Teacher Assistant at a Middle School

by Gossamer
(New York)

I used to work in a corporate bank for over 21 years as an executive assistant until my department decided to move to another state. I was given a generous severance package and made a total career change working for the Board of Ed as a teacher's assistant. Although I have been only in this field for two years, and the pay isn't very generous, I was very content with the extensive school breaks and benefits. The trouble started when I was assigned to another school because the class program I used to be in had to terminate to accommodate another type of curriculum. The teacher I now work with seems nice but she's not the type who wants to corroborate with you workwise. She seems to be very attached to the teacher's aide and seems to give her more responsibility in lesson planning instead of delegating the work to me who's her assistant. They have long conversations and laugh and joke with each other and I am the odd man out. It's almost as if I wasn't there. My pet peeve is that the aide can't spell worth a damn and every time she writes a misspelled word on the blackboard, it just about drives me crazy and I have to walk up to the board to correct it. I tried to do this in a tactful manner. I sometimes whisper the corrections in her ear, but I guess she doesn't like it nor does the teacher. For this I get picked on for the slightest infraction so insignificant that it's laughable. The aide gets away with a lot of things like coming to class late or taking days off. She's also a compulsive liar acting as if she's a victim. How do you handle a problem like this? I was advised to lay low until I'm tenured. What advise can you give me? Sometimes I feel that I'm about to go mad. Teachers, assistants and aides are suppose to work as a team in lesson planning and instruction. Like I said, I feel like I'm being treated as a pariah. One morning I went into the bathroom and burst into tears to be comforted by another teacher who felt bad for me, but she understood that a lot of that happens in this school. What advise can you give me.