Dilemma #3

Hello, All!

I am currently dealing with a lot on my plate. I am having a hard time remaining calm and continuing to be nice to some of the other seventh grade math teachers at my school. I honestly feel like they are harassing me. I began teaching a unit on cross sections on February 25 and was not aware until Tuesday, February 26, that all of the other seventh grade math teachers were planning to use my lessons and assignments in their classroom as well. I did not have a problem with them doing that at first, because I felt it meant they liked what I was creating enough to use it themselves. I have always been taught, You get what you get and you don't throw a fit. The seventh grade math teachers must have missed that life lesson. I have had them all coming to find me at various times in the school day so I could fix or tweak something I created to fit better into their own classrooms. They have had access to all of the electronic versions of my work for over a week and half, and are fully capable of fixing what they wanted tweaked themselves. The team leader for seventh grade came and told me that I needed to arrange the word banks in quizzes in alphabetical order, and I needed to only include what was in the standard. I added a few extra figures to my lessons, so they students could make connections and think outside the box when it came to understanding cross sections. She told I needed to remove any figure that was not a rectangle or square. I felt this was absurd considering the students are in the seventh grade and I feel they should be challenged a little more than that throughout the lessons. She then told me to add area of cross sections into the unit. They have not even talked about area this year as of yet. It is coming in the next unit. Area is not a part of the standard, so I asked her exactly where the line is drawn for going above and beyond the standard. I said, it does not make sense to go above and beyond in one area and not the others. She told I needed to turn in whatever I felt was necessary to my professors, and to use what she tells me to in the classroom. I told her I was not allowed to do that, I have to use what I created in my mentor teachers' classroom. She said the classes needed to use the same things across the board, so that was not going to happen. I told her all of my assignments tested the students on the same information, they all just looked different. She still did not understand that the lessons I am creating should be used in ONLY my mentor teacher's classroom. I finally had to tell her that was not was I supposed to be doing, and that I was going to do what Georgia State is requiring me to do, and not her. I also have another teacher, who was a student teacher last semester (from a school I have NEVER heard of), and has been hired as a permanent substitute. She keeps coming to my classroom to tell me what I am supposed to be doing in my student teaching, and every sentence that comes out of her mouth is inaccurate for what  I am doing. I have had to tell her at least five times that we are in different programs and are doing different things. She has gone to the other teachers and complained about me doing what she has asked me to do. By the way, she is not my mentor teacher, and has absolutely no affiliation with me. She keeps telling me to use the template that she has for my lesson plans, but we have a specific one we are supposed to be using for our TWS. I am about to go crazy at my school. I am having a very hard time keeping my cool and continuing to be nice to others when they are harassing me more times than not during the school day. I go home to do extra things they want me to do, and am having no time for other assignments, because they are requiring twice the amount of work from me. My dilemma is trying to keep it together and remaining calm when I am constantly being put into undesirable situations. Any advice would be lovely!

P.S. I spoke to my supervisor about it, but everything has just been pushed under the rug since the beginning of the semester. I have been having issues from day one and should have been moved to a different school within the first two weeks, but that never happened and my issues have steadily gotten worse throughout the semester. May 11 cannot get here quick enough!

Thanks and see you guys on Tuesday!

Ashton McClain