Ending first year teaching with everyone hating me. Help.
Hello,
I (female) am a first year teacher! I work in a specialized field along with a few others in my field at a general ed school. It was my first year teaching along side very good experienced teachers. From day one I tried to be kind and warm. I introduce myself to everyone, and tried to get to know my co-teachers better. My co teachers are type A personality. I am type B. I am more social and try to get to know my co workers. My co teachers are very close and have been doing it for ages. when I first introduce myself they were short and cold but I didn’t let that bother me. I figured they are tired of rotating door of new teachers that leave after a year.
I am working a whole new job and in a new county. My student teaching job was moving around to different schools and with a teacher who was basically done with teaching. I learned some new things but maybe not all the things that would have benefited me as a new teacher.
Now I work at one school with much more paper work. more collaborative style instead of individualized like i’m used to….. multiple teachers with same student.
at begining of year I gave my new co teachers a gift and said “thank you. I know it may not be easy working with a new teacher but I am excited and thankful to work with you as experienced teachers.” They took my gift and straight face and nodded. Through the year I could sense frustrations as they see me make mistake learning the new programs, learning new teaching role, and learning how to document things properly. They told me to ask questions and so I did. when I asked questions I would get a frustrated or short answers. I would thank them and try my best.
looking back I know I made a lot of mistakes with learning things and trying to figure out a new system. I made sure to constantly thank them for any help I got.
I got them tiny christmas gifts. I also got them end of year letter with card just thanking them for all their help this year because I did learn a lot.
I also would forget things that would told to me because it was so much new information. I know that can be frustrating to have to repeat yourself so much. I forget so much because it was so much information and new.
We decided as a team that when I get
info it be sent via group chat so I can have it to refer back on.
I finished my first year with high score in all my observation and my boss loves me. however, my boss last week asked me what I would change for next year. I told her I would be a better communicator and ask more questions. I would be better at tracking data and planing lessons much further out collaborate with the general ed teachers more.my boss was impressed that I pinpointed all the things she heard about and all the areas I was weak in. I could tell my co teachers had complained. I have also apologized for my mistakes and have said that I will continue to improve and learn. My observation score was one of the highest a first year teacher can get.
All the gen ed teachers I worked with liked me. They said they really hope I come back next year.
I made two friends on the team.
however, today was last day and I can tell almost everyone in my team basically hates me besides the two friends. I also had a situation yesterday where my co teacher yelled at me about something. I was stunned, but continued on the day and was quiet.
that co worker did apologize to me and said she was out of hand and was sorry. I thanked her. I also apologized about the thing that made her mad, and reach out to my boss about getting training in the area that I was weak in. I also told her I got that training to improve that area. I felt the call ended good.
However today I could tell she was irked, but trying to be professional. her work beside was cold towards me as well, and the other co teacher. I could tell she only wanted to talk business so I continued being warm today and professional. we moved all our things up. Then I left the lunch at the school thing early to do more work in my room to tidy things up.
anyway….. I believe that if all people
dislike one person that means… the problem is the one person. That one person is me. How can I fix or remedy the situation? what makes someone a good co teacher? what are things that older teachers hate new teachers doing?