steven's news flash

Steven is from New York.  He has brown curly hair that he tried to dye blonde and it came out reddish.  Every morning he comes to school with a loaf of bread, pre-sliced.  He shares his fresh bread with me and the other Americans - but doesn't offer to the Turkish teachers.  He then sits down and eats some cheerios.  He's not a loud eater, but he crunches slowly and politely - somewhat hunched over his food in a seeming attempt at privacy.  (Which is difficult seeing as we share the room with more than twenty teachers).  He has several tupperware containers on his desk to sustain him throughout the day.  Sometimes he'll eat a whole cucumber like a carrot.  Sometimes he has grapes.  He wanted another American teacher to bring him Ritz crackers from the army store (with a certain badge, you can have access to American foods on the army base at-cost), and refused to accept another brand.  Steven brings several tins of tuna fish, and at lunch - in addition to the cafeteria food served, he will often make himself a tuna fish sandwich.

As a department, and a school, we are not encouraged, but required to share our teaching materials and systems with our teaching partners.  Steven is my partner, but other than his morning loaf of bread - he doesn't share much.

I get his personality - its partly private, and in part - if no one asks, he's not going to offer information.  But he's worse than a Scandinavian.  If I want any information, I have to ask very detailed questions to get a complete answer from him.

I have written all the lesson plans for him and I, and I could tell he had fallen behind.  I shared with him how different lessons went for me, suggesting adjustments, showing how I was grading and rewarding the students, and so on.  Steven would nod and share NOTHING in return.  My department head, Aysegul, hasn't been following what we are doing and I didn't really want to keep tabs on my partner so I've been putting it off until today.

During our meeting, after some hemming and hawing - Steven finally admitted what lesson he was on (2 weeks behind schedule), shared his reward system that bordered on gambling, and argued most points that Aysegul challenged him on.  He's not a bad teacher or person - he just is extremely difficult to communicate with because he doesn't keep communication doors open.

For example, Steven's started a floor hockey league but never talks about - although he leaves a sign posted on the back of his laptop and on his desk that says "Hockey is coming to our School!"  He also announced yesterday that he would be gone for the next 10 days from school.

We all just looked at him.  Waiting.  Finally, someone asked:
"Where are you going?"
"To America."
"Is everything all right?"
"My mom had surgery."
"Oh, I hope she's okay.  What kind of surgery?"
"Yeah.  Breast cancer."
"When did she have the surgery?"
"10 days ago."

I'm still not clear why he's going home now, so long after the surgery when his mother's been alone all this time (he's an only child), but that's what was shared.

I think I might encourage him to start sharing "news flashes" with us in order to promote better communication because he's making me a little crazy.