Chapter 11: Administrator-Staff Relationships 299
year Frontier Day has been an
overwhelming success and has served as a rite of pas- Each hose eighth graders fortunate enough to be placed on Team Wonder. This year, theresage for
rift as the ning gets under way.
is a Deior, the language teacher, is new to Team Wonder. She has worked on another eighth- Ms. at Cohesive for three years. Her previous team also had traditions, and she is unwillinggrade m D. “] have lots of experience with this,” she insists. “I know how to work on a team to give . C need to do! She would ike Team Wonder to replace Frontier Day with the more tra- and
onal.
elassroom-based Westward Ho activity that her team did last year. Ms. Prior believes that
dit arning takes place in a structured classroom setting. She guards her classroom instruc- the best She even expressed distaste for the student orientation assembly presented tional time carefully..
Tade level earlier in the year. “Such things waste valuable instructional time.” she argued.
The other teachers on Team Wonder are concerned. Every new suggestion they make is
ed by Ms. Prior’s objections. The other teachers have worked together so well for so long.
nd they find the resistance frustrating. They have pooled their ideas, and all of them feel that the and ructured approach that Ms. Prior wants will block student creativity and dampen student enthu- struct siasm. The team members have talked about their differences of opinion, but they cannot come
to an agreement about what to do-although they all agree that an activity of some sort is needed.
As the daily debates about the unit on the American West become more and more heated.
Ms. Goode is invited to the team meeting to offer advice. She does not relish her role as the
arbiter because she strongly believes in letting the team come to a consensus on the plans for
Frontier Day.
Suggested Learning Activities
Analyze the Case
1. How could Ms. Goode have prevented this problem from occurring? Considering her
support for the team concept, why do you think she did not take this course of action?
2. How can the principal defuse the emotions of the teachers as she enters the team
meeting?
3. What can Ms. Goode do to ensure that the team does not have further decision-
making difficulties of this magnitude?
Discuss the Larger Issues
Is team teaching the most effective organization for increasing student achievement?
At what grade levels?
. Does the most effective instruction occur in a seated, classroom situation or in a proj-
ect such as Frontier Day?
AS an administrator, how and to what extent do teacher personality and instructional
style affect your staffing decisions?
Be a Problem Solver If you were the principal in this kind of situation, how would you
Sociur meeting with the team? What role would you play during the meeting? Utilize the
SCience and administrative concepts from Part l in approaching this situation.