Article Advise

submitted: Jul 14th 2008 | by: DeborahWalker,M.Ed. | Total views: 1 | Word Count: 608 | |

Did anyone tell you how many meetings you'd be responsible for as a special education teacher? Probably not. Meeting facilitation is a learned skill and in order to have a great meeting, there are a few things do to beforehand.

1. Depending on where you live, the documents that need to be prepared for the meeting will vary. Whatever the required paperwork is for your state, you will need to prepare it in advance. Make sure to make copies for the other team members to use at the meeting.

2. Contact each team member a few days before the meeting as a reminder and confirmation of the meeting. Double check that each member has his or her contribution to the meeting ready to go--including copies.

3. The next step is getting your agenda ready. An agenda will let everyone know exactly what will be covered in the meeting and helps you set the course to keep the meeting on track and ending on time.

4. Make sure you know (and reserve) your meeting location. If your school is like mine, space is at a premium. Be creative. Can you use the art room at a certain time? The library? The 4th grade classroom? Nearly any space in the building is a potential meeting place so long as confidentiality can be maintained.

5. By this point, you've done everything you can to make sure the meeting will be professional and well-run. In other words, the documents are ready to go, confirmations have been made and the location has been reserved. When I anticipate that the meeting might devolve into tears, yelling and personal attacks, I state at the start of the meeting that the ground rules are being respectful, waiting to speak one at a time, and sticking to the agenda. I also strongly state that no personal attacks are permitted. If any of these ground rules are broken and the meeting gets out of hand, I will adjourn the meeting. Nobody on the team is compelled to sit in silence and be on the receiving end of another aggressive team member. They can get up and walk out.

6. The very last part of your preparation has come. This is a very obvious step, but sometimes gets overlooked. Let the office staff know the location of the meeting. Oh, and don't forget your box of Kleenex.

7. As people filter in, have them sign the attendance sheet. Acknowledge everyone.

8. Do introductions if you need to and then move on to the agenda.

9. Make sure each member has an agenda. Remind the group of the end time, and ground rules. Now is the time to let the group know if one of the team members will be leaving early.

10. Near the end of the meeting, with maybe 10 or 15 minutes left, start steering the meeting to a natural stopping point and let the team know time is running out. You may need to schedule another meeting if you can't get to every topic in your allotted time.

11. Thank everyone for coming and make sure to get all of the copies of draft documents back and the signatures you need before people walk out the door.

12. Hopefully, your preparation paid off and the meeting was efficient and productive. If you encountered some bumps, just remember not to be too hard on yourself. Nobody has perfect meetings all of the time. Moderating a meeting well takes practice. You'll get better at this the more meetings you have.

13. Make sure you get the meeting minutes back from the person who took them for you before you leave.

About the Author

Deborah Walker teaches special education to middle-schoolers with significant disabilities. She lives in northern New Hampshire with her husband, middle-schoolers, 2 dogs and 3 cats.. Go to Special-Education-Teacher-Resources.com for more great resources.

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