Help Your Team

With foreword by Mike Mattos Build a strong, highly impactful team committed to learning for all. Written by eight professional learning community (PLC) experts, this practical guide addresses the most common challenges educators face when building collaborative teams and working collaboratively. Each chapter offers a variety of templates, processes, and strategies to help your team resolve conflict, focus on the right work, and take collective responsibility for student learning. Rely on this book to troubleshoot collaborative learning and team development in your PLC: Gain an understanding of the PLC framework and the unique qualities of effective collaborative work. Learn about collaborative teams, what goes into making them, and how to utilize them effectively to drive change and professional development for teachers and other educators. Become familiar with the ways in which interpersonal issues affect collaborative teams, and gain collaborative tools for conflict resolution and team building for teachers and staff. Learn how a toxic work culture can contribute to the failure of collaborative learning and how to combat this toxic school culture. Explore how educators in nontraditional schools or singletons can use the collaborative process to their advantage. Contents: About the Authors Foreword by Mike Mattos Introduction Chapter 1: Organizing Schools Into Effective Collaborative Teams Chapter 2: Managing Team Members Who Disengage Chapter 3: Establishing Clarity on What Students Need to Know and Be Able to Do Chapter 4: Planning for Targeted and Effective Team Interventions Chapter 5: Working Together in a PLC Chapter 6: Changing to a Positive School Culture Chapter 7: Involving Nondepartmental Members in a PLC Chapter 8: Supporting Singleton Teachers in Collaborative Teams Chapter 9: Dealing With Cautions, Conflicts, and Commitments References and Resources Index