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By Julianne

I've seen teachers like your team leader. It is a tough situation, especially when you really need her cooperation. I don't know if anything will really work, but here are a couple of ideas to try.

Arrange with the rest
of your team to visit her classroom periodically. Don't let her know you are planning this. Just pop in unexpectedly, right in the middle of a lesson. Have some small request or question so it looks legit. While you are there comment on some aspect of the lesson she is teaching, a bulletin board she has displayed, anything you can see that she has not bothered to share. Ask her point

blank for copies of it. Don't let her put you off. Offer to copy her originals immediately, tell her you'll be back at recess, etc. Remind her that your team is supposed to share ideas and THIS one is something you need right away. Play to her vanity if possible, saying that it's the best darn idea you've seen for reading (or whatever) and you need it. At team meetings remind her of the items you saw in your visit and ask for additional materials she must use. Be specific. Does she have blacklines? Tests? If you and your partners rotate through this situation you may help her loosen up a bit and she may not even realize what you are doing.

If this doesn't work and you feel you must replace her as team leader, try to work out a deal with your colleagues where you each take a year of this job and then rotate out of it. You might even get your principal to agree to splitting the duties in half and either rotate mid year or use two people to cover the job. You never know until you ask. Sometimes if you approach your principal with this kind of problem and give him/her a solution at the same time they jump at your solution and you get what you want. And sometimes not...