The Power of Teacher Teams

1. The Power of Teacher Teams • “When teachers, working in teams, recognize the value of teacher leadership, engage in systematic high-level instructional talk, and have the opportunity to improve practices collaboratively and in concrete forms, they develop team loyalty, trust, and new feelings of responsibility and accountability. The collective team is responsible to each other and for all the team’s students. The result is improved teaching and learning.” • Source: Boles and Troen,The Power of Teacher Teams, 2011. How does this view of teacher teams compare with your own experience?

3. Introduction • Objective: • Prepare teacher team leaders to build effective teams at their schools • Agenda: • Characteristics of Effective Teacher Teams • Team Building Tools • Next Steps

4. Part 1: Characteristics of Effective teacher teams

5. Characteristics of Effective Teacher Teams • Effective teams exhibit the following five conditions: • Task Focus • Leadership • Collaborative Climate • Personal Accountability • Structures and Processes Source: Boles and Troen,The Power of Teacher Teams, 2011.

6. Condition #1: Task Focus Is the team’s task well defined, and does it focus on improving student learning?

7. Condition #2: Leadership Does the team encourage leadership for all its members?

8. Condition #3: Collaborative Climate Is the team generating an environment where trust, communication, and common purpose are apparent?

9. Condition #4: Personal Accountability Is there an expectation of performance improvement both for the team and the individual? Do team members fail to complete tasks or deliver unacceptable levels of quality?

10. Condition #5: Structures and Processes Does the team determine how best to work together to achieve its goals?

11. Characteristics of Effective Teacher Teams • “While most teams are able to accomplish low-level tasks such as organizing field trips and planning bulletin board displays, they often fail to accomplish the higher-level goal of improving teaching and learning…It’s not just meeting as a team that makes the difference. Rather, it’s how the teams use the time that’s set aside to gradually and steadily improve lessons and instruction.” • Source: Gallimore & Ermeling, Rating Your Teacher Team: Five Keys to Effective Teacher Learning Teams, 2010.

12. Characteristics of Effective Teacher Teams What additional suggestions do you have about building an effective team?

13. Part 2: team building tools

14. Condition #1: Task Focus Defining your team’s work and sharpening its focus on student learning • Resources: • Goal Setting Protocols • National School Reform Faculty • Energy for ME • Team Goal Setting Worksheet • Wauwatosa School District • Developing SMART Goals • MIT Human Resources

15. Condition #1: Task Focus

16. Condition #1: Task Focus • Initial Goal: • ELL students will improve in writing. • Revised SMART Goal: • By the winter benchmark assessment, 5th grade ELL students will improve by at least two points on the state open-response writing rubric from their fall benchmark scores.

17. Condition #2: Leadership Fostering leadership in all members of your team • Resources: • Deciding Upon/Rotating Team Roles • NJ Guidance for Teacher Teams • Distributive Leadership • Introductory Video • Reading

18. Condition #2: Leadership- Roles & Responsibilities What other roles, if any, would you consider for your team?

19. Condition #3: Collaborative Climate Developing and maintaining an environment of trust, communication, and common purpose • Resources: • Norm Setting Protocols • National School Reform Faculty • Attributes of a Learning Community • Community Agreements • Forming Ground Rules • Educational Service District 113

20. Condition #3: Collaborative Climate Source: Chicago Public Schools, School Performance Management Toolkit, 2010.

21. Condition #3: Collaborative Climate (Setting Norms) • “Norms are set for work teams for a variety of reasons. By setting norms, members of the team feel more comfortable and therefore are willing to take more risks. Also, setting norms cuts back on unproductive behavior, such as monopolizing air time. Norms also help remind us that different people learn in different ways (e.g. some people need to think before a shared discussion). Finally, norms are helpful when new members of a team come onboard. The norms clearly outline the values of the team for the new member of the team.” • Source: McDonald, The Power of Protocols, 2007.

22. Norms Agreement • Source: Chicago Public Schools - Performance Management

23. Condition #4: Personal Accountability Keeping all members accountable to both the team and themselves for delivering high quality work • Resources: • Fostering Teacher Team Community Development: a Review of Design Principals (2012)

24. Condition #4: Keeping Members Accountable to Your Team Goals

25. Condition #4: Accountability Tools • Reflection  Action Planning

26. Condition #5: Structures and Processes Articulating the team’s structure and processes used for accomplishing goals • Resources: • Protocols • Save the Last Word for ME • Consultancy Protocol • Four “A”s Text Protocol • McDonald’s “The Power of Protocols: An Educator’s Guide to Better Practice” (2007) • Meeting Agenda • Sample

27. Common Core Library • Resources for Teacher Teams How to get to the CC Library: Navigate to the DOE home page: schools.nyc.gov Scroll down the page On the left side of your screen click the green button labeled “Common Core Library”

28. Part 3: reflection and next steps

29. Next Steps • Reflection Questions: • What are your next steps for building an effective teacher team this year? • Which resources are you thinking of using to help in those steps?

30. Possible Next Steps • Read the article “The Five Conditions of Effective Teacher Teams” with your team • Complete a self-assessment • Identify roles and responsibilities • Set norms • Review and select protocols • Set goals

31. Additional Resources