Thursday, December 10, 2009
Secret 5 Part 1
In the book, the authors make the comparison between lawyers, pilots, and teachers regarding professional dress/attire. Discuss your thoughts on professional dress. Explain your thoughts on student behavior as it relates to student attire. Is there a correlation between students dressing up for school and their behavior?
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I feel like professional dress is important to some extent. Dressing differently than the students sets us up in a more authoritative and professional light. This does not mean we should spend our entire salary on professional clothes. There is nothing wrong with a pair of jeans and a team shirt once a week. A seventh grade student (not mentioning any names) says teachers should look professional and not like a bum who does not care how he or she looks and does not want to teach. Students seem to behave better when I dress professionally and when they are dressed up. Students who dress up on occasion feel good about themselves and therefore perhaps behave differently.
ReplyDeleteThis is an interesting topic because the social norms have changed on this in the last thirty years. There are many business people who would have worn shirt and ties, or dresses only who now do not dress as formally. Church has become a place where jeans and slacks are acceptable which is a change from the past. When I was in school, men teachers wore shirts and ties and the women wore dresses or skirts with hose, but they also smoked in the teacher's lounge which probably wasn't a great role model for high school students. I think teachers should strive to dress professionally most days, yet we have days where we might wear a spirit shirt or be doing something with the kids that requires a less formal attire.
ReplyDeleteStudents do seem to act better on days where they dress up, but if the girls are wearing shoes that are hard to walk in, it is a little hard to be very rambunctious. I am proud of the way our students dress. In other schools, it is common for the kids to wear sweat pants and t-shirts every day and not bother with fixing their hair. Our kids do a good job of looking neat and well groomed.
I think at first, when you are setting the expectations of the classroom, dress can play a key role. But as students get to know you, they know the expectations without considering the teacher's dress.
ReplyDeleteStudents do act more appropriately when they are dressed up - that is why the data on school uniforms is the way it is.
I think dressing professional is important. I believe if we dress casual students see us differently therefore treating us differently. I do feel that spirit attire on game days is important- that shows students that we support them and that is necessary as well. I know things have changed a lot over the years, but I believe teachers can look professional without having to be really dressed up.
ReplyDeleteStudents attire does affect the way they act as well. Appearances tell you something about someone, and students portray something about themselves by how they dressed.
A component of being a professional is making sure that you dress the part. I think its important that we distinguish ourselves as a group separate from the students. At 5"2 I feel that dressing up gives me a little height advantage, which psychologically is helpful when addressing a student. I liked how the girls b-ball teams dressed up this year for games, not only does it set the tone for the day, but it also practices a life skill that students will need for their careers.
ReplyDeleteI am not a person who personally notices what a someone is wearing. I do feel, that as professionals, it is good to set standards. On the other hand, what is the standard these days? It has definitely changed over the years from when some of us were in school. Like Lisa said, jeans are acceptable as church attire. Sometimes it seems like more people feel more welcome because of this. We need to be comfortable and feel good about ourselves when we work with students. Does that mean wearing a tie every day or a dress? Probably not. We do need to dress so that we distinguish ourselves from the students.
ReplyDeleteI feel that the way we dress, perhaps, makes a difference, but also feel that our staff is pretty good about not stretching the limits. I do like the looks of the airline pilots being dressed up, but does that make them a better pilot. I think the students relate to us as individual teachers and feel comfortable around us in either capacity. If we were slobs I think that may be a concern. I feel spirit days are also a nice way for students to see us supporting the school. As far as students, there again, as long as they are not stretching the limits, learning will take place. It is nice to see students dress for game days in nice clothes, but does it really make a difference in learning? We are OK as a school I think.
ReplyDeleteI do feel dress is important. When I first started teaching 30 years ago, most women wore dresses and men wore shirts and ties. Sadly, since I can no longer where appropriate shoes for skirts and dresses and even dress slacks, I don't feel I dress as professional as I should. I like the idea of staff shirts and staff dressing for game days, although when I came to Clay Center I couldn't believe the number of days in the week teachers wore school colors. At all of my previous schools, school colors were reserved for Fridays, or just Thursday at the Jr. Highs. I know students notice how we dress, and if we dress professionally, they respond to us differently.
ReplyDeleteI think there are different levels of dressing professionally. I do not dress everyday like I do for a concert. My everyday attire, while not extrememly dressy, does separate me from the students. There are days when my job does call for something more casual, like when I am crawling around in the ceiling of the auditorium, for example.
ReplyDeleteWe do require students to dress up for concerts. This has been harder and harder to do over the years because society has gotten so laxed. Most of the time the problem is not with the young ladies in our ensembles, but with the young men. You would think to ask them to wear khaki pants and a shirt with a collar was some sort of torture device! I used to think that their behavior when dressed up was better but I think a lot of that depends on the student.
I think we should dress professionally. I believe this means we should look different from our students. I also think it promotes school spirit for the teachers and students to participate in sport days with jeans and spirit shirts and also participate during spirit week. That makes it different and the attire special! I'll never forget the first time my children saw Ellen Rook, their elementary principal, in blue jeans outside of school. I don't think Ian recognized her! Paul's father, John (Blackie) Lane always wore a shirt and tie to school. It's fun to see JD follow in his dad's footsteps...
ReplyDeleteThere are days when we all are working with our students and curriculum and we can justify "dressing down." I also believe that's okay.
Ultimately,I guess I feel to be taken seriously as professionals, we should try to dress the part.
I also liked the comments regarding how our students dress. I think they do a really good job. We have some students in low SES homes, and most still come to school each day looking good!
An old saying, "dress the part you want to be" comes into play on this topic. Times have changed so much as has the "dress" for the professions. It use to be in the professional field, you wore a dress/skirt and guys shirt and tie. As our society has dubbed down the "professionalism" so has the dress code. My feelings are: in the teaching profession, it is ok to have casual dress. If you have a teacher/student relationship, your dress shouldn't make a difference in your leadership with the students.
ReplyDeleteI feel that it is important to dress appropriately and this at this time it is acceptable to dress casually. This does not mean jeans, etc. everyday but slacks, button down shirts etc. Teaching is a more mobile profession now. We are interacting with the kids at their level and to wear clothes that allow this type of activity rather than a suit and tie or a suit dress. When my father was in school his teachers sat behind a desk thus the attire was formal and was appropriate for the activity that these teachers were involved in. I do believe in supporting our students in their activities. When we dress in spirit shirts, etc. or participate in the spirit week with the kids it tells them that we feel they are important.
ReplyDeleteAlthough I believe our students do dress appropriately for the most part I do believe in the uniform policy. Uniforms may help student behavior but it also puts all the students on an even playing field.
One of the reasons I became a PE teacher is because of the attire. I know must of you are jealous ☺ Professional dress is important. You do need to dress your part. Think about it, what did you wear to your job interview.
ReplyDeleteWhen a student dresses nice, I think they feel better about themselves and may have a little more confidence.
This is a question that my husband, Ray, and I have debated many times. Ray has NEVER worn jeans to school. One day during the summer, a former student of his came up to us in Ray's Apple Market and said that she had never seen Ray wearing jeans. I thought this was "sad", and I said so...BIG mistake! Ray said that he didn't believe that jeans belonged in the workplace. This got me thinking... What is "professional dress"? I believe that it's the way a person carries themselves and not the clothing that defines who we are and the way we are perceived by others.
ReplyDeleteAs for students "dressing up", aren't we all just playing "dress up"? It's fun... occasionally...