The saga of the sunbeds
Everyone has the same problems when they go on holiday: sunbed wars! The people who get up at 5am and put towels on sunbeds they won't use until 1pm - because they go to back to bed. Or the group who have 8 beds reserved - but are never there because they live in the pool... My saga started not because beds were 'reserved', but because they weren't. And this is significant in my development as a resilient and assertive teacher because 12 months ago I would have reacted very differently!
Recently I went on holiday with my family. On the first day we looked for sunbeds near the slides where the children would spend most of their time. There were two free between two sets of towels - amazing! As I was arranging our masses of holiday paraphernalia a young lad came to tell me the empty beds were actually his families. Now 12 months ago I would have apologised and moved on, this time I didn't; instead I put forward my case. Yes, the beds were between two sets of reserved beds, but they had no items around or on them. Shortly after the young man's mother came and repeated the argument, and again I stood my ground; they were fair game and I was keeping them!
In my first year of teacher training I was conscious of how much my own self-awareness had developed. I was not however, conscious of how much my own confidence and assertiveness had improved. It took the saga of the sunbeds for me to come to this realisation.
So what?
As bizarre as this tale is for a teacher standards blog, this incident is significant because not even 6 months previous I would have apologised and moved on. In my next professional practice I am confident that I will be able to speak up for myself in observations. With three years of such personal development, when I'm eventually teaching my own class, I will have the skills and confidence to argue for strategies I believe when necessary, in such as Learning Outside the Classroom and inclusion of the Creative Arts in the curriculum.