In the US, where do teachers spend time between/before/after classes? How do they communicate with each other about news/events/schedules/etc?

I hope I'm asking this in the correct reddit! I grew up in the USA so I know how it is from a student's point of view, but now I'm teaching in Japan. I would like to get some information from y'all that have worked in public schools in order to fill the gaps I have in American school life, from a teacher's point of view, so I can compare it to Japan's style.

Here, in elementary, middle, and high school, all of the teachers put all of their teaching materials, test papers, computers etc in a big "teacher's room". Their desks are all close enough to each other to be touching, but are often grouped in "islands" based on year (first grade teachers, second grade teachers, etc).

The teachers desk in the classroom just has left-over worksheets and pens/rulers/stuff that the teacher would need on a moment's notice, but nothing important or permanent.

The principal has his own "principal's room" but none of the other teachers do.

All of the information sharing is done via daily meetings in the teacher's room, in the morning before the first class, and sometimes after school, when they all group together again in the teacher's room.

The morning meetings are usually vocal only, as teachers with something to say stand up and say their piece. The occasional afternoon "big" meetings have a printed packet that goes along with the meetings information, and a teacher usually reads the thing word for word to everyone.

There is a school email server, kind of like a message board, where anyone with the school's email address can send a message (with an attachment if needed) and every teacher can read it if they want, but it is usually not used for important announcements - anything that everyone needs to know will be announced at a meeting. I'm not sure if teachers have an individual school private email address, but I doubt it.

By the way, in Japanese schools, the homeroom teacher for each class will eat lunch with the students in the classrooms, but all of the other teachers (music teacher, nurse, secretary, principal, etc) eat on their desk in the teacher's room.

Finally, there is a "tea room" which i guess would be like the water cooler area in American offices? Tea and coffee is prepped there, and there is a sink for washing dishes, and a fridge, but there are no tables for sitting or relaxing there.

Thanks for reading this long post and please let me know how this compares to your US school experience!

Submitted December 09, 2020 at 06:10PM by Tuxedo717 https://ift.tt/3aaa9WP