Ideas for Training Staff - Indicators of Effective Teamwork

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In the past few months I've received a number of calls from directors and teachers asking for help with team building on their staff. The problems they describe vary from site to site: a Head Start teacher with a decade and a half of experience finds she can't work with her new assistant; a director of a child care program is concerned that some staff are highly involved in decision-making, while others under participate and don't lend their voice or time; another director worries about constant bickering among her teachers over what seem like petty issues; a Reggio-inspired program is struggling to understand what the Italians really mean by this concept of collaboration among teachers, children, and families.

The language of teamwork and collaboration is taken for granted in our professional discourse, but walking the talk is quite another thing. These accomplishments require time to build relationships, an ability to take multiple ...