Team – Learning and Building

In today’s reflection, I will like to speak on and also land my support to one of the items which was touched on during the dialogue with the Supt session – that is learning not only as individuals, but rather learning as a team.

In Math, we speak of Partial Fractions. The sum of many terms, but to me I see any school (or even any department within it) is much more than the sum of its parts. As mentioned in my previous reflections, a team benefits from both the individual talents of all its members and especially the synergy that comes about the different abilities working together. From this, I hope that some of the members can develop their own team, help others also generate high morale, and so the start of the ripple effect and finally having an extremely productive school environment. This is what happend with the ICT PLC team members who were involved in the ICT competitions. These teachers had branched out and develop their own team of students, leading and guiding them to out-do others in the competitions. At other times, others and even I may need a little encouragement before a supportive working relationship can be developed. As I review on my area which I am in charge of, I need to keep this notion of promoting team building and try to identify concrete steps to realize this notion.

What are some of these steps I feel can help to realize team building? Encouraging people to recognize and celebrate each other’s accomplishment is one way my principal had advised me to do. Just look at the grins and smiles I get which I mentioned to my many teachers that we will be acknowledging their accomplishment in guiding our students in doing well in ICT competitions during staff meeting. Another way which I feel is important and that I had done when selecting these teachers to be in charge of the ICT competition is to give them a sense that they are part of something truly significant. And also to make them feel that their achievement in the whole team is also a personal accomplishment.

Through communication and discussion on a regular basis, the school goal will become a shared goal. I also make it a point to celebrate progress made (instead of just at the end result) towards achieving this shared goal through sms-ed encouragements and acknowledgement to the school leaders. More importantly, my demonstration to my teachers that I am personally committed to their success or share of their non-success. This is my conscious effort to improve the morale and encourage the team spirit, and not just an accidental by-product from random delegation.

There are also areas which I am currently working on, that is to try to hold social events where my members can bond and not directly on work. I believe that I need to think and implement strategies that suit my own personality and also the nature of the teachers I work with. As I aim for working out my own approach with guidance from the school leaders, I look for the best suit for the personality of my team.