TILS Standard C

2: Uses educator evaluation data to inform professional learning goals and plans

New Teacher Mentor: Bad Teacher

For the past 2 years I have been a mentor teaching to a beginning teacher at my school.
This year, we added a first year teacher to my grade level and I was assigned as her mentor. This
mentor assignment has been my most challenging encounter with a new teacher since I began
teaching in 2008. I have been a cooperating teacher for 6 student teachers and a mentor for 3
teachers and I have never experienced anything like I have this past year.
What Went Well
At our last leadership team meeting of the summer of 2014, my principal provided us
with a list of new teachers, their grade assignments, and their contact information. I immediately
sent my new teammate an email welcoming her to 4th grade and told her that the team would like
to meet her. After contacting the other members of my team, we set a date to have breakfast with
our newest member. During our breakfast meet and greet, we introduced ourselves, talked about
our school, told funny stories about each other, and exchanged contact information, it was a very
good meeting. I gave her information about the New Teacher Mentoring Program that I was
going to be leading and let her know that I was available to help her in any way possible. During
the last days of July, I met her at the school and helped her get her classroom ready. Throughout
the year, I made sure that I provided her with as much help as I possibly could. Even though she
was a literacy teacher and I taught math, I helped her with lesson plans, classroom management,
RTI and parent communication documentation, when she came to me with bad evaluations I
gave her suggestions and even helped her reorganize her room because classroom organization
was an area that needed improvement, and a countless number of other things. From the
beginning, I noticed that she was going to need a little more help and attention than my other
mentee and I tried to provide her with things that would help her improve. Around November, I
felt like wed built a solid foundation and I asked her if we could have a serious conversation
about some things that Id observed and noticed in her instruction and interactions with students
and she agreed to sit down with me. Before the meeting I created a list of positive things that Id
observed, a list of things that needed to be improved, and a list of suggestions and strategies. I
was a little nervous about the meeting because she had a very strong personality and I didnt
know how she would react to some of the things I was going to say. Although it was awkward,
we had the meeting and I was able to go over all of the things from my list with her. I ended with
asking her what did she need from me in order to continue to improve as a new teacher. I feel
like I did a great job of providing her with assistance throughout the year. I made sure that I met

with her individually to see how she felt she was doing, I always provided her with suggestions
and ideas, I was available whenever she needed me, and I tried really hard to maintain a positive
relationship with her.

What Did Not

At the beginning of the year, I noticed that the new teacher formed a tight bond with the
most toxic teacher on my team. This teacher is not a team player, is always involved in some
type of drama, and loves to be the victim, even when shes wrong. It didnt take long for the new
teacher to start behaving like the toxic teacher. During my individual meetings with the new
teacher she would say things like, Well, I talked to Sherri and she says I dont have to do that
or Sherri says she never does it that way and shes never gotten in trouble. They began to
exclude the 3rd member of their literacy pod during content planning sessions, they stopped
showing up to grade level planning, or they would bring their computers and do other things
while we were meeting, she stopped creating her own lesson plans and guided reading plans and
would just copy Sherris, it was really bad. She was always willing to listen to my ideas and
suggestions, but would never implement them once she became friends with Sherri. After 3
bad observations, the toxic teacher convinced the new teacher that our principal didnt like her
and that was the reason for the bad evaluations. When she shared her evaluations with me and I
offered suggestions, she would complain and say, He doesnt like me and hes probably not
going to rehire me next year so why put in all this work to fix it. By February shed literally
given up on any attempt to improve. She did not attend the New Teacher Mentoring sessions and
she still wasnt implementing any suggestions that I gave her. I went to my instructional coach
for suggestions and she met with her and created a Teacher Improvement Plan, which still did not
motivate her to change in any way. After TCAP shed decided that she did not have to teach
anymore and gave the students worksheets and had them read silently and she was glad to brag
that thats what her students were doing. At the beginning of May, we had our summative
conferences where we went over our final evaluation and got our grade assignments for the
upcoming school year. During her summative, she found out that she was not rehired because she
failed to improve being provided with several opportunities. I have never actually seen a new
teacher not get rehired. Even with this news, she still had a negative attitude and felt like shed
done a good job and that our principal was picking on her. I have never encountered a new
teacher with such a bad attitude and lack of self reflection.
Given the chance to do it again, what would you do differently?
I would ask for assistance from administration sooner. Even though she was
working with me and the instructional coach, she still did not see the need to
change. Maybe a few sit down conversations with administration and the
instructional coach about the seriousness of her actions would have helped her
understand the severity of her actions. Although she would continuously say that

she probably wasnt going to get rehired, I dont think she actually believed that she
wouldnt. I believe that she thought she was going to be back at our school next
year. Working with a teacher with such a negative attitude and who formed a toxic
relationship is extremely hard. Throughout the year, my principal encouraged me to
continue to try to build a positive relationship with her and continue to provide her
with assistance in any way possible, he also encouraged me to document each time
we met so that there would be proof of what was done to try to help her improve.
From this situation I learned the importance of documentation and perseverance. As
a leader, it is still my full responsibility to provide teachers with multiple
opportunities to learn and improve, even when they dont take the advice.