Teacher Teamwork

Packed with strategies, tips, and activities you can quickly put into practice, this book shows how to build productive teams and intentionally create an environment of professional engagement in your school. Authors Margaret Searle and Marilyn Swartz organize the work into four key steps: (1) establishing guidelines and protocols, including drafting agendas and timelines; (2) managing and resolving conflicts, including giving honest feedback and building team morale; (3) refining decision-making skills, including creating win-win situations and improving flexibility and efficiency; and (4) building team capacity, including evaluating and sustaining teamwork. With the guidance in this book, you'll soon see the benefits that come from highly effective teams of teachers who powerfully focus on student results.

Packed with strategies, tips, and activities you can quickly put into practice, this book shows how to build productive teams and intentionally create an environment of professional engagement in your school. Authors Margaret Searle and Marilyn Swartz organize the work into four key steps: (1) establishing guidelines and protocols, including drafting agendas and timelines; (2) managing and resolving conflicts, including giving honest feedback and building team morale; (3) refining decision-making skills, including creating win-win situations and improving flexibility and efficiency; and (4) building team capacity, including evaluating and sustaining teamwork. With the guidance in this book, you’ll soon see the benefits that come from highly effective teams of teachers who powerfully focus on student results.

While most educators believe working in teams is valuable, not all team efforts lead to instructional improvement. Through richly detailed case studies The Power of Teacher Teams demonstrates how schools can transform their teams into more effective learning communities that foster teacher leadership. The benefits of successful teacher teams include: improved performance for both teachers and students; meaningful professional development; group adoption of a new curriculum; shared insights into student work; better classroom management; support for new teachers; new roles for teacher leaders; and opportuniteis for mentor support.School leaders will find guidelines, methods, and concrete steps for building and sustaining effective teacher teams. Also included is a DVD with video case studies and one CD with reproducibles. The most important reason for building teacher teams is to enhance student learning through improved instruction, and that story is at the heart of this book.

Cohan, Honigsfeld, and Dove bring together current research, authentic examples of best practices, and voices from the field to champion the power of purposeful collaboration and provide educators with resources that will empower them to support English learners (ELs) and their families. Guided by four core principles (common purpose, shared mindset, diverse team membership, supportive environment), the authors explain how to meet the challenges of collaborating with ELs and help all stakeholders—administrators, teachers, students, parents, community leaders—develop new and effective ways of working together for the success of each learner.

Focus on developing people—not just improving test scores. The authors examine how staffing decisions can strengthen professional learning communities and explore actions that can help school leaders safeguard their schools against complacency. Collect tips and strategies that every teacher can adopt, and apply the professional development techniques that prove most useful.

Based on the 10th International Study Association on Teacher Thinking and Practice Conference in Gothenburg, this collection of research conducted by scholars from Europe, North America, Israel and Hong Kong provides an overview of the current

Successful implementation and completion of team activities requires instructors and students alike to confront challenges not present in individual work. To maximize learning, group projects need a solid lesson plan that helps students understand the benefits of group work, develop ground rules and assign responsibilities, value everyone’s contributions, and resolve potential conflicts. Teacher, curriculum designer, and “teacherpreneur” Patrice Palmer offers thirteen easily implemented, robust group-work activities formatted to foster the development of life skills. Designed with secondary and postsecondary students in mind, Palmer’s workbook takes students through the team-building process, from getting to know one another to a final evaluation of the group’s work and success. Written in a user-friendly format, Successful Group Work: 13 Activities to Teach Teamwork Skills allows teachers to choose activities that best meet their students’ needs. Make group work a powerful addition to your teaching repertoire. You may be surprised how your students rise to meet a new challenge!