Making the Most of Team Meetings

Jennifer Partrick
Aug 16, 2010

How can team meetings be more effective and productive?

One of the challenges that most teachers face is time. Many teachers lament that there is just not enough time to get everything done that needs to be done. One way that we can use our time more efficiently is to think about how we use grade level meetings. One of the practices that often happen at grade level meetings is using that time to air grievances about things that are bothering us, but this is not an effective way to use that time. The best way to avoid using grade level meetings as a dumping ground is to have an agenda. Some of you will say that that is one more thing to be done. True, but if an agenda will help you better use the time to get things accomplished, then taking the time to create the agenda is worth it.

What are some things that need to be on the agenda? Here is a simple idea:

Please note this is a sample of notes from a grade level meeting. Understand that discussion is not noted, only feedback and ideas.

Date: January 10, 2009

Members present: Jan B, Sharon O, Bruce T, Macy L

Notes from principal (if information is shared by grade level chairperson):
Reports due by Jan: 21
Parent meetings completed by Jan. 27
List of students not going on field trip
Teachers interested in the upcoming workshop

Response for principal (if grade level chairperson takes feedback to principal):
Students not going on field trip: Matthew L, Lonie H, Tate H
Workshop interest: Macy L

What is going well instructionally (personal information to share with team):
Collaborative Pairs, love the graphic organizers,

Where do you need support instructionally (personal information to share with team and gather ideas from team):
Still don't quite understand the Assessment Prompts, need to continue working with them
My low students are not moving

Sharing ideas for upcoming instruction (ideas to share with team):
Next week focus is: cause and effect, blends, quotation marks:
Use the graphic organizer in the book, students love it
Low students could use their leveled book to locate cause and effect
Phone conversation to highlight speech and quotation marks
Spaghetti and elbow noodles to highlight speakers and narrator
Center ideas:
Students could be given an event: falling, crashing my bike, surprise, and they have to create causes and effects based on the event they chose using the graphic organizer
Students could write an essay using the graphic organizer
Students could write about events in their lives and note causes and effects of the event
Could tie centers using cause and effect to science:
Plant is dr ooping
Drought
Oil spill

Dividing jobs related to upcoming instruction (based on decisions made by team):
Copies of graphic organizers (if students are not creating their own)
Gather low level readers for centers for low students
Sharon: oil spill picture graphic organizer, low level center for quotation marks and narrator
Bruce: bike crash picture graphic organizer, middle level center for quotation marks and narrator
Macy: surprise graphic organizer, high level center for quotation marks and narrator

In this example, teachers brought suggestions with them to share. As a team, they decided on which ideas they would use and then each person had certain tasks to complete and share with members of their team. For example, Sharon would create an oil spill graphic organizer and the low level word center for each member on the grade level. Therefore, if the low level quotation mark center was for students to identify the narrator and dialogue in a simple story, Sharon would make enough copies of the story for all low level students and then share them with the members of her team. Likewise, if the oil spill was a choice in the writing center, Sharon would make copies for perhaps two thirds of the students (all students most likely would not all choose the oil spill task) on that grade level and then share with the team. Sharing the load eases some of the stress related to time.

Planning the grade level meeting ensures that time will be spent working on grade level issue. Dividing up the work across the grade level helps to keep stress at bay.