I won't go into extensive detail, but I do need some advice. I teach special education, and a teacher at our school was recently moved to be an assistant in my room. Her performance in the gen-ed classroom was mediocre at best, and she was moved because of this. School starts in a few weeks here, and we have met up a few times during the summer. Her attitude is horrible. She does not think that special education is needed or worthwhile, and she is bitter and angry. She holds me partially responsible for her demotion, even though I had nothing to do with it. She is very territorial and is trying to take over my room. I want her to feel like she is part of our team, but her attitude is toxic. Anyone dealt with this before? I'm trying to handle this professionally but I don't know what to do. Any advice would be appreciated! :unsure:
No advice, but I can understand her feeling bitter. I would be too if I went from having my own classroom to being someone's assistant.
Do you have a department chair or another teacher with whom you work regularly during the school day? Perhaps you can have that person keep an eye and ear out for any issues in your class that might arise. It wouldn't hurt to have someone else aware of the problems, particularly the administrator who placed her with you.
Then is she a certificated teacher or just an instructional assistant? Sounds like the latter, which makes tossing her a lot easier for your admin.
I know that you want her to feel like part of the team, but I'd caution you to be careful how much control you let her have in your room. She was moved for a reason, and I'd assume that you are the one who has the spec ed certification. You cannot allow her to harm the education your students are receiving. Honestly, if she feels that spec ed is worthless, I'd be very careful to watch her interactions with students - and to not hesitate to bring it to someone else's attention if she does anything unprofessional/derogatory directly to the kids. You don't want anything she does negatively reflecting upon you.
