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Problem with a teacher while student teaching?

I need advice on how to handle a cooperating teacher. I am currently student teaching in a high school where I have two teachers (one teacher I teach her classes for two class periods and I'm with her for planning and the other teacher I only teach one of her classes). The teacher I am with for the majority of the class time is wonderful and I would never change but the other teacher is making my student teaching extremely hard!

Ms. Brooks didn't allow me to begin student teaching in her classroom until about two weeks ago, even though I had been teaching in Mrs. Matters classroom since the end of January. I am required by my university to teach in all three classes for a total of 5 weeks and I won't be finished with those 5 weeks until April 26 because I started teaching in Ms. Brooks classroom so late. I graduate on May 10th! Ms. Brooks' classroom is a smaller class of 18 students, most of which are lower level and are minority students. One day earlier in this week I had a problem with ONE studnet being rude and disrespected. I handled the situation in the classroom and then wrote him up. That afternoon, Ms. Brooks came to see me in Mrs. Matters' room and told me that I was required to give them a test the next day because of their behavior that day. I had only begun the unit (Poetry) two days prior so the students were no where neat being ready for a test but I was required to give them a test. I gave them poetry terms to define as well as a poem which they needed to read and annotate. Halfway through the test the next day, Ms. Brooks comes in and asks what they are doing. When I show her she freaks out and tells me that she was going to use that poem for a test later in the year and became angry that I used it, even though she didn't give me any guidelines on this last minute test I was required to prepare.

We also have a foreign exchange student in the class that is here on a cultural exchange. As part of her requirements, she has to present a PowerPoint on the culture of her country in all of her classes. The only criteria is that it be done by a certain date and it be recorded by the teacher. She spoke to the Ms. Brooks about this at the beginning of the school year and she told her that was fine and she could do it at the end of the semester. At the beginnong of this week the student asked me if she could do it this week because her due date was coming up and she also needed to get community service completed which was part of her exchange program as well. I told her this was absouletly fine and after the test I was forced to give the students, I allowed her to present about 25 minutes long). Ms. Brooks found out that she did this and got very upset with me, basically yelling at me and telling me that she was supposed to watch it and that they had a prior agreement. This morning, Ms. Brooks yelled at the student and told her she went behind her back and that she had to clear everthing with her first and that she was going to grade her persentation. I don't even see how that is fair to the student when none of the other students in the class have to complete presentations for grades!

Ms. Brooks has done other small things which are just making me hate going to her class to teach! I honestly don't know what to do and when I have spoken to my university supervisor she just tells me to hold in there and when I speak to Mrs. Matters about it she agrees with me but says there is nothing she can do and that every teacher has their own way of teaching and its good for me to see that.

1 Answer

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  • Anonymous
    8 years ago
    Favorite Answer

    I think what they are saying is a cop out but obviously you have exhausted the chain of command, or have you? You need to get creative. Is this a racial issue with you being the odd man out? That seems implied. You may need to learn some coping techniques for this situation. Whatever you do, don't develop a rep for giving in. They won't respect that. She seems to want you to fail. I think you need to talk to her. It isn't easy. But if you are right you need to get some help on this. And if talking to her doesn't work, be ready with some representation from someone on your side. You might need a witness. Good luck.

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