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"Promoting Teambuilding and Challenge Education Within Your Own District" by Lloyd Williams I am a full time teacher in School District U-46 in Elgin, Illinois, and for the last two years, have facilitated teambuilding programs within our district. It has been a great experience and sometimes a great challenge to facilitate these programs 'in house.' I hope the following suggestions will help you hurdle the inevitable speed bumps you will encounter when you try to initiate a teambuilding workshop or program. I am in a large district with forty-seven schools and nearly two thousand teachers. I needed to do some marketing in the beginning to not only explain but also to promote the concept of teambuilding. I developed a one page flyer and distributed it to all the staff in our district responsible for special programs such as Operation Snowball, Snowflake, and Snowflurries. I also volunteered to facilitate teambuilding sessions for anyone who asked. The positive impact from these sessions spread quickly through the district like "wild fire." The result was teachers and administrators learned who I was and the types of trainings I could provide. Our district's Professional Growth Office took notice of the workshops and listed me as a district-wide resource person available to facilitate teambuilding sessions and train other teachers. We have no permanent structures and currently use only portable initiatives we built ourselves. However, the changes and evolution in our program over the next few years will be exciting. We are starting slowly, but the momentum is building. I strongly suggest you formally invite your immediate supervisors into your classroom or whenever you are conducting a program. Also, invite them to attend any workshop you conduct outside of the district, at a conference, or even a state convention. Even if they cannot attend, they will know other people value your knowledge and skills. Personally invite fellow staff members to local, regional, and national conferences that promote the concept of teambuilding and challenge education. After years of trying, seven staff members attended the 1998 T.E.A.M. Conference last February. They returned to the district excited about trying their own programs and further promoting teambuilding within the district. The real goal is to empower teachers so they can integrate this process into their classrooms as a philosophy and a pedagogy. This will be my 25th year of teaching. I am more excited than ever to return to school this fall. I hope to establish a district wide program so all the students in District U-46 can be impacted by the process used in teambuilding and challenge education. Changes within our schools sometimes can be tedious, and it will not happen over night. Don't get frustrated. John Heider states, "All growth spreads outward from a fertile and potent nucleus." You can be the nucleus for a dynamic new program within your district. I will glad to help you in any way I can. You can reach me at:
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