Grade-Level Team Leaders and the

Fifth Grade Lead Teacher and Grade-Level Team Leader Bridget Billups pauses for a photo with Emily, who is working on a narrative writing piece.

Grade-Level Team Leaders and the power of collaboration

By Nicole Fash, Director of Marketing and Communications

At Trinity, Grade-Level Team Leaders (GLTLs) work directly with the Academic Leadership Team and are responsible for supporting effective teacher collaboration to meet schoolwide and grade-level goals. While each grade has always had a point person, the more formal team leader role was created in 2019 to grow effective teaming practices and deepen grade-level solidarity.

GLTLs must be lead teachers and demonstrate a special passion for teamwork and problem solving. These individuals, who manage logistics and responsibilities for their grade level, are selected after an important application and interview process. “There is much to do and so little time, yet individuals who want to learn and to contribute more to their team and their school is the strongest indicator of a Grade-Level Team Leader,” says Director of Teaching and Learning Jill Gough, who is on the selection committee.

At Trinity, learning is our focus, collaboration is our culture, and results guide our decisions. GLTLs take these values to heart and keep the student at the center of everything they do. Team leaders facilitate the development of specific goals and action steps for their grade-level team while collaborating with other grade-level leaders to share and discuss progress, successes, and challenges, and to problemsolve solutions around curriculum, assessment, classroom management, and pedagogy. They participate in regular team-leader meetings and support structures and norms for collaboration, decision-making, and team meetings. They lead their grade’s common assessment development and analysis of student data and work with teaching teams to plan for instruction differentiation based on student data. They also coordinate peer observations to support teacher learning around individual and team goals. “As a Grade-Level Team Leader, I have the opportunity to support the members of my team and shape the curriculum and our teaching practices to best meet the needs of our students,” says Pre-K Lead Teacher April Patton, who started at Trinity in 2012 and is serving her fifth year as the point person for Pre-K and her second year as the GLTL. “Being in a position to support and serve others is extremely fulfilling, and it’s an honor to serve the Trinity community in this way.” The team leaders’ efforts have resulted in an increased collaboration among their grade level and across the School. These leaders grow their management skills, especially around organization, conflict, and facilitation. And through teamwork, all teachers receive a deeper understanding of whole-school instructional, programmatic, and academic goals. “I wanted to become a Grade-Level Team Leader to serve my team and to gain a new type of leadership experience,” says Fifth Grade Lead Teacher Bridget Billups, who started at Trinity in 2016 and is serving her first year as a GLTL. “The best part is having the opportunity to work closely with the women of the Academic Leadership Team and the other team leaders. It is a unique group in the sense that we represent different grade levels and students of all ages. I love learning about the other grade levels: hearing their perspectives, learning about their challenges, and celebrating their successes.”

During the onset of the pandemic, when strong leadership and teamwork were more important than ever, Trinity’s nine 2019–20 GLTLs stepped up to the challenge. A special thank you to the following teachers who served during the 2019–20 school year, many of whom renewed their role this school year: Early Learners Lead Teacher Gale Weber, Pre-K Lead Teacher April Patton, Kindergarten Lead Teacher Monique Hickey, First Grade Lead Teacher Abbie Shaw, Former Second Grade Lead Teacher Grace Riley ’03, Former Third Grade Lead Teacher (now Admissions and Enrollment Management Assistant) Lauren Darden, Fourth Grade Lead Teacher Laura Jannausch, Fifth Grade Lead Teacher Laura McRae, and Sixth Grade Lead Teacher Kristi Story. “The shelter-in-place order highlighted the importance of the Grade-Level Team Leaders work and contribution,” says Jill. “It is so easy to become siloed at your grade level and miss the important work of the entire school. While the work was important and rich prior to March, the Grade-Level Team Leader work exponentially increased during the last 10 weeks of school. The division heads, director of curriculum, and I met with these leaders weekly to listen and support learning and teaching. In turn, each team leader met with the grade-level team to keep focus on high-quality tasks and multi-sensory learning experiences so that school was in session even though the building was closed. Speaking on behalf of the Academic Leadership Team, we could not have done our work without their excellent leadership, and we are grateful for them, their effort, and their partnership with us.”

2020–2021 Grade-Level Team Leaders Early Learners: Gale Weber Pre-K: April Patton Kindergarten: Monique Hickey First Grade: Ali Avery Second Grade: Rachel Walker ’06 Third Grade: Caroline Dwight Fourth Grade: Laura Jannausch Fifth Grade: Bridget Billups Sixth Grade: Kristi Story