I enjoyed being a teacher...especially when the effort is appreciated

I had a situation where I have two students assigned to the same class this year that did not get along last year and randomly chosen to work together. (A student helper, assigned students to groups during my planning period and posted the names for the next period). When the list was posted: one student stated loudly “I don’t want to work with him, we didn’t get along last year and I don’t want to work with him!” My response to her is my standard answer, “once you leave high school, you might have to work with people you do not like; however, to remain employed you will have to work with them and maintain a professional attitude.” The group was not changed.

The student placed her concerns in writing on an action plan sheet. To summarize, it stated, “I don’t like him and I don’t want to work with him”, I told the teacher that and she wrote my response.

I contacted the student’s parent, read her child’s response and asked her to ask her daughter for specifics. Her daughter was in the background and stated “he is lazy”, “doesn’t do his work”, and “I don’t like working with him”. The mother felt that if her child had attempted to work with an individual all last year, I needed to reward her and not have her daughter work with that individual this year. I explained to the mother, as a teacher, it would cause havoc if I allowed a student to tell me (in front of the class, in a loud voice) to switch a team member because they do not want to work with a person.

I explained the situation to a more experienced teacher. She stated to make sure the students were able to see the selections are random, and gave me several strategies. I went to school box and put them into place.

I contacted the mother again, to bring closure to the issue and explained the actions I had taken to ensure selections were random and visible to all the students. I maintained the stance that if her daughter and the other student are selected on the same team, they will still have to work together, but the assignments will be visibly random.

The mother stated, “you must love your job, most teachers would have said my way or the highway” She stated, she felt I went out of my way to ensure a fair system, appreciated the effort, and she encouraged her daughter to work with her groups as assigned.