The Hippo in the room (apologies for the phonetic spelling)

Recently there have been a number of conversations that I have overheard, or taken part in, where I have stopped myself and trying to re-route my thoughts....

The best way I can explain why, and what I mean, is painting a picture of one of these conversations.

I had the privilege of sitting in a staff room somewhere in NZ at lunch time - probably the same image will pop into the minds of educators - groups of people huddled around tables, drinking tea or coffee, munching on their lunch and defragging the morning. The furniture is best described as "homely and worn in", the walls are covered in notices, posters from the education union, values, ERO reports, etc. The conversation behind me starts to gain my interest - a teacher who was bemoaning the lack of engagement of their students.

 "They just don't pay any attention when I am talking! They sit down the back of the class and play on their phones, then talk when I don't want them too. They just don't want to learn, and I have had enough! They need to be removed from my class, they are a waste of my time."

Interesting - me thinks. I wonder what they have tried to get these students more engaged....??

As I am lost in my thoughts about how I would possibly try to tackle this student in my own class the conversation moves on to the PLD session that is planned for the afternoon. The same teacher pipes up...

"Ah, I don't know why we are having this PLD session. I have no need for this rubbish. I'm just going to sit down the back and finish off my report writing...."

And it hits me.

How many times have I gotten annoyed by the behavior of other people, when I do EXACTLY that myself.  Man, I am ever a hippo-crite!!!!

https://cdn.pixabay.com/photo/2015/05/25/16/02/hippo-783522_1280.jpg
Under a CC0 licence https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/deed.en

This epiphany has made me reflect on my own hypocritical behaviors.  (I will admit to having a few....) And so, I have a new wero for the near future - to acknowledge my own "hippos" and prevent them from becoming out of hand - and also, when something/someone annoys me - ask first "do I do xxxxx as well? Why is this annoying me?" - just to make sure I am not being a hippo.

Do you have any hippos in your room?????