Small Group Processes...

After doing the research, one thing I have noticed about our staff meetings is that they are rarely effective! In our school we have separate staff rooms for the faculties and we have become teams. Of course, there are other teams that have been formed within the staff members, such as the executive, literacy and numeracy committees, etc. In most of our staff meetings, our principal places us into mixed faculty groups and tries to encourage discussion and interaction with people we sometimes never see except in the meetings. Personally, I am not 100% confident in proposing ideas about anything in front of people I barely know. There is the fear that I'll be shut down because I am a Newly Appointed Teacher; I have only just started to feel comfortable openly discussing issues within my faculty. I'm not the only one to experience these feelings, and I believe our staff meetings would be a lot more productive if we were grouped either within faculties or allowed a choice. That way, formation of natural teams is enabled and meetings are more productive.