Far Be It For Me To Be Spiteful...

Ok. Last year I taught with this young gal who thought she knew it all. Last year was her 5th year of teaching, and she did it well. Just ask her. Since she and I were the only two sixth grade teachers, we were a "team."

Her idea of teaming, though, was to make sure we were on the same page in math. We'd meet every Tuesday morning to "plan."

"This week I'll begin unit two," she'd say. That was about the only planning we did.

However, I'd send her ideas as I came up with them (I'm somewhat random that way; I often get great ideas for lessons in the shower...). I'd send her forms I created. Since I hadn't been in the regular classroom for some years, though, I did appreciate her input on things. I believe she truly thought she knew more than me. Plus, she had a science background, and was our science "guru" at our building. This all went to her head.

It wasn't until the spring that I discovered she did LOTS of units/lessons and didn't share them with me. After the third time of seeing an email from her to the rest of the teachers in our wing, requesting the laptop cart since she was beginning a research project (which I never knew about), I called her on it.

I had just sent her an attachment of some form or something I had created that I thought she'd like. She sent a reply thanking me. I replied, stating that it was my pleasure to share, as that was what teaming was all about, and what about that research project you are doing? We just met yesterday and you didn't even mention it. This is the third time this has happened.

Well, that opened a Pandora's Box, let me tell you. She got all upset over the email; it all escalated until there we were in our principal's office discussing the teaming issue. She actually told our principal that some things she just didn't want to share. Some things she used her own time to create, and she had ownership of it, and she only wanted it for her. My jaw dropped over that. Even more so when the principal didn't even bat an eye.

Excuse me? We are a team, aren't we? Yet it is ok not to share ideas? And don't we all use our personal time to create units?

The outcome of that meeting was that we didn't even try to work together the rest of the year. I'm sure she thought I'd fall on my face, but honey, I've taught for 20 years, and that just didn't happen. If I hadn't been able to change teams like I did, I would have left for another school.

Fast forward to this year and the WASL results. For sixth grade, only 50% of our students passed the math portion. That seemed so low to me I was embarrassed. Half of my class didn't pass math? But the other day I counted up the passes in my class. In my class, my passage rate was 60.6%, above the state passage rate of 49.5%. And my lovely teammate's rate? 42%. Her class brought our school's passing rate down. Not mine. I did a fine job. I guess maybe she should have worked a little more closely with me. She might have learned a thing or two.

But far be it for me to say, "I told you so..."