Teams

B Y: K A I L A B A R R E T T

TEAMS

TEAM CONCEPTS

• It is important to note that team work is not a new thing, it has been emphasized for years now.

Collaboration are what educators are finding that works best.

• There are many different definitions of teams, one of my personal favorites is multiple people working

together to reach a common goal. This is a very broad definition that can fit any area of expertise.

• Interactive teaming is described as a mutual effort made

• by groups to provide a student with the best educational program possible. I love this definition

because it relates it specifically to education.

• Strengths to focus on when interactive teaming are effective, comprehensive, and cohesive services

from collaborative work.

LETS REMEMBER…

“An educational team is a set of interdependent individuals with a unique skills and perspectives who interact directly

to achieve their mutual goal of providing students with effective educational programs and services.”

CHARACTERISTICS OF TEAMS  

• There are many different characteristics that help to make a team some of these include:

• Awareness of team membership• Regulation of interactions of shared norms

• Interdependence of team members• Unique skills and perspective of team members

• The goal of shared service delivery• Communication

• I believe that it is important to note that all of these characteristics are equally important and without one the whole process will be harder to be successful.

AWARENESS OF TEAM MEMBERSHIP

• As silly as it sounds, members of a team must be aware that they are actually part of a team, there are

many times where people may not understand this aspect. It is also

important for others to realize that those people are apart of a team.

• An example of this is an IEP team, they are all there for a certain goal of a student, but if they don’t understand

their part of the team, it wont be as successful as it could be if they fully

understood.

REGULATIONS OF INTERACTIONS BY SHARED NORMS

• A team is formed because of a student or because of a shared norms/values/goals.

• An example of this could include the set of regulations and expectations, this can include spoken or unspoken. For example, arriving on

time is an unspoken norm. However, it is essential to use clear and direct interaction

among team members.

• When teams are first developed they need to spend a considerable amount of time

establishing these norms. These are often called “written ground rules”.

• Note***When a team changes it is likely that their set of norms may change. ***

INTERDEPENDENCE OF TEAM MEMBERS

• Members of a team are very interdependent because the actions of one person can affect the entire team. It is extremely important to

know that when you are making a decision.

• Each person has an area of expertise that can extremely help when it comes to decision making/making the team. This also can lead into the team roles. The team has certain roles that they need to follow, and it is important to follow these through. As mentioned

before, one persons actions can affect the entire team.

UNIQUE SKILLS AND PERSPECTIVES OF TEAM MEMBERS

• Each team has a unique and diverse set of skills and abilities. This

basically means that each person on a team has a certain skill or ability that

can greatly benefit the team. For example, a special education teacher

can bring forward many different instruction strategies that can help a student with a behavioral disorder.

• There are also many different perspectives that come forward when

there is a team. Each person may have different or similar perspectives but it is important to listen and respect

them if you don’t agree.

SHARED GOAL OF EFFECTIVE SERVICE DELIVERY

• Every team must have a mutual goal because that provides them something to work toward. If you are working towards a goal of a

student with ADHD, then you should probably have a special education teacher as apart of your team. This will help with the

service delivery.

COMMITMENT TO INDIVIDUAL AND TEAM ROLES

• Commitment in my opinion is one of the most important aspects of a team. It is what keeps the team going. Each person will have their

own individual roles and team roles. It is important to follow through or keep trying.

Commitment helps to have a team be successful. It holds the team together.

• One aspect that goes hand in hand with commitment is follow through, it is important to finish what you start. It would be hard to have an outcome to a problem if you don’t finish what you start. It is also important to

take a multi-directional approach. Not every single aspect that you try will be successful.

ESSENTIALS!

• Communication is the key in any situation and it is very important to have effective communication in order to be

successful at achieving goals.

• Authority to Decide or Act is essential to complete as a team and not an individual because you are a team and there is no “I” in team. No matter the decision I feel that they should be talked upon with the team to come to an

agreement.

• Reliance on Diverse Talents basically means that each member has a specific talent that people can rely on. This is especially important when it comes to an IEP,

there are so many different aspects of special education that people have expertise in.

• Mutual Support and Trust is very important because when you are apart of a team you have to be able to trust and support each other even during conflicts.

DEVELOPMENTAL STAGES FOR TEAMS

• As many other aspects of life, teams also go through developmental stages. It is also known as progress, as they

get the hang of things they go through stages.

• A way to look at teams progress is that of a lifecycle. They start at an infancy

stage and progress into adulthood. It is the cycle of teams.

• Understanding these stages will help people appreciate teams and how they

function, or in other words how they succeed.

FORMING AND STORMING

• Forming is the first step for teams. This is when all of the members are coming together. The members want clear direction from mothers are

they are polite in their efforts to learn about each other and their purpose for becoming a team.

• Storming is the stage where the team demonstrates that a group can become a team by resolving issues if leadership, procedures, and purpose. This is also when members become more confident and

comfortable with each other, this is the start of communicating effectively. They also tend to challenge leadership and also disagree

with one an other.

NORMING AND PERFORMING

• Norming is the stage where the team members begin to build trust with one another. They also redefine and establish roles, relationships, and

procedures that will help to solve conflicts. The most important aspect of this stage is that it develops the teams culture. I believe that this stage is

essential because it builds the trust and trust is what keeps a team together.

• Performing is the stage when the teams development has leveled off and the team can now focus on the primary efforts to accomplish the

goal at hand. This is one of the most important stages because everyone is basically getting ready to start their roles to accomplish the

goal.

TRANSFORMING AND ENDING

• Transforming and ending is also the same as the adjourning stage because this is when the stages or the goal is complete. At this point in the stage the team is doing closures. It is also important to make

sure that the team doesn’t lose focus just because it is near the end.

RATIONALE FOR AND BENEFITS OF TEAMS  

• Being apart of a team means that you are using collaboration. The emergent characteristics of collaboration

could become outcomes of a successful team.

• As any team should have is trust, and with trust comes more respect and community when working together.

• Every teams wants to establish a high quality of outcomes. In order to establish this one must realize that

special education is not a one person deal. It requires many different people in many different aspects of

education.

• As a professional it is important to know that having professionals meet to plan and discuss implementation of programs is more effective than any individual reporting.

• I also am a firm believer in having parents apart of the team. This allows the parents to build a relationship with

people in different educational aspects. It will also help the parents in their home life.

STUDENT BENEFIT

• The more involved/committed people are on the team the better the results will be for the student. They have a common goal in progress

and are working to achieve the best possible outcome.

• I also think that having people from multiple education aspects will also help the student to better understand themselves and what

they need. This is also important as the student gets older because then they become more involved in their IEP process and know

what they need.

PERSONAL ASSIGNMENT

• I have just recently completed 69 hours of observation, and in that time I was offered a job as a para for the Title I teacher as well as working with kindergarten. As I have started I have found out that working in this particular school almost everything is

completed as a team and I really like that. Everyone works so well with each other and present clear roles. It is a very different experience reading about teams and then

actually being a part of one in an educational setting. I asked around and everyone I asked seems to be on the same page that they would rather do things as a team rather than individual work. One teacher told me that it seems to be more successful. I asked about any conflict that seems to arise and she told me that there hasn’t been an awful lot but when there is she said that she tries to stay as positive as can be and that they basically call a meeting and “talk it out” to where the reach a decision. They also try to

involve the parents as much as possible because it allows for them to do more at home and gain an idea of what to do and how to do it. The sped teacher also mentioned that they can provide a different perspective for them to work with as well. In my opinion,

going into education I think it is best to just expect to be a part of a team, being a teacher isn’t just doing whatever you want it is about what is best for the student, and in

many cases teams are what help the best!