Turn Your Group Into A Team
Being a team leader or grade chair is not an easy job! The job often involves making sure everyone on your team is happy, mediating disagreements or relaying unpleasant news from administration. Often team leaders have to tell everyone more things they just “have to do”. Every team is different and some teams collaborate better than others, but gone are the days when you can just shut your door and do your own thing! Instead, we need to focus on grade level team building skills.
In my school we are strongly encouraged to collaborate on lesson plans, analyze standards and data and working together as a team makes life much easier for all of us. Here are just a few tips I have learned that have helped my team:
#1 Have an efficient meeting process in place.
Have an efficient process for your meetings and stick with it. Create an agenda so that your meeting stays on track. Our team also has agreed upon Norms for our meetings. If your team has not set Norms, you really should think about doing this! If you would like more information about setting norms check out this website.
Here are what the norms for my grade level team look like:
#2 Create a shared mission or vision statement for your team.
As I am sure most of your schools have mission and vision statements, take some time to write a mission or vision statement with your grade level. Think about what you as a group are working toward. What is the mission of your team? How does your vision align with your school’s vision and mission statement?
#3 Have conversations that focus on student learning and standards.
When we turned our conversations away from ourselves and what we wanted and toward our students and student achievement, we became much more productive. Our grade level team tries to focus the majority of our meeting time on analyzing a standard or analyzing student data. We can then take that information to drive our instruction. We realize this is the most efficient use of our time, helps us be better prepared for our lessons and meet the needs of our students.
#4 Be the team member you would like to have.
This one is huge! I have had a team member who was always late and calling in sick. This put so much stress on our team because we had to pick up the slack for her, helping her substitutes, watching her class etc. Be the team member you would want to have. Be there to lend a helping hand or a shoulder to cry on, but just make sure you are not the one relying on your teammates too much! But most importantly be there for each other in those life trials….this is what our friends are for and we couldn’t imagine how we could get through this job without them!
#5 Celebrate with each other.
This is the most important one! Happy Hour, Birthday Buddies, Secret Pals or eating lunch together, just make time to be there for each other and celebrate with each other! My team does Secret Sisters, we give little gifts each month and then we revel at the end of the year. It is so fun because you think you know who your Secret Sister is, but then you are really surprised at the end!
Take time to be nice to each other and celebrate the little and BIG things in life together. Being a team that works well together can make everyone’s life so much better!
