Teacher Team Newsletter: How Teams Use Internal Communication to Stay Aligned and Move Faster

Most teacher teams communicate well in their meetings and poorly between them. Shared decisions evaporate. The curriculum adjustment agreed on Monday is not implemented the same way by every team member on Tuesday. The assessment modification from last week gets revisited from scratch three weeks later because nobody wrote it down.

A brief team newsletter, written in the last five minutes of each meeting, prevents all of this.

What to Include

Three things: what the team decided this week, what each person is trying before the next meeting, and the one question the team will start with at the next meeting. That is the entire content of a teacher team newsletter. Under 200 words, written while the team is still in the room together.

The Decisions Section

Name the decisions in plain language with enough specificity that a team member can remember exactly what was agreed without having been in the meeting. "We decided to move the fraction unit assessment to March 14 and add one question on equivalent fractions" is a decision. "We are going to adjust the assessment" is not.

If the decision affects parents or students, the decisions section is also a prompt for any communication that needs to go out.

The Actions Section

Name the person, the action, and the timeframe. "Keisha will pilot the graphic organizer in her period 2 class and bring three student examples to Thursday's meeting." Not "someone will try the graphic organizer." Named actions create accountability without requiring a separate accountability conversation.

The Opening Question

Naming the first question for the next meeting at the end of the current meeting serves two purposes. It gives team members something to think about between meetings. And it makes the start of the next meeting efficient, because everyone knows what they are there to discuss.

Making the Habit Stick

The team newsletter fails if it becomes an afterthought. It works when it is the final agenda item at every team meeting. Build five minutes into the meeting structure for it. The person whose turn it is to write that month types it while the team is still present. Everyone confirms it is accurate. It goes out before anyone leaves the room.