Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Ready to Work

I love to look professional when I go to work and my staples are usually a blouse and pencil shirt, a shirt-type dress with 3/4 sleeves or black dress pants with an original blouse or shirt.  On more casual days, I like to sport more of a rugby, polo type of shirt.  A few days ago I took my camera into work and a co-worker of mine decided to take some pictures of me - I'm totally working the teacher look here because thats what I am:



 I work at a regular catholic high school in my area and I work with students wth special needs.  Most of the time I work with the severe needs group - students who have autism and often non-verbal, students with developmental disabilities and students who have cerebral palsy and other exceptionalities where they need the assistance of wheel chairs.  I have some people tell me - why do you get dressed up when you work with 'those' kids?  Comments like these make my blood boil because they are filled with ignorance.  I want my students to arrive to my classroom and feel loved, resected and worthy - so I try to make my class look good and I come dressed professionally and classy becase my students are worth it and I'm worth it!  I often play soothing music and like to create an aesthetically pleasing environment!



The white shirt is one of my staples and my favourite way to wear it is with a pencil skirt - There is often a ton of paper work that goes with teaching special needs students, so I need to be prepared to work hard and stay late often - I always feel comfortable in my staples, but I also 'always' carry a pair of ballet flats in my bag - at the end of the day my feet are 'throbbing'!!!

I'd love to hear about some of your favourite work looks and staples!!!

6 comments:

LJ said...

I love that you are a teacher and dress nicely! I am a science teacher and I do the same. The day we dissected cow hearts I made it a special point to be REALLY dressed just to prove that it can be done!

Ashley said...

Hey there, fellow soft summer! I was a special ed teacher (RSP at a public school) for several years and loved to see other teachers dress professionally. I think it's important to show our students that they are worth it and that teaching is a respectable profession on-par with other professional careers.

Have you started to rebuild your wardrobe with SS colors? I started with casual clothing so I could experiment but am having an impossible time finding professional clothing! I've noticed that around late July through September SS colors are out. Maybe, I'll wait! Keep the posts up, your makeup is inspiring me to prune out my "trendy" picks!

Renata said...

Thanks Ashley - I agree, SS colours can be hard to find, but I find that certain stores tend to carry the Softer colours more than others - I'm finding that Banana Republic, H and M, Eddie Bower often carry our SS shades - However, like you I'm just starting with the basics and with more casual wear - Often there is a fine line between the SA and SS in clothes/fashion - I feel that we have to layer our looks more than other seasons i.e. perhaps a light navy blouse layered under a cardigan or grey sweater!

Gina said...

What a simple, chic look for work. I often hear teachers justify sloppy clothing, saying, "I'm working with kids!"

Kudos to you!

Stephanie said...

You look so chic! I just found your blog and am so happy I did.

Renata said...

Thanks everyone for your compliments -Stephanie, I'm so happy to hear you like my blog! Thanks for writing!!!