Teacher’s Diary - Ragab Kamal

“You spend a lot of time trying to follow, to conform to the policies, rules, and procedures. It might be not wise to you personally, but at the same time, you do your best to hold to what you believe and to what is most important for your students and for yourself. But it is not always easy. Not easy but always important for your self-esteem”.

Good evening dear readers, Today I’d like to share with you my experience of the term “Below the waterline” through my experience with working in schools and even with office work.

Recently I have been studying and doing an online course under the title “ Foundations of Teaching for Learning: Being a Teacher” on Coursera, which I highly recommend, especially since it offers free online courses. While the instructor is explaining something about accepting the schools’ rules and policies, and how much it is sometimes difficult for us as educators, and even parents, to abide by, go along, and stick with them.

I remembered right away my experience with some rules which could be - based on my background - and what I’m used to inconvenient, but I had to stick to it if I really care about the job. It could be really hard to just forget and ignore your identity or what you belive in just in a few days for the work's sake, although you have to do it and it is the workplace, and the school policy. And here come what is called “Below the waterline”.

I want to draw your attention to the above quotation on Below the Waterline. The narrative there is about a Zimbabwean teacher, who talks about having this policy framework in school, the conventions of the schools, the rules of the schools. But at the same time, who she is as a person, what are her real beliefs, what are her values, how she thinks about life. I'm sure you think about that. I'm sure you think about the policies and the rules of the schools and your own beliefs and values, and how you reconcile that”.

You can share with me in the comment section your experience with the “Below the waterline” rules, how you managed to look after your self-esteem, and at the same time how you manages following the workplace rules.