My courageous might be a little different from some of yours. My situation is that I am a special education teacher for Modesto City Schools in Modesto, California. My union is very strong. I have never felt like my job was in jeopardy or even close to being in trouble. We are also protected by the "Fourteenth amendment"(Kemerer and Sansom). Which is also nice to have. My administrators talk to us with so much respect that it's kind of uncomfortable because it seems over the top. I have also never had to have any type of conversation with my administrators about anything specific it has only been positive. I am very blessed to have this type of work environment. I do feel bad for my Principal and Vice Principal we have a few teachers that like to complain to the union about issues that are not even worth discussing. For example, the principal gave our monthly meeting agenda one hour late so our meeting was canceled due to union complaint. I do feel bad because I think politics are too involved. If your a good worker you should be employed you should never have to worry about your job everyday that is no way to live.
My courageous conversation helped my growth not only as a person, but an educator. In my experience I have always been a "yes" man meaning if I am asked to do something I will do it without question. My campus is an older campus where I am the youngest teacher by at least 10 years at minimum. Some people talk down to me as if I am too young to handle the responsibility. One person in particular is our speech therapist. I am in the Special Education department so during our IEP's I have the speech therapist attend some of my meetings and she would always talk down to me and try to make me feel that I was not doing my job in front of parents. This was really unprofessional on her part and would have appreciated talking about her issues at a different setting. I talked to other teachers about this and they said that she does the same thing them. I would feel uncomfortable around the speech therapist on a daily basis and it was not a great feeling. In my mind I would think I should feel uncomfortable around the administrators not my colleague. I finally had to break down and talk to this person. I am not confrontational by nature and am usually laid back. I talked to her about this and she busted into tears saying she apologized saying she had a bad couple of months with her son who has severe autism and that she really has not slept in 3 months. After that our relationship was a lot better. This conversation helped me grow as a professional because it taught me how to confront people and to be honest about a situation.
Kemerer, Frank, and Peter Sansom. California School Law Third Edition. Palo Alto: Stanford UP, 2013. Print.
My courageous conversation helped my growth not only as a person, but an educator. In my experience I have always been a "yes" man meaning if I am asked to do something I will do it without question. My campus is an older campus where I am the youngest teacher by at least 10 years at minimum. Some people talk down to me as if I am too young to handle the responsibility. One person in particular is our speech therapist. I am in the Special Education department so during our IEP's I have the speech therapist attend some of my meetings and she would always talk down to me and try to make me feel that I was not doing my job in front of parents. This was really unprofessional on her part and would have appreciated talking about her issues at a different setting. I talked to other teachers about this and they said that she does the same thing them. I would feel uncomfortable around the speech therapist on a daily basis and it was not a great feeling. In my mind I would think I should feel uncomfortable around the administrators not my colleague. I finally had to break down and talk to this person. I am not confrontational by nature and am usually laid back. I talked to her about this and she busted into tears saying she apologized saying she had a bad couple of months with her son who has severe autism and that she really has not slept in 3 months. After that our relationship was a lot better. This conversation helped me grow as a professional because it taught me how to confront people and to be honest about a situation.
Kemerer, Frank, and Peter Sansom. California School Law Third Edition. Palo Alto: Stanford UP, 2013. Print.