ABSTRACT
Meetings can be a deadly waste of time or the lynch pin that enables a faculty to learn and grow together. In this chapter, principals and their mentors craft meetings that stimulate creative problem solving, tap into the collective wisdom of the entire faculty, and improve everyone’s classroom practice. Meetings in which e-mail and phone distractions are eliminated and everyone is fully engaged. Principals and their mentors discuss the following ways to organize such meetings:
• have a clear purpose for each meeting; • meet regularly; • arrange seating; • set a tone; • establish norms; • provide time for quiet reflection; • get every voice in the air; • develop effective and efficient agendas; • make group decisions; • value conflict.
