One of the drawbacks of our current educational model in public schools is that we don't provide teachers with enough time to work together in teams. The vast majority of a teacher's day is still spent independently in the classroom with the students. Yes they do have "teams" in the sense of individuals teaching the same grade or subject, but these teams don't get a lot of time together. It usually gets crammed in during planning periods which are also not long enough. When a teacher is faced with dedicating extra time towards team efforts or being prepared for the next days lesson, you can guess what wins out. That lack of the team ethos and energy is in such contrast to the team I am a part of as an ITRT.
I am so energized and motivated every time I get together with my fellow ITRTs to plan a major training event or try to think our way through a problem. What we develop collaboratively is almost always better than what we do as individuals. We each bring our own perspectives into the collaborative effort and we feed off of each other. We truly become greater than our individual parts.
The question in my head is how can public schools build in more time for this collaborative team oriented approach for teachers and how can they help build up motivated and successful teams? Is it truly a reflection of the leadership provided or can other things be done?
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