wow! you're way too hard on Michelle

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wow! you're way too hard on Michelle
By the other Michelle

"Why reinvent the wheel?" is a phrase I often heard from my Internship Coordinator. She said, "Ask another teacher for advice, copy, beg, and borrow resources where you can, but do not, I repeat do not dry up the well."
She is absolutely right. I share and give equally and unequally; it's the nature of teaching. Occasionally, however, there is a teacher that will not help out. Whether it is tidying up the kitchen, emptying or refilling the photocopier, and running when s/he jams it, even throwing away recycling paper, there is an individual at every school (this is not Utopia) who exhibits this behavior.

Sometimes, you have to just move on. S/he will find another dupe. That's the miracle of life.

Now to the other teachers, why can't Michelle complain? Why can't she be allowed to not share something she worked on? I understand that your excuse is perhaps the other teacher doesn't have time and Michelle has a magic clock that gives her an extra 6 hours a day or she's single with out kids. God forbid!!!! We are entitled to reap our rewards if we sow and we sow them often. I am always willing to help anyone out, but eventually, it does become tiresome (send 15-20 times down the road). Whatever happened to professional etiquette? In a corporate (private sector) world, Michelle's colleague's behavior would not be tolerated, why do we have to put up with in education?

Relax Michelle. Don't feel defensive, you're in the right.