Keeping your distance...
 

Hi all.
Today I was told/warned that I should keep some distance between myself and the students.
I was told that I play with the students a little too much and that parents think I shouldn't do this because I am a teacher.
I was also told that the students will lose respect for me as a teacher if I play with them too often.

But I'm curious to know as to where the boundaries lie.
I have been working in a kindergarten for the last year, where the parents don't seem to mind too much as the students are young and like to play.
However, I’m now working in an elementary school and with the new warning/criticism in mind, I’m wondering how I should go about it successfully. I am a little afraid that if I distance myself too much, the students might think I might not like them and might damage the relationship I have between them.

Anyone have any advice as to what to do and what would be seen as acceptable interactions between the foreign teacher and the students?

Re: Keeping your distance...
 

Where are you teaching? The culture is different from back home, so perceptions may be different. How familiar are you with the culture there? How familiar are you with the education system there?

As a manager / trainer of teachers, I would consider the advice pretty good... at least at this point. If you're new to that school and that age group, it may be a good idea to first figure out the boundaries. If you regularly go beyond these boundaries now, it may be harder to make a needed change later. It's better to err on the side of caution at this point, I think.

You can also look at it this way. The kids won't be able to understand the sudden change if you play with them for weeks and weeks, then stop. However, if you suddenly started playing with them (because you learned the boundaries), will they really care that you didn't play with them before? My guess is no, because they'll be having too much fun with you to care.

That's my two cents... which may not be worth too much in today's economy.

Re: Keeping your distance...
 

Hi
I'm teaching in China. Although I have been here for 2 years, I am still learning new things about the culture and the way the education system works here. This is my first time to work in a public school; before I've done private schools and kindergartens.

Luckily this job is fairly new...I think I have been working there around 6 weeks. Whereas it won't be too hard to change my habit in this job, as a really only "played" with a small minority of students, it will be hard to change the entire way I interact with the students as this is the first time in 2 years this has been brought to my attention.

Maybe I can turn it around and make it into constructive games, rather than just messin around games.