1. Dealing with Difficult Teachers by Todd Whitaker
Angie Bielefeld
Haleigh Hansen
Andrea Pettigrew
Diania Pile

2. Give One Get One Activity

3. Part 1: The Principal and the Difficult Teacher
Phrases and terms used to describe difficult teachers:
Lazy
Negative
Resistant to change
Boring
Negative leader
Belligerent
Inflexible
Back stabber
Domineering
Stubborn
Cannot get along with others
Lectures
Cynical
Doesn’t like teaching
Argumentative
Counting the days until they retire
Counting the days until school ends (and it’s early October)
Doesn’t like kids
Doesn’t like their job

4. Six general areas that may cause you to label teachers difficult:
Classroom Behavior
Staff Influence
Public Perception
Resistance to Change
Dampen Enthusiasm/Damage Climate
Parade of Students to the Office

5. Three Kinds of Teachers
Superstars
Backbones
Mediocres

6. Looking for the Good Part-Sometimes You Have to Squint
Part 2: Motivating Difficult Teachers
Looking for the Good Part-Sometimes You Have to Squint
Consistently try motivating your most difficult staff members
Have regular, positive, weekly memos
Give difficult teachers responsibilities
Praise a staff member in front of your superior
Public and Private Praise (must be specific)

7. Parts 3 and 4:
Making Difficult Teachers Uncomfortable and Communicating with the Difficult Teacher

8.  Effective teachers need to make ineffective/difficult teachers feel uncomfortable.
Effective teachers usually take more responsibility than ineffective teachers.
If ineffective teachers feel no discomfort, they will continue to operate in the same way.
One method to begin to make less effective
teachers feel uncomfortable is to empower the
effective teachers on a staff.
Ineffective teachers usually look to pass the
responsibility. Instead, make them accept it.

9. When trying to improve an ineffective teacher,
it is always best to pair them up with a
superstar teacher.
When attempting to communicate with a
difficult teacher, always assume that they want
to do what is right or best.
When communicating, always be prepared.
Have a game plan, so that your emotions don’t
get the best of you.
We should never address a difficult teacher in
front of a group. It should always be one-to-
one.

10. Effective teachers should always look to
eliminate ineffective teachers’ negative
behaviors.
When talking to difficult teachers, effective
teachers should always focus on how they
can help improve the ineffectiveness.

11. Part 5: Weakening the Influence of Difficult Teachers
Negative leaders in a school might be the most harmful influence in preventing school improvement
Roles and Styles of Negative Leaders
Brown-Nosing Back Stabber
Town Crier
Stay-At-Homes
Saboteurs
One teacher who resists change can be harmful. A negative leader who resists change and recruits others to fight change can be catastrophic to school improvement.
Brown-Nosing Back Stabber: Initially appear to be brown nosers but really just want to be “in the know” so they can have knowledge to influence their peers; these negative leaders will seldom resist or express belligerence directly to the school leader. Instead they will often appear to be the opposite. Being aware of them is the first step.
Town Crier: Publicly argue against any positive change; are resistant and want every to know it; easy to identify because are always getting attention; drain enormous amounts of energy; talk about events that happened years ago
Stay-At-Home: resist change; have insufficient confidence to alter what they are currently doing; teachers that you believe have their lesson plans laminated; are not negative leaders, but have very little leadership at all; do not take risks; often associate with saborteur
Saboteur: may have been more effective teachers; might have been positive leaders, but at some point they decided to fight school improvement by almost any means; regularly play the devil’s advocate; often the most vocal and belligerent negative staff members

12. Dealing with Negative Leaders
Break up the Group
Power of Pity
Guest Speaker
Shuffle the Deck
Room location
Planning period and lunch break
Grade level
In dealing with negative leaders there are several important concepts essential to understanding the negative leader. Instinctual reaction may not be the best. One of the quickest ways a principal can lose credibility is by arguing or getting into a power struggle with faculty members. By doing so you are only reinforcing the difficult teacher.
Break up the group: safest and most effective is to reduce their followers; just because a group of negative leaders are tight-knit does not mean they are friends, they are more like a “loser support group;” deal with them individually—you want them to feel as lonely as possible; if you can reduce the membership of these “gripe groups” you can substantially reduce their impact—it is impossible for anyone to be cynical alone
Power of Pity: If you are truly attempting to reduce the impact of a negative leader, the simplest way is to help bring to light the true feelings the staff should have for this person. If a person is cynical, bitter, and negative no one wants to be around them. As caring people we feel pity for that person. It is essential to provide the remainder of your staff the opportunity to realize that pity is what they should feel for these unhappy individuals. Helping everyone in your school to come to this realization is a valuable method for reducing the influence of your most negative leader. If we can help develop a sympathetic perspective among the whole staff, this can dramatically affect this difficult person’s leadership. No one wants to follow someone they pity.
Guest Speaker: Stories about “my neighbor” or “I know someone who” are easy to convey to strangers or people we know less well; that is the reason that guest speakers can be so powerful in reducing the influence of the most difficult staff members. Guest speakers could be peers from other schools or district. Have them use examples tailored to your staff and be specific. Having an outsider help provide perspective for your faculty is very valuable.
Shuffle the Deck:
One factor that often affects the development of informal relationships is room location. If a follower has a room located next door to or near a negative leaders, this can easily encourage support for the negative teacher. Working with the dynamics of factors such as room location can help cultivate an appropriate school culture. Altering room locations can affect this dynamic in a positive way. Be aware that your positive people are your most important staff members when “shuffling the deck.” Do not make their workdays miserable by surrounding them with several negative staff members. Do not move a backbone or superstar teacher without approval. It is essential that you do not harm them at the expense of working with the most challenging faculty members.
Planning period and lunch break: can be as destructive as room location, Being sensitive to this can help establish how negative leaders and followers develop their relationships. Taking advantage of the opportunity to affect this dynamic when the chance arises can dramatically affect the culture and climate of a conference or lunch period. Ask yourself 2 questions: Is it better to divide the negative teachers so that each group must deal with one of them or is it better to schedule several less effective people together so that no one else has to share the staff workroom with them? Weighing the potential effects of these options can help you make a more informed decision.
Grade Level: The grade-level dynamic at an elementary school is critical. If teachers at one grade are less progressive or ineffective, they may hold the entire school from moving forward. More importantly they reduce the learning opportunities for the students in that grade. Make sure that the positive and progressive staff understand that you value their assistance in moving grades. If you consider plans to place a negative among positive staffers, be sure that the effective teachers support your strategy before finalizing decisions and making them public. You don’t want to sacrifice the positive staff members and/or their morale.
Final thoughts: Withholding power from negative people is paramount.

13. Part 6: The Role of New Faculty
New teachers can be powerful tools in improving schools.
Two ways to improve your school
Improve the teachers you have
Hire better ones
New teacher leadership
Starts during the interview
New staff members can play essential roles in the growth of a school. It is critical that the principal provide guidance and structure to insure that the new faculty members have the greatest positive impact possible on the school and that they are never influenced by negative teachers.
2 ways to improve your school. One is to improve the teachers that you have. The other is to hire better ones. When you have the chance to hire a new staff member, you maximize the opportunity. It is much easier to hire a good teacher than it is to fire a bad one. When principals hire a new teacher, they should be more interested in the school becoming like the new teacher than in the new teacher becoming like the school. Is no programs assure this, then the development o f the new faculty member will be left to chance. These new staff members are too essential to hope that they become positive, contributing faculty members. You have to ensure that they do by enhancing their opportunities. You can do this by classroom/grade level placements, mentoring, new-staff orientation program, etc.
New teacher leadership: The induction and orientation of new staff members does not start at the first meeting after they are hired. This process must begin during the interview. Hiring new teachers capable of being school leaders requires selecting people with leadership ability. Once selected, you must offer opportunities for them to develop confidence and support them as they assume leadership. You want to hire individuals with leadership strengths and then provide opportunities and structures for these skills to be maximized. When contacting references about potential hires, ask about their leadership skills. Must also explain to potential teachers during interviews what you need, and be clear. Explain you need candidates to help lead the school to improve the climate, culture, or whatever program that is most significant to the growth of your school.
An open teaching position may be the most precious commodity a principal can have. Employing a great teacher for the students is critical. Hiring a positive leader/superstar may be the most important factor in the school improvement process. If a school loess a negative staff member and gains a dynamic teacher, improvement in the school is immediate and dramatic. Not only is the school a better place to be for the students, but it is also more positive for everyone else in the building.

14. Part 7: Eliminating Difficult Teachers

15. Where do I start?
Focus on the end goal.
Eenie, Meenie, Minie, Moe

16. Retirement and Other Miracles
Building Transfers
Discontinuing a Program

17. Dismissal Nonrenewal of Probationary Teachers
Dismissal of Tenured Teachers – Incompetence, Insubordination, and Immorality
Documentation – An Essential Element

18. Part 8: General Tips and Guidelines
How Can I Stop Them From Sending So Many Students To The Office?
Establish Expectations
Expect That the Difficult Teacher Always Wants To Do What is Right
Enforce the Expectation

19. If All Else Fails -
If They Know You Are Aware of It, They Know You accept It.
Never Argue or Raise Your Voice With A Difficult Teacher
Hope They Will Run Out and Tell Their Peers
Use a Shotgun Approach

20. Easing the Guilt Should You Feel Guilty?
“You should not ever feel guilty about doing what is best for the young people in your buildings. You should only feel guilty, if you do not.”

21. Passing the Buck Down the Line Adapted by Todd Whitaker
Said the college professor,
“Such rawness in the student is a shame,
Lack of preparation in high school is to blame.
Said the high school teacher,
“Good heavens, that boy’s a fool.
The fault, of course, is with the
Junior High School.
The junior high school noted,
“It’s so hopeless and sad
Thanks to those elementary clowns,
They can’t add or subtract.”

22. The grammar school teacher said,
“From such stupidity
May I be spared.
They sent him up to me so unprepared.”
The primary teacher huffed,
“Kindergarten blockheads all.
They call that preparation?
Why, it’s worse than none at all.”
The kindergarten teacher said,
“Such lack of training never did I see.
What kind of parents
Must those kids’ parents be?”

23. This responsibility to teach
Is something that we all share,
But somehow the grass is
Always greener over there.
So rather than hand down
These grumbles and groans,
Let’s remember about glass houses,
And the throwing of stones.
The answer of course,
It is not chance or luck
But what we do in our own classes,
So let’s not pass the buck!