Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Watkins
Watkins
Watkins
John D. Watkins
Dr. Anderson
Administrators get into a metaphorical chess match when deciding which team or group
to place teachers throughout their school. They hope they are choosing wisely that the chemistry
amongst teachers will develop, grow, and continue to get stronger as the year continues.
Sometimes, what looks like a good fit does not always pan out the way we hoped. For this case
Ms. Juarez, the third-grade team lead and three of her teammates have continued to show
significant growth in student academic performance. Ms. Monroe is the lone outlier on the team
struggling to keep up with the pacing guide, and according to district assessment data her
students are not performing as well as their peers in the other four third grade classes. I have
been informed that Ms. Monroe does not engage during grade level meetings, giving me the
In this scenario, I view the team leader responsible for inviting Ms. Monroe to all grade
level meetings and planning sessions by sending calendar invites as well as verbally tell her
when the group is starting to meet. Whether she pops her head into her room or gives her a phone
call, a friendly reminder could go a long way. Ms. Juarez has the responsibility as team lead to
explain grade level expectations when it comes to grade level meetings, including planning as a
team. It is also her responsibility to lead by example applying the school and district
expectations.
All stakeholders on the team will eventually be involved with the next steps. I would start
with meeting individually with Ms. Juarez, the grade level team leader, gathering more
information about the teams’ dynamics when working together. I would also have an individual
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conversation with Ms. Monroe. If conversations do not help resolve the issues, I will meet with
the whole grade level team asking if I could sit in on a grade level meeting or planning session.
The questions I would ask the teachers of the third-grade team are, how often does the
team meet? How long has this situation been going on? Have you sat with Ms. Monroe getting to
know her on a personal level? Does everyone clearly understand the grade level teams
expectations about meeting and/or planning? What steps have already been attempted to help
Ms. Monroe? Has Ms. Monroe been given plenty of time to prepare or make the necessary
arrangements to meet with the grade level team? Has the entire third grade team created a list of
For this scenario I will rely on the confines of district policy to help guide my decision.
The district policy about staff meetings and expectations will give me reasoning behind the
importance of meeting together. District policy about the teacher and leader evaluation process
will guide my decision as a tool to help teachers aim for professional growth goals and how this
Before taking any action, I would seek more information from Ms. Juarez. I would want
to know the strategies and different ideas the third-grade team has already done to incorporate
If I decided to do nothing the potential negative effects on the third-grade team is even
more animosity and frustration amongst teammates than there already is. The students learning in
Ms. Monroe’s class are in jeopardy of learning loss the most. Potentially, Ms. Juarez and the rest
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of the third-grade team could step out of their comfort zone respectfully giving a coworker
constructive feedback that could hopefully improve the teams’ current dynamics.
If I do decide to meet and take care of the situation, students in Ms. Monroe’s class could
potentially catch up to the remaining teachers. In addition, grade level meetings could improve
becoming more of a collaborative experience. The overall relationship of the team could improve
as well. The possible negative effects if I get involved is robbing the third-grade team of solving
a problem as a group on their own. Ms. Monroe could view this as an attack on her raising her
suspicions causing her to fortify the current wall of trust against her current teammates. Datnow
and Park (2015) emphasize that building trust amongst school leadership members and their
colleagues is imperative in developing respect between team members. When the group values
each other, they are more likely to respond to feedback more positively than suspiciously,
My goal throughout this entire scenario is to see my third-grade team successfully solve
this issue. I also want to support Ms. Monroe helping her make the necessary strides to catch up
to the performance level as the rest of her team. I want to see that Ms. Monroe become an
integral team member, participating in planning, including grade level team meetings. I do not
believe it would be the best decision to sit back and do nothing. The first action step I would
make is meet with Ms. Juarez. During this meeting I would seek to find out how things are going
with Ms. Monroe when it comes to planning and grade level meetings. I would provide Ms.
Juarez professional development opportunities geared toward situations like this. From this
information I would hope to find out the steps the grade level team has taken to help Ms. Monroe
to feel more inclusive, while offering a few suggestions and strategies I would like her to try. I
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would ask Ms. Juarez to send me a calendar invite to their next grade level team meeting so I
could be of any assistance. If this does not fix the issues, and the team dynamics stay the same or
The second step I would incorporate into this plan, is for the schools instructional coach
to add Ms. Monroe to their coaching cycle rotations. The focus of these sessions will be over
possible challenge that could arise is Ms. Monroe’s attitude toward the coaching cycle and
willingness to change the way she does things. If this still does not fix the situation, I will move
My third step would be meeting with the entire third grade team revisiting the schools’
expectations when it comes to grade level meetings. In this meeting I would coach the grade
level team in discussing the expectations. I would emphasize that the group create a list of social
norms, stating the expectations and the roles each person is responsible for. These norms will
need to be written and visibly posted in the classroom where meetings take place. We will
investigate trust building exercises that I hope will allow the group to bond. This meeting will
give the third-grade team a chance to practice their social norms for meeting as a team. The last
thing I would want the team to feel is that they are being punished having to meet for an extra
meeting and doing extra work. The teachers could be unwilling to step up to these changes.
The fourth step to this action plan is to have an individual meeting with Ms. Monroe
through formal observations and feedback. Challenges that could come up is Ms. Monroe feeling
that she is being attacked about her teaching abilities. According to Fisher and Frey (2015)
conducting conversations about feedback and performance can be honest without feeling like it
is demeaning when constructing the conversation through describing the observation, evaluating
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its meaning, modeling what needs to be done, and understanding the consequences of the
performance. This will give Ms. Monroe and I a chance to clearly understand and discuss the
expectations.
When evaluating Ms. Juarez’s efforts, I will utilize the district Teacher Leader
Effectiveness rubric. This evaluation tool will allow me to assess the different strategies Ms.
Juarez has attempted to help improve the third-grade teams inclusiveness of Ms. Monroe.
Through the evaluation Ms. Juarez would benefit by providing proof of the strategies and when
The timeline for this action plan to unfold will take some time. There will be some steps
that can be accomplished quickly. After seeing the most recent assessment data, I will want to
reach out to Ms. Juarez and begin the first step. This should take only a short meeting during her
planning period or another time before or after school. After this meeting I will wait until I
receive the update from the third-grade teams most recent meeting. During this time frame I
would enact the second step by meeting with the instructional coach requesting we get Ms.
Monroe extra coaching. This step could take place weekly for the next four to six weeks. If I
need to continue to the third step, that meeting with the grade level team will be within that week
from the update from Ms. Juarez on the progress they have been making with Ms. Monroe. They
will spend a weekly meeting for two-three weeks revisiting school expectations, creating a list of
social norms, and the roll each person will have. This step will last about two months to
implement and apply to see if we need to make any adjustments to the plan. The fourth step to
this plan will be met during the scheduled teacher evaluation schedule created at the beginning of
the school year. This step will consist of a pre-observation conference, an observation, and a
post-observation conference. During this time, I will investigate if Ms. Monroe has been
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applying some of the advice of her teammates have given her and how the coaching process has
been going.
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References
Datnow, A., & Park, V. (2015). 5 (Good) Ways to Talk About DATA. Educational Leadership,
73(3), 10–15.
Fisher, D., & Frey, N. (2015). Feedback for Teacher Growth. Principal Leadership, 15(9), 52–56.
Union Public School. (2017). Board Policy Book: Policies applicable to employees.
https://scschoolfiles.s3.amazonaws.com/1967/4101_policies_applicable_to_employees.p
df
Union Public School. (2017). Board Policy Book: Professionalism in conduct, communications,
https://scschoolfiles.s3.amazonaws.com/1967/4020_professionalism3.pdf
https://scschoolfiles.s3.amazonaws.com/1967/4030_staff_meetings.pdf
Union Public School. (2017). Board Policy Book: Teacher & leader effectiveness (TLE) –
evaluation process.
https://scschoolfiles.s3.amazonaws.com/1967/4040_teacher_leader_effectiveness_eval_p
rocesses.pdf