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Dealing With Difficult Teachers

This document provides advice on dealing with difficult teaching situations, including: 1) A critical and mean-spirited teacher should be given a discipline memo expressing concern for their well-being but also making clear the professional behavior expected. Their contract may not be renewed if behavior does not improve. 2) For an incompetent teacher, the principal should document issues, give counseling memos outlining areas for improvement, and suggest resources for improvement. The teacher's contract should not be renewed if no improvement is seen. 3) A new teacher struggling with grading policies could receive guidance from developing a department-wide grading philosophy and working with the department chair to revise their policy.

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145 views

Dealing With Difficult Teachers

This document provides advice on dealing with difficult teaching situations, including: 1) A critical and mean-spirited teacher should be given a discipline memo expressing concern for their well-being but also making clear the professional behavior expected. Their contract may not be renewed if behavior does not improve. 2) For an incompetent teacher, the principal should document issues, give counseling memos outlining areas for improvement, and suggest resources for improvement. The teacher's contract should not be renewed if no improvement is seen. 3) A new teacher struggling with grading policies could receive guidance from developing a department-wide grading philosophy and working with the department chair to revise their policy.

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© © All Rights Reserved
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Dealing with Difficult Teachers/Situations

Critical and Mean Spirited Teacher


Susan is dealing with quite a bit in her personal life. While it is important to
support her at a difficult time, it is also important to maintain the morale of the
staff. It is important to keep a record perhaps in your personal log of the
incidents that have come up with the other staff members. However, if there are
a number of concerns, you should also give a discipline memo to Susan. In this
memo, I would suggest you express concern for her personal well-being but be
clear as to the professional behavior that you expect. Situations like this are
difficult to identify but you need to let Susan know of your expectations. You
want to support her in all she is dealing with and you expect her to maintain a
positive atmosphere with the teachers and not be the bully. Be clear about your
expectations and indicate that if her behavior does not improve her contract may
not be renewed.
Incompetent Teacher
From the beginning, this new principal made appropriate notes in his journal. It is
important that you have a log of what transpired. The advice he obtained from
the diocese is right on document, document, document! Especially if this is a
new principal, I would expect that the teacher would be defensive and write a
rebuttal to any counseling memo. Any comments made in writing by the teacher
would be filed with the counseling memo. A principal can maintain his/her
personal notes but also needs to document for the teacher i.e. issue a
counseling memo. This tells the teacher the areas of concern and what must be
done to improve. You may also suggest in this memo the resources that are
available to the teacher to assist in improvement. The latest observation in early
January is in plenty of time to let the teacher know that his contract will not be
renewed. Generally, I suggest that if this is the case that the teacher is notified of
this by mid-April.
Problem with Grades
This is a situation that may occur with new teachers. Establishing grading
policies is sometimes challenging for new teachers. There are several red flags
raised regarding the current grading policy of this teacher. These include
discipline being factored into the grade, lack of objectivity in grading, etc. One
possible way to address this is to ask the English department to discuss a
philosophy of grading so that the teacher has some guidance in establishing a
grading policy. I would suggest if these guidelines are established that the
department chairperson works with the teacher to revise the grading policy. One
of the responsibilities for a principal is to assist new teachers in all aspects of the
job.

Teachers Perspective: Stress and More Stress


Teachers often feel under stress when diocesan policy is challenging the schools
to improve. Often with new students in a school, discipline becomes a key issue
and this can affect the teaching and learning environment. As a new principal, it
will be important that you try not to overwhelm teachers with paperwork i.e.
completing forms, establishing goals, etc. The area of academic improvement is
an important aspect for Catholic schools. As a new principal, I suggest listening
to the teachers and working with them to establish reasonable goals. Ultimately,
the quality of the academic program in Catholic schools is a justice issue.
Students deserve a quality academic program and teachers need to be
challenged to provide that for students. Be clear about the ultimate goal but work
with the teachers to find a way to reach that goal.
Tenure Case
For the most part, tenure is not part of our Catholic schools. However, in schools
that have a union this may enter the picture. I would suggest that if this is the
case, that there are three evaluations of a teacher. This could be done perhaps
with two outside evaluators and one internal. Another way is to have an assistant
principal also evaluate the teacher in addition to the department chairperson
within the school. In this way, the three can provide for a more comprehensive
way to determine if a teacher receives tenure.

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