Working with someone experienced or not

amother

Tan

Wed, Aug 10 2016, 10:15 pm

This year I will be teaching in a new classroom. I will be the assistant teacher and was told I would be working with an experienced teacher who is great and I could learn from. A couple weeks ago I got a call from the principal asking me my thoughts on being an assistant to a teacher who would be the head teacher for her first year this coming year. He wants me to be with her due to my experience since I've been in the classroom environment a few years now. I was initially very disappointed but after asking for advice from others I ended up telling the principal I would rather work with the experienced teacher but if I would have to work with the new teacher I only think it would be fair to be compensated more due to her lack of experience which would lead to more work for me.

He agreed but hasn't gotten back to me on how much more he would be willing to pay me.
I feel like he wouldn't be willing to pay me enough money to make me feel like it's worth it.
This new teacher is younger than me, and only because my Hebrew skills are lacking a little and because last year I was in a general studies classroom instead of Judaics like her, he doesn't think I am qualified to be her co instead of assistant. Besides for the fact that I have my masters in Jewish Education and have a BA in Jewish Studies of course. I feel like this will be bad for my self esteem in addition to not having a mentor.
Should I call him and tell him to forget it and I just want to be with the experienced teacher?

Anon b/c I've spoken about this with people

trixx

Wed, Aug 10 2016, 10:44 pm

amother wrote:

Decide now what price would make it worth it to you. Seriously take into consideration the loss of gaining skills and experience from the older teacher, and how much is worth losing a year career-wise.

When he gives you the price, if it is lower than what you are willing to take, you can say, I'm sorry but that price is not worth the lack of gaining more experience. At which point you can then clarify, I either want to be paid x amount or I want to be put with the better teacher.

Of course, you could be pleasantly surprised at being in the mentor position with this new young teacher, but having myself been in both kinds of classrooms, I doubt it. More likely you will be gritting your teeth the whole year and toeing a fine line between giving her necessary feedback and your role as "assistant".