I have been teaching for about 5 years in a rural school where most of the teachers and staff are female. I’m one of only two male teachers. The Principal is a woman, and I must admit there are times when I wish there were more male teachers, but for the most part I like what I do – and we get treats more often from the female staff members than we ever would if all the teachers were men! So many of them like to bake cookies and other good foods to share!

Recently, we started to have a paraprofessional come into the classroom to help during reading time. Our Principal hired several to help in 30 minutes of school-wide oral reading using classroom novels. She felt that this would be the best way to improve student reading, so we’re to use the paraprofessional to listen to one group of students while we teachers listen to another group. I personally am not sold on this idea of oral round-robin type reading, but I believe it’s important to have an open mind, so I’m going to give it a try. Besides, the Principal was adamant about this and I don’t think 30 minutes will hurt anything.

The Principal has already told the paraprofessionals what she expects them to do. Joan, my paraprofessional, has been with the district for about 15 years and has seen many new initiatives come and go in the search for the perfect reading program. She doesn’t want to follow the Principal’s directions, and I can see where she’s coming from, but I think we should try it out and see.

After a week of this new reading program, it’s obvious that Joan isn’t going to cooperate. As I’ve been reading with my group she’s been reading to her group. She won’t allow them to take a turn at reading - which defeats the whole purpose of the program.

What do you think I should say to Joan?

I decided to talk to Joan and just tell her again that I thought it would be worth giving this reading program a try. I also explained that since the Principal has said this is what she wants us to do, we need to follow her directions – after all she is our boss, and we’re going to have to report back on how it’s working at one of the faculty meetings. I was relieved when Joan seemed to be okay about it and said she would try it this next week.

But every day this week she’s been very short on patience with the students and me. She did read with the students the way we’d been told, but it was obvious she didn’t like it. She’s usually so positive and encouraging, but today especially she was really negative and almost sulky.

I believe a program is greatly affected by the attitude of the teacher – or paraprofessional. So I spoke to her after school. I told her that I could understand how she feels. Sometimes we don’t get to do what we feel is best, but she will have to get past it. I also told her I appreciated that she was dedicated to her opinion, but it would b best if she followed the directions for now and maybe we could work something out to find additional time when she can read to the students, as they do actually like being read to.

When I was in the faculty lounge today, two of the teachers came to me and laughingly said they had heard I was going to revolt against the Principal and they were behind me all the way. They said Joan had told their paraprofessionals (who had told them) that we were going to come up with our own program and we would implement it no matter what the Principal thought. That made me angry to say the least. I went to Joan and told her I had no intention of starting a new program, but anyway she needed to get her facts straight before she started spreading things around. She seemed surprised at my outburst but didn’t say anything in reply.

I didn’t think any more of it - Joan and I have expressed our opinions to each other quite strongly on more than one occasion and it hasn’t seemed to affect our working relationship - but I received a message from the Principal to see her in her office this afternoon after school concerning an “incident” with Joan. That’s why I’ve been writing this information down – to try and remember what’s been going on recently and decide what I should say to the Principal.

What would you say to her?

When I met with Mrs. Widmore, the Principal, she handed me a letter. She said she wanted to let me know about it, as it contained some pretty serious accusations, so she hadn’t just left it in my mailbox. As I read the letter I couldn’t believe what Joan had done. She’d written up a complaint against me for sexual harassment! We’d disagreed over the reading, and perhaps I’d been a bit severe when I’d told her not to cause trouble by spreading rumors, but I can’t think of anything I said that would justify that sort of accusation. The Principal, Joan and myself are going to meet tomorrow morning before school and talk about it, but Mrs. Widmore wanted me to know what Joan was accusing me of before the meeting so that I could be prepared.

But what can I do to prepare for such a meeting?

And what would you say to Joan?