans at school. Probably the only acceptable jean wearing situation is if said jeans were a super dark wash, really nice (not faded, no flamboyant embellishments, a clean cut, etc), and I had a blazer or something extra dressy on top. My current wardrobe does not contain anything like that, but I'm looking forward to the day when I can buy a couple nicer things.
No one has been really down on my appearance so far. The only border-line comment was when my supervisor commented on my "comfy" clothes (I had layered a skirt with toe-less tights [I cut them off] and had a collared 3/4 sleeve under a black tee; I think the scrunched leggings made it look "comfy," although I never associated tights with comfortableness before) once. I caught on and turned a little more conventional, no matter how my increasingly individual aesthetic combined with increasing body confidence might make me want to experiment more.
I notice my choices have been much more conservative in the 5th grade than in the 1st. First, because some of these kids are nearly as tall as me and I need to dress differently from them (they do have a uniform, but many of them don't adhere to it, especially when it's cold with the availability of various outerwear). Second, because I'm at this school more often and I'm expected to have learned more professional habits from phase II. Third, because the way I dress gives a certain image to my students. With first graders, it's ok to be a little casual because it's going to get messy. Fifth graders should get used to the idea that people who work dress a certain way.
I'm slightly confused that my current school doesn't really have a uniform appearance across the board with the teachers. I've noticed some nicely dressed, some business casual, some casual, and some collegiate styles. Everyone seems to have their own idea of what is appropriate dressing for school. Again, I don't mean to compare, but WB was not like that. All the teachers were at least business casual, with one or two who always wore a tie and jacket. To give credit to WB, it is a much smaller school that EIB, and they also had a much stricter code of conduct. Which made sense that teacher and staff appearance would reflect that.
What does this have to do with the weird incident this week? Well, I'm just confused I guess. There are mixed messages being sent about appearances and I guess i would just like them to be clarified.
But then, I should dress as a representative of UTEC as well as myself - as opposed to a representative of EIB. And UTEC's expectations are nice and clear. I'll probably stick with those.
No comments:
Post a Comment