Team teaching....can really stink

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Home : 2003 : August : 12

Team teaching....can really stink
By Liz

I teach in a very urban area on the east coast and was given a "co-teacher" last year during the middle of the year. I accepted, knowing that I did not have much of a choice, as I was not tenured yet. Things went along
pretty well at first, as I was the established classroom teacher, and had sent out the ground rules.
However, as the year went on, my co-teacher began making up her own rules and playing me against the kids. It was good cop/bad cop. Then she would come to school late, not plan her lessons, and then ask me why her lessons did not go very well. I had about had it!
Looking back,

I really blame the Principal/District personnel for not setting out some sort of model or plan for us to follow. I also know that as a young teacher, it was not in my best interest to be showing someone else the ropes. I feel that perhaps had I been a bit older, in her mind I would not have been some hot-shot-kid teacher. ( she was 15 years older than me but had just started teaching)