So I’m curious what you guys would think of this and what my next steps should be. I sent an email to them and am awaiting a response.
I’m a male teaching assistant (soon to train as a fully qualified teacher) and I care immensely about my work. I genuinely believe we should treat kids with the same respect and humour as you would anyone else and apply sternness and authority when needed. That’s my entire philosophy.
The kids I worked with loved me, especially those with special needs for the simple fact I would make them laugh when all the other teachers would be pretty serious. Some would make jokes but I think they could tell I was normal and they liked me for it. This isn’t to say I was always relaxed, I could be quite the angry teacher if anyone crossed the line, but it worked when juxtaposed with the calmness.
I got brought out of one of the lessons by the higher ups and they said that a child made a joke that was somewhat mocking, and that they apparently got it from me. When I said ‘what did the child say’, they said, ‘I don’t know’. Then they told me not to be so relaxed, and I asked again, what did the child say, and again, they responded with the same answer.
So afterwards I spoke to all the other teachers and asked if I did anything wrong, they all told me I was doing perfectly and the kids liked me and I had helped them develop loads – I actually listened to their feedback because, unlike the higher ups, they were the people I worked with all the time. The higher ups would walk in to classes occasionally and observe for a minute, and then leave.
So imagine my surprise when I get told by the agency I was hired by, whilst I was in the building, that my contract was to be terminated. The agency was fully on my side and it came as a shock to them too.
There was no reason given at first. The next however, I come to find out it’s because I was too relaxed and wouldn’t you know it, it was the higher up that decided to do it.
What makes it even more heartbreaking is every single other teacher I asked about it 1) they had no idea about my firing 2) they were confused as to why because they were all happy with how I worked and could see I had a relationship with the kids.
It’s a shame because the consistency those kids desperately need is now absent. Imagine working somewhere for a month, not thinking anything was wrong, genuinely loving it, only to have it ripped away by higher ups that never see you. Was horrible and my mental health hasn’t been the same since.
TL;DR: higher up at the school I worked at decided to get rid of me in the most indirect way because I was ‘too relaxed’, despite everyone else saying otherwise.