In this chapter of Meet Me in the Middle, Rick Wormeli dives into the topic of communication and team relationships in the middle school. Most middle schools have “teams” of teachers, all of whom teach different subjects, but teach to the same group of students. These teams are meant to collaborate and work together to make sure that each of their students is reaching their highest potential and being successful in all subjects. This is accomplished by teachers talking about their students, making sure that their own lessons and schedules are ideal for student success (such as making sure major deadlines don’t overlap, and that students have enough time to complete all their work for all their subjects), and teachers listening to each other when a concern or idea comes up.
In this chapter, there are a few different scenarios that are brought up, that would cause trouble among a team if they were to ever happen, such as one teacher assigns too much homework and is always yelling at his students. Depending on the structure and communication of the team, this scenario could either go very well, with a discussion leading to a solution, or very badly, with the teacher being angry and frustrated and refusing to change his ways. If the team has good communication, then the scenario should end like the first option, but if there’s disjointness among the team, then the latter option might end up being the case.
All in all, the team’s major focus should be on the success of the student, with student needs and feelings coming first. Teams should make sure that they’re always keeping the student interest in mind, and should always be working towards the highest student success.
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