Australia's Science Forum

Im a very easy going person and in general my department are very good except one.

But Yesterday I finally said NO! and boy did it feel good!! This teacher has been my biggest thorn!!!

Its been busy here over the last few weeks, exams, open day coming up and I have had the flu and firing on all cylinders.
It was 3.10 and I finish at 3.30, when a teacher comes up in a panic, "I have a Y9 assessment task that has to be handed out P1 tomorrow and I havent printed it yet!"
I replied calmly ..."this is my problem ...why? its not my stress because you cant get oganised. Looks like you will have to stay back today!"
Well her mouth was wide open!!
My HO was very supportive and said good on you..next time she might get her act together!

Well done Bindi

Saying "no" gets easier with practise.
Any teacher who disrupts my morning tea gets an automatic NO! Though I will usually relent and listen to their tale
of woe But I NEVER get up and fulfill their request there and then. It is always the same ones

Judith

Wow Bindi, where the emoticon for someone bowing?
Have to settle for hats off to you!

Well done.
Lets hope they stop and think before they ask next time.
Helen

Good on you!! I had Tuesday off sick (Came in Monday and made sure I had all requests ready for Tues and Wed and went home early cos I really should have taken off Monday as well) and on tuesday afternoon about 5 min before last period would have started I got a text asking where I keep the electrodes!! ON MY SICK DAY!!! I was very tempted to send a text back saying "what happened to 2 days notice? if you had put in your request 2 days early you would have had it ready for you. You'll just have to wait till I'm back" but I didn't... I told them via text where to find them... and came back to find chemical stock bottles all over the bench in the prep room RIGHT UNDER THE SHELF WHERE THEY LIVE!! Gosh, if it's that easy to get them out then PUT THEM AWAY!! It's not like they were empty (if they'd emptied them then I would be glad they left them out so I know to refil).

I had yesterday off sick in bed. Came in this morning to lookes like break and enter, the cupboards. I tell you I am ready to walk out on all this_____________________________. THank god its Friday. I feel so used and abused. I have had this _______________

I am so pleased you stood up and said NO. See what they do when I am away. Break into cupboards that where locked to get what they need.

Oh Labbie, that's no good!! At least I didn't have cupboards and locks broken. Now that IS wrong!! Did you take photos before you started to clean up? I would be using them to stress the importance of ORDERING AHEAD! Who will fix the locks? Perhaps you should have called the police to report the break and enter and watched what happens next

Labbie your not alone the lock on my compactus was forced open two weeks agon on my day off and now the key wont even fit in it anymore so it can't be locked at all. It really is disgusting , if the kids behaved like this they would be expellled! Also got to work yesterday to find the chem store WIDE open after I locked it up on tuesday arvo.

I had a teacher who took to the padlock on the cage around the gas cylinders with a pair of boltcutters because he couldn't find the key which was hanging up in the unlocked compactus. The padlock was specifically provided by the gas company and they were unimpressed with the actions of the teacher in question. Plus it cost the school to have the padlock replaced by the gas company.
Lyn.

Gosh Rowyrow & Lynn, In a way I am pleased I am not alone. But boy oh boy does it make me mad. Any way the teachers are going to replace the lock. I should have called the police. But in the back of my mind I did think it was the staff.

who cares if you knew it was staff!! Would have taught them a lesson

Well done Bindi! Score one for the Labbies!

I've been sick for the past 2 days....... I shudder to think what it will be like when I get back.

My teachers found my home phone number & popped it up on the board near the phone!! Anyone could ring me on a whim on my sick day or days off (I only work 1 1/2 days). Suffice to say it's been taken down. I'm with all of you - IF they were organised they would never need to search for things!

I also have a 'thorn' teacher - he NEVER dates any of his pracs & I'm going to take a leaf out of your book Bindi....... when the next one comes in, I'm going to put it back in his pigeon hole with an apology that I can't put out pracs without dates - we don't have enough equipment or room for them to sit & not be used! Once I made up all the ones he requested & he had 8 pracs sitting there - all without dates - & he didn't do half of them. He likes to be......... FLEXIBLE........... Unorganised more like it!!

Anyway, thanks for the inspiration Bindi (& everyone else).... Tomorrow I will dazzle him with organisation!!

I had a message left on my mobile on a sick day asking which fume cupboard was leaking because the repairman was at school to fix it.
I would have thought the one with the big yellow A-frame sign next to it saying danger slippery floor, might have given them a clue.
I ignored the message.

I have a teacher that constantly turns up saying she forgot to put an equipment request on the board. I usually say that's OK I'll get it. Lately I have started saying, really? that's no good and just return to what I am doing. She is getting better.
Estelle

I AM SO IMPRESSED!
'NO' is so hard to say!
Does every school have one of 'those' teachers?
I think some of you are missing your quota of 1, because I have a few extras here...can I send them on to those who have perfect staff to work with ...PLEASE

My main protagonist, of the group of thorns here, is so messy, her room always looks 'creative', she never fills out RAs etc etc.. she has even tipped the Data Logger out of its storage container so she could use the container for her coloured pencils [the screen on the Logger was cracked when she did it and had to be sent away for repairs] ...
BUT
this week she and other Chem teacher invaded my work space to set up Yr 12 chem prac - for which they gave me one day's notice!
THEN she was heard complaining in the staff room to teachers from other faculties about just how messy the prep room was - and how impossible it was for her to set up her prac there ..and a few other veiled hints about my unsuitability for the job .....
ANYONE want this teacher - ANYONE please please.. she will tell you that she is a talented gifted and talented teacher

I cleared off some bench space on Monday which has already been filled by people other than myself... But As I was cleaning up and trying to get re-organised a bit a teacher came in looking for stuff (no request, no 'may i have' just a "where is...?"), tripping over my things i had placed on the floor (out of MY way) and then he was looking at me as if to say "this place is a mess - you should do something about it. I can't reach what I'm trying to get". I didn't say anything. Just continued on with what I was doing... I didn't even close the dishwasher door to allow slightly more room for passage... too bad - I've decided, 'no request, it's not my problem' but I dont think I'll last long before I give in again. It makes more work for afterwards because the items aren't contained in trays, just put wherever!

Much as I would like to share experiences in this forum, the Staff Tea Room forum would have been a more discreet area to share gruntled experiences of which I have had many. Any possibility of flipping this thread from Miscellaneous to the Staff Tea room. Mind you the general sightseeing public will get an insight into how lab techs fare within the school system when accessing this particular Miscellaneous forum.
Lyn.

I have just tried to move it but I couldn't work out how. Any other moderators out there know how to change the location of a thread?

Sorry not for two pages, its too large for me to do. Perhaps Mr Burns can do it.