Week Ten

Explain and give examples to argue why the following statement is true or false: "Get the right people on your team, and get the wrong ones off."

I believe this statement, "get the right people on your team, and the wrong ones off" is a true statement and something to live by. The right people on your team help with classroom and school moral, producing products, and decision making. The wrong people can bring down school moral, increase the stress level and drag out the decision making process.

As a teacher leader in my school, I try my best to surround myself with teachers who are positive, forward thinking and open to change. These teachers help me stay positive even when I'm having a hard day. I lean on these teachers to help me work through problems with students, parents or curriculum. I am also there for my colleagues when they need someone to vent to or work out a problem.

In the fall we will be using a new grade book at the high school. I am the teacher trainer for my school. I will participate in webinars and then present the information to the staff. I have a small group of teachers that I will rely on and ask for feedback before I present to the whole group. This small group of teachers helps me as a teacher leader because I am able to prepare myself for possible hiccups in the presentation and anticipate some of the questions other teaches might ask. 

The math curriculum at my school has been under a microscope since before I started teaching over seven years ago. The community did not like that we were using an integrated curriculum and because of that, our teaching expertise was always being questioned. We have since then gone through a curriculum change at the K-8 level and we are currently rearranging our topics at the high school to be better aligned with the algebra, geometry, algebra two sequence. Having a supporting principal has been very helpful through this process. It has also been nice to be able to fall back on the expertise of a few veteran teachers who know more of the school's history with this topic.

In each of the scenarios listed above; teacher leader, technology and curriculum there are slightly different people in my circle that are my go to people. A few teachers overlap but not all. I am lucky in that my classroom is at the end of the hallway so I do not get a lot of foot traffic (students or teachers) so I can sort of hide and do my own thing if I need to. It's nice that I have the option of what teachers I choose to surround myself with because I teach at a school with 20 something other teachers. I don't like confrontation, so I tend to avoid people if we do not agree on something. This is one of the reasons that I could never be an administrator.