Working Together in Schools: A Guide for Educators - Hardcover

Donaldson, Gordon A.; Sanderson, David R.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0803963777 ISBN 13: 9780803963771

Publisher: Corwin, 1996

Synopsis

"A book for our times―a useful and usable book that places collaboration at the center of school improvement. Donaldson and Sanderson make an important contribution to the building of professional community in schools."
Thomas J. Sergiovanni
Lillian Radford Professor of Educational Administration and Senior Fellow Center for Educational Leadership
Trinity University

Donaldson and Sanderson show you how to help your entire staff discover a common goal--improved learning for students―and move toward it together. The authors give you insightful, step-by-step guidance on exactly how to accomplish this. Learn how you can increase the effectiveness of your teaching staff so that every student benefits by improved learning.

Encourage teachers′ personal growth by encouraging them to use creative teamwork to find alternate solutions to tough school problems. Bring staff together to address complicated school concerns as a group. Build your student-oriented school from the inside by encouraging everyone to work toward better instruction. This book is designed to help parents, teachers, principals, and other school staff work together more easily to teach kids better. Find out how collaboration can:

• Build and reinforce common educational goals
• Dramatically raise teaching levels
• Boost teachers′ leadership skills
• Enrich your school′s culture by keeping decision-making on site
• Involve parents with their children′s′ education

Dozens of great, simple ideas and strategies help you turn common, pressing school challenges into opportunities for effective working together. Find out how bringing parents into the equation can further enhance students′ learning experiences. Use the thoughtful, real-life examples provided in each chapter to build a unified teaching and learning community at your school. Let the down-to-earth, practical advice here help you and your staff begins working together more effectively--and your students will reap the reward of a better education.

About this title

From the Author

We wrote this book to give practical guidance to teachers, principals, counselors, other staff members, and parents and community members in building strong, productive working relationships. Three special features make Working Together in Schools a guide you will want to read and return to frequently for insight and encouragement: 1. Separate chapters focus on seven common opportunities for collaboration in schools, from pairs ("teams of two") to the whole faculty, including small self- initiating groups, task forces, standing committees, and teaching teams. So if you're leading or participating in a group, you can refer directly and quickly to the relevant chapter before you begin and as the group proceeds. 2. A simple four-phase developmental process, based in research and experience, frames each kind of collaboration. Groups and pairs typically move from a convening phase into contracting, when members clarify their purposes together and forge working agreements, then into composing (planning and organizing their work), and finally into following through and closure. This framework provides a way to understand your group's development and keeps the discussion grounded in real challenges and opportunities. 3. Throughout the book you will discover "boxes" that offer you specific suggestions about, for instance, the rules of brainstorming, sample groundrules for committees, the four simultaneous activities of teaching teams, ways to surface hidden agendas, and dozens more such useful highlights. We believe that enhancing collaboration is a crucial part of school life. We wrote this book to help adults develop collaborative skills and realize the productivity and satisfaction of working together well.

From the Back Cover

"Working Together in Schools is a book for our times a useful and usable book that places collaboration at the center of school improvement. . . . Donaldson and Sanderson make an important contribution to the building of professional community in schools." Thomas J. Sergiovanni, Lillian Radford Professor of Educational Administration & Senior Fellow Center for Educational Leadership, Trinity University

"Full of practical guidance and straight talk about how to get professional collaboration going and help it get results. . . . Will inspire its readers to set sail on the course of collaboration, steer them through the swirling currents, and keep them clear of the sirens and rocks." Andy Hargreaves, Director and Professor, International Centre for Educational Change The Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, Toronto

". . . A guide that offers profound wisdom, guidance, and practicality. It will prove to be an important resource for collaborations that want to achieve and maintain excellence." James L. Evers, Contributor to The Fifth Discipline Fieldbook, & Principal, James Evers Associates, Nanuet, NY

"This book helps us see the paths to collaboration we could take, rather than just shooting out of the gate and hoping our strategies will work. It's very useful in helping plan how committees, groups, and partnerships can work together." Rebecca van der Bogert, Superintendent Winnetka Public Schools, Winnetka, IL

Edition details

• Publisher: Corwin
• Publication date: 1996
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0803963777
• ISBN 13: 9780803963771
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 184