Strong Teams Equal Strong Teachers

      After finishing our back to school training today, I finally got to focus on getting my room ready to start teaching.  As I walked down the hall my teammate asked me to come into his room to help him get his email account fixed.  This took about 20 minutes.  After finishing this, I helped another teammate hook up her printer.  Another ten minutes slipped away.  As I left her room she handed me a box of science materials she gathered for me during a summer training.  As I got back to my room my last teammate entered with our first months reading lesson/materials already copied. Even though I had lost time helping others, I got back a great deal in return.   My team is involved in a three-way switch leaving me as the only fifth grade teacher teaching alone, but I know that they would do anything to help me.  I hope they know that I would do the same for them. 
     It is unfortunate that not everyone is on a collegial team that helps each other.  I know a teacher that tries to pawn off her students during school so she can run off campus to smoke.  Another time I saw a team who was called into the principal's office and chewed out like reprobates for their catty fighting.  Still other teachers I know of spend their wholes day gripping about everything under the sun. These negative behaviors are counterproductive and make our jobs as teacher even more difficult. 
    We've all heard the phrase "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you."  The pinions of a great teams come from people who are looking out for the needs of their neighbors.  We all have our own individual strengths and we need to use these to help those who we work with. If you are on a team with slackers who don't help you at all, still give them what you can.  As teachers we have so many political, business, and parental enemies that we need to support our own.  As we strive to become helpful teammates that provide collegial sharing, we will find an awesome outcome.  Our lives will become richer and our students will benefit from better teaching.

(In the comments below, please tell me some shout outs about your teammates.  What have they done for  you?  Why are they so awesome?)