This is a small conflict that happened at work. At the school where I work the art teacher visits the classrooms to teach arts. She brings the stuff she needs to teach. The lead teacher for my class has asked me to watch out for that the art teacher does not take things that belong to the class and to not let her to use them as much as possible.
At the first art class of the school year, the
children used markers. The art teacher had two big boxes of her own markers,
but she put our class markers on the table without asking. I thought it was not
what the lead teacher wanted her to do but I did not stop her because her
markers were black outside and our markers were white outside. So I thought I
would be able to distinguish them and put them back to where they should be at
the end of the class because I am the one who does the majority of the cleanup.
At the second art class, the lead teacher was
around. I put classroom markers on the table because I knew the art teacher
wanted to use them again. The lead teacher asked me not to let them use our
markers. So, I put them back saying “I see.” However, the art teacher stared to
put our markers on the table a minute after that because she was not watching
us. The lead teacher told the art teacher, “I do not want your markers and my
markers mixed. Mine are white and yours are black. So please do not mix them
when putting away.” She also explained the same thing to the children.
This experience made me notice that I tried
to avoid conflicts even small things. I do not like to show disagreement. The
lead teacher’s attitude showed that we can and need to speak out about what we
want even in politeness. She gave this as advice too. She also said, if we do
not show what we want or what we think, we could get in a trouble even if we
are right.
Aya,
ReplyDeleteI too have found myself in the middile of situations as a third party. It can be uncomforatble especially when we find ourselves in a subordinate postion like you and the lead or me and my supervisor. I feel that we learned some new stratgies this week in our assignments that will be helpful when I encounter conflicts on all levels.
Judi
Aya,
ReplyDeleteI think it's important that you recognize your tendency to avoid conflict. Only once we recognize these tendencies, can we grow from them. I think we were given a variety of strategies in order to aid us in addressing the conflicts that arise in our daily lives.
Hi Ayako,
ReplyDeleteConflict arises from differences. Resolving conflcit is impossible if you're unwilling to forgive. If you can't come to an agreement, agree to disagree. Only you can decide if a relationship can be improved, or should be let go.
Hi Aya,
ReplyDeleteIt can be difficult being in the middle of conflict. I think that you and the lead teacher did a great job of resolving the conflict.