Setting an Agenda for Team Meetings

(upbeat music) - Hey y'all, it's Io here. Let's talk about meeting with your team. As a classroom teacher and case manager, part of the job is to meet with your team, and share information, get updates on students, and share details on how to provide better supports, in and out of the classroom. But sometimes team meetings are confusing. Who are you supposed to meet with, and what are you supposed to talk about? Now, most campuses will have faculty meetings and department or grade level meetings set, with someone else in charge of facilitating them. Our meetings have a designated agenda, and legally obligated attendees, so most team management is not actually done by us. What we do need to do as a classroom teacher is facilitate class meetings and team meetings. Class meetings may be with just the teachers and paraprofessionals who work together in a classroom for some, or part of the day. And a full team meeting may be all the teachers and paraprofessionals that work with your student population. Which one you find most helpful will honestly depend on the size of your program and your team. Alright, now to make sure you're not trapping your team an an endless time loop team meeting, do two things. One, have an agenda, and two, set an end time. Your agenda doesn't have to be too detailed or too fancy. It's just a way to keep on track, and minimize sidebars and distractions. The second thing, as you get started with your classroom team meeting, is to set the end time. Then set one member to be the timekeeper. Have that person announce five minutes before the end of the meeting, that there's only five minutes remaining, so that everyone has time to, kind of, wrap up. Then when time is over, do your best to close things down, and thank your team for being there. Good communication is one of the most important parts of managing an effective team. And when there's a lack of communication, or negativity surrounding communication, the entire team suffers, and so do the students. So make regular team meetings part of your routine, so that your entire team can benefit from a solid and consistent communication. I'm Io Jones, reminding you to stay strong, and teach on. (upbeat music)