A True Team: SOLSC Day 30

The relationship I have with my teaching team is one of my most meaningful relationships, (second only to my family).  Our conversations and challenges keep me up at night and yet knowing they are in it all with me allows me to sleep.  My relationship with my team is powerful.  It has changed who I am as a teacher and a person.  I am who I am now because of my team, and I am forever grateful for each one of them.

When you have a powerful team you know it, you feel it in your gut.  You work for your team, and your team works for you, no thanks needed.  You ask questions not because you want an answer, but because you want to be challenged.  You know the team will make you better.

A two-minute conversation in the hallway can refine a lesson and drive the next five lessons.  You are aware of the strengths of each member and work to optimize these strengths.  Where one is weak,  the other is strong.  You fit together like a puzzle, it just works.

I think the pushback is what makes our team so powerful.  Rarely do we share an idea and have it accepted as it is.  Ideas are reflected on, questioned, challenged, and come back stronger and better. Our team expects this.

When you're in a teaching team that works, kids notice families notice and your building notices. You laugh, you cry, and you pray this team will last until retirement and beyond!

Next year, I will be working to build a relationship with a new team.
Will they welcome the push back?  Will they see my needs and work with me to minimize them? Will our strengths mesh and support one another?  I am lucky, I know my new team, we are already friends, but a team is beyond friendship, a great partnership is a work of perseverance.  I am fortunate to know what a great team is and I am willing to build another great team. A team that just fits.