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Learning Teams are also critical to the success of school
change initiatives. The suggestions for forming Learning
Teams, below, reflect and build upon activities recommended
in the previous section.
- Form Learning Teams
Organize your faculty and staff into Learning Teams. One
way to do this is to assign them to groups that interact
with each other naturally in the course of their work.
Ask each member of your Leadership Team to serve as a facilitator
for a Learning Team. Facilitators will then schedule time
to meet with their corresponding Learning Team. Suggest
that facilitators:
- begin the meeting by discussing the fact that change
is being affected (provide the compelling reasons why),
and discuss that the template for change begins with
culture and relationships.
- provide the team with copies of the worksheets/handouts
Staff Commitment to Purpose Continuums.
- guide their Learning Team through the same activities
conducted above in the Leadership Team meeting, talking
about where they would place the staff on these continuums.
- gauge participant response. Consensus is not necessary,
but votes, tallies, and recorded responses will assist
in debriefing back with the Leadership Team.
- provide all team members with a journal/notebook to
record their reflections in two columns for each Learning
Team session. Title the columns: What I Learned/ What
I Can Do. In their notebooks, team members may begin
to organize their own thoughts to problems that might
be addressed and solutions that may be utilized in the
next meeting for setting Action Goals.
- Reflect and Refine
Reconvene your Leadership Team and repeat the activity,
drawing on leaders' reports from their Learning Teams.
From the data gathered, brainstorm actions that might be necessary
to move your school in the desired directions. From the brainstormed
list, select actions that are most likely to be successful.
Reconvene the Learning Teams and share the list created by
the Leadership Team. Ask for additional ideas and reactions
to the list.
Meet with the Leadership Team to analyze the revised lists,
and determine a course of action.
Can’t find the time to meet? At this point, you may
want to explore the articles that will help you find a strategy
that works for your school in terms of scheduling time to
meet, for example, NSDC
Journal of Staff Development articles on Time for Staff
Development
Next: 3.
Create a Vision
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