You’ve probably heard this phrase a lot in recent months: “The only thing constant is change.”  While it may make you want to pull your hair out, this statement feels all too real right now.  One of the many things changing for you this school year may be your teaching team.  I am experiencing this myself with 2 new members on my grade-level team.

If you’ve read any of my other blog articles, you know how vital I view collaboration. And I’m not referring to just teaching my students how to work well together, but collaborating with colleagues (not to mention all the benefits of modeling collaboration to my students… but I could write an entirely new article on that very topic, and I will!).

Thus, it is important to establish a strong culture of collaboration with new members of your team from the beginning.  If you are starting the year with new colleagues, or even if you have been teaching with the same teachers for years, but you want to hit the “reset button” to re-evaluate and discuss how you work together, use these 6 talking points to help you set the expectations for how to collaborate well with your (new) team.

Ask your team members:

1. How do you envision our team collaborating?

2. What special skills and passions do you bring to the team?

3. What area do you feel you’re not as strong in, and what can we do as a team to support you?

4. How should we divide the workload?

5. How will we handle conflict/disagreements?

6. How have your past experiences working in teacher teams influenced you?

In addition to this discussion, personality has an influence on how different people work together.  It’s important that you also get to know your teammates on a deeper level.  If you are into personality assessments, maybe it would be a fun bonding activity to take one together.  (I am personally a fan of the Enneagram.) These are tools that can help bring understanding, and in turn, can help you collaborate more effectively with each other.  I find that when I know more about the people I am working with, I can better anticipate their needs and be a better teammate.   

You also don’t have to take a personality test to get to know each other.  Make time for having fun together.  Try to make it a priority to leave work alone on your lunch break (*gasp* I know, teacher friends, that is hard for us) and do your best to eat lunch with your grade level team every day.  You can talk about your class if you want, or you can talk about things completely unrelated to work. 

Either way, make time to build those relationships with your teammates; it will make such a huge difference in the long run.  Bonding with your new team is essential to building trust and rapport with each other so you can weather difficulties when they inevitably come down the pike during the year.