How to handle another teacher staying in your classroom
When another teacher refuses to leave during your scheduled class, it creates constant distractions, undermines your authority, and confuses the students about who is in charge. This awkward overlap makes it nearly impossible to gain classroom autonomy or keep students focused on your instruction.
What people tried
Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.
- 1Asking admin for official policy clarification and email reminders
- 2Trying to compromise on boundaries like staying in a designated corner or staying quiet
- 3Working from alternative spaces like the break room, staff room, or car
- 4Ignoring the other teacher or trying to politely ask them to leave
- 5Pre-recording lessons to cut down on cross-talk and avoid yelling over each other
- 6Taking turns leading instruction while the other teacher monitors behaviors
- 7Coordinating small group or independent work simultaneously
In their words
Unedited, grouped by where they were said, most upvoted first within each place, each linked to the thread it came from.
“Teaching, guiding, correcting, testing all of it in the same massive open space hard walled echoey space.”source ↗
“So normally I teacher grade 7 on job share, which is why I might not feel fully comfortable with another teacher in the room, but it was quite annoying on my first day.”source ↗
“There was two classes today where the teacher didnt leave. The first one I asked for the room, and he was super chill about it, tbe second one I did the same and she got annoyed and said “im working here.””source ↗
“I really don’t like this. Im not some inexperienced young teacher as maybe the older ones assume, I’ve worked at another similar inner city school, and im also a regular grade 7 teacher. I feel it’s disrespectful to not treat me as one of their teachers and provide that autonomy.”source ↗
“ALSO the kids of course asked their regular teacher questions (no sh*t!) and were confused on who to ask questions.”source ↗
“One of the teachers' rooms was awful about it. Came in 5+ times in a 40min period, distracted my students, and changed the table arrangements without telling me.”source ↗
“My partner is a teacher and just started working at a new junior high school, and he's getting super frustrated with this exact situation too! He shares a classroom with this science teacher who neeeever leaves the room and my partner will be trying to get his grade 7s and 8s to focus on their work, and the other teacher is just like joking around with his kids and undermining him the whole time???”source ↗
Where this came up
People with this problem also raised
- 2What to do when your cooperating teacher wants to transfer you out
- 2How do you teach a combined grade elective without losing control?
- 2How to transition from teaching older students to elementary school
- 2How to handle book annotations when multiple classes share the same copies
- 2Parents walking into classrooms unescorted after school
- 8How to balance classroom control with letting students talk