The Skillful Team Leader: A Resource for Overcoming Hurdles to Professional Learning for Student Achievement, April/2013

“Teacher teams have become a common fixture of North American schools. However, not all teams make the best use of their meeting time by engaging in sustained, professional learning. Written in a clear, practitioner-friendly style, this book provides team leaders with an array of useful strategies to address common team hurdles and realize the promise of powerful, collaborative learning.” —Jim Knight, Author of Instructional Coaching

“This book is a fantastic resource for someone who leads teams every day. The vignettes echo the very real challenges that I continually see in team meetings. The book is organized so that I can easily find practical strategies to apply right away when I am facing major challenges in my daily work.” — Karen Coyle Aylward, Literacy Coach and Team Leader, Boston, MA

Get the most out of your PLCs and teacher teams!

All teams face hurdles. What distinguishes the skillful team leader from a less effective one is his or her approach in overcoming them. Whether you are a team leader or a trainer of team leaders, this book is an essential resource for you.

Elisa MacDonald offers a skillful approach to team leadership rooted in values, mindset, intelligence, and skill. Readers will learn from reality-based examples illustrating common team hurdles in collaboration, shared leadership, goal setting and attainment, rigorous discourse, and continuous improvement. This practical guide features:

1. Research-based and field-tested solutions for preventing and overcoming hurdles
2. Brief follow-up sections with tips for sustaining positive change
3. Ways to work beyond the team to shape and influence school culture
4. Prompts to apply learning to your own leadership hurdles
5. A common chapter format for easy reference and flexible use

About The Author:

Elisa MacDonald is a former teacher, literacy coach, AP of instruction, and consultant. She has recently joined Teach Plus, T3 as the director of teacher leader development, where she supports, coaches, and teaches leaders in underperforming schools by developing them as: purpose-driven instructional leaders, evidence-based decision makers moving through data inquiry cycles, skillful facilitators of adult learners, and schoolwide change agents. Elisa has consulted with numerous school districts launching districtwide professional learning communities, coaching and leading courses for team leaders, and leading school-based inquiry teams and workshops in literacy and classroom management. She has received numerous grants and awards, including the Calderwood Writing Fellowship and English Speaking Union Treadwell Scholarship, and she was featured as a teacher inMiddle Ground Magazine in December 2001. Elisa is author of “When Nice Won’t Suffice: Honest Discourse is Key to Shifting School Culture,” which appeared in the Journal of Staff Development in June 2011. She has coauthored several articles including, “Supporting Teacher Leaders Where They are Needed Most” (JSD, December 2012) and is a contributing author to the third edition of Beyond Mentoring (Teachers²¹, 2010). She earned an MA in critical and creative thinking from UMass Boston and graduated with honors from Brandeis University with a BA in psychology and education. In addition to being passionate about teacher and student learning, Elisa loves the theatre and has performed professionally in Boston. Elisa lives in Arlington, Massachusetts, with her husband, Bob, and their twins, Liam and Grace.