The busy administrator’s guide to creating strong teams, changing culture, and improving performance How effective is your team? Research shows that "teacher collective efficacy"—when all teachers are collectively engaged and focused on improvement—can do more to increase student learning than any other strategy. In fact, using powerhouse teams can achieve four years of student growth in a single calendar year. Horton’s practical guide will help you form your own dream team through: Short activities that require little to no preparation that you can use to deepen conversation at your very next meeting Step-by-step tools that will help your team move from identifying its biggest challenges to choosing and implementing successful reforms Strategies to enhance teamwork, trust, and collaboration so that your team becomes as effective as possible Horton will help you connect people, build trust, discover strengths, and clear barriers to reach greater teacher and program effectiveness—and ultimately raise student achievement. This book provides leaders and teams with a blueprint of how to work through a problem to find possible solutions while valuing each member of the team. This is not an easy task at any level and to have a resource to provide guidance for those tough situations is always welcomed. Nicky Kemp, Assistant Superintendent North Callaway R-1 School District Leading School Teams allowed our team to address the lack of processes and the finger pointing and tension that went along with it. It was surprising how quickly the activities and discussion brought out the meat of the issues within our team. Because of the natural manner in which the issues were approached, team members felt respected and accomplished after each session. Eric Dahlstrom Principal, Dartmouth Middle School

People are the most important resource in education and their effective leadership and management is vital to the success of all educational organizations. This new collection of readings provides an up-to-date account of current thinking about working with people in education, both as individuals and in teams. The book deals with the ways in which people perform in the workplace and examines effective leadership and management of human resources.

What are the causes of distrust? How do members of school teams discuss traditionally taboo topics? This field guide begins with personal exercises designed for leaders to use before they engage with staff. A variety of team exercises and a progressive series of strategies follow, to move the community toward a more trusting environment.

Hackman (social and organizational psychology, Harvard U.) identifies the factors of being a team leader that will enable a team to work together efficiently to achieve organizational goals. He suggests that five conditions are necessary: having a real team, a compelling direction, an enabling team structure, a supportive organizational context, and expert team coaching. He integrates insights from interviews with team leaders with concepts from the social sciences. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

The busy administrator’s guide to creating strong teams, changing culture, and improving performance Research shows that “teacher collective efficacy” can increase student learning more than any other strategy. In fact, using powerhouse teams can achieve four years of student growth in a single calendar year. Horton’s practical guide offers: Short activities that require little to no preparation that you can use to deepen conversation at your very next meeting Step-by-step tools to help your team move from identifying its biggest challenges to choosing and implementing successful reforms Strategies to enhance teamwork, trust, and collaboration so your team becomes as effective as possible

This user-friendly guide presents the proven strategies of top experts on creating and guiding effective work teams From recruiting and motivating members to setting ground rules and mediating problems, Leading Teams arms managers with a step-by-step plan and practical tools for maximizing productivity in any team setting. Key features Instructs readers how to: Organize a team with complimentary skills Clarify team goals, roles, and responsibilities Foster trust, creativity, and risk-taking Get teams back on track after a setback Collaborate to achieve team objectives

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.