FRIDAY FOCUS

What Makes Amazing Teams Amazing?

When teachers are part of a team, they all have a similar stake and share equally in the risks when it comes to guaranteeing the success of their team and their students. The strongest teams have participants who have open minds, strong work ethic, imagination, and leadership. We all know there is no room for individual agendas when it comes to teaming. The important features of a strong team are that the members work together, recognize each other's strengths and talents, and allow and inspire independence. Team members are loyal to their shared goals and they also care about the other members of the team.

When a team is focused on its goals, then everyone has a single motivation, which allows the goals to be accomplished. At MMS, our teams work together to see all students as OUR KIDS rather than 'my students' and 'your students'. Strong teams help create better morale because each individual teacher always has others on whom he or she can trust. Secret Message: If you read this Friday Focus, send an email to Bill in order to enter a raffle to win a prize!

Creating and Building Teams
When creating and building teams at Martin Middle School, we seek to pair teachers who have complimentary styles. Some of the other characteristics when considering teams are:

•honest and sincere respect for and trust and confidence in their colleagues
•readiness to share ideas and resources
•desire to create common grade-level goals and protocols
•willingness to distribute responsibilities in a fair and equitable way
•strong and confident endorsement of the idea of inclusion
•embrace a growth mindset. (In other words, they're always trying to improve and they don't think "I'm better or more talented than you are.")

At Martin Middle School, we ask ourselves, “What is best for OUR KIDS and what is best for OUR SCHOOL?” OUR KIDS are the center of everything we do. We are blessed to work TOGETHER in school that puts OUR KIDS first!

TEACH WITH PASSION!