Team Building, Team Work, and Collaboration

Does your team work well together?

Unfortunately, many teachers belong to teams that have tension, isolation, or friction. A team of teachers works much like a class. Remember when a new student changed the dynamics of your happy class? This student eventually learned your rules and procedures, but initially it upset how your students worked as a group.

Sometimes the problem is a matter of personalities that aren't a good match. Other times it comes down to teachers who don't agree on the definition of the word "team work". Some teachers like to plan as a group and do similar lesson plans or split up subjects and each person plans for the team. Other teachers prefer to share ideas but do their own planning. All of these approaches share ideas, which is working as a team. It is the actual execution of the workload that can cause some trouble.

Does your team have members with different approaches to the workload issue? If so, it is time for "show 'n share". Each team member will choose 1 thing and make a copy for each team member from his/her next week's lesson plans to the team meeting. Put the stack of papers on the team leader's table so everyone can grab a copy when they come to the meeting (to save time). The first few minutes, each person will share any tips / management ideas about what they shared. No one is obligated to use the ideas. It is nice to add to your files for future use. Plus you get to know your teammates teaching style better and know who to go to when you need similar activities in the future.

Do you have any teamwork tips?

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