August 22nd, 23rd & 25th: The Together Leader

About Our Facilitator: Maia

Maia Heyck-Merlin has twenty years of experience juggling high-volume roles in results-oriented organizations. For the past 2 decades, she has dedicated her life to supporting teachers, school leaders, central offices, and nonprofits to prioritize, plan ahead, and execute efficiently — while maintaining flexibility, empathy, and humor. Her four publications have helped hundreds of educators, school leaders, operations team members and nonprofit staffers across the country.

Prior to founding The Together Group, she served as Chief Talent Officer and Chief Operating Officer for Achievement First. Previously, she worked at Teach For America in a variety of capacities, including Executive Director and Institute Director. Maia began as a corps member in South Louisiana where she taught fourth grade and was named Teacher of the Year at Delmont Elementary and selected as a Fulbright Memorial Fund recipient, and then was a founding fifth grade teacher at Children’s Charter School.

Maia holds a B.A. in Child Development from Tufts University, and she is proud graduate of a rural Maine public school system. Maia currently resides in the Washington, DC, area with her partner, their four medium-sized children, four unruly cats, and a lot of house plants. In her spare time, she finds joy in leading the local Girl Scout Troop, being a lazy triathlete, and vegan-ish cooking with as few pots and pans as possible.

Learning Objectives: Leaders will. . .

• • Create and communicate effective Priority Plans to your colleagues and team members

  • Consolidate your many calendars into one Comprehensive Calendar

  • Track your long-term To-Dos and ideas through a Later List

  • Create a Weekly Worksheet to align your professional and personal outcomes

  • Host a Weekly Meeting with Myself to celebrate and calibrate each week

  • Identify your own habits (the good and the bad), preference for paper or technology, and awareness of energy levels to support a strong organization system

Some of this information is also available on the class site created by the facilitor. You will access the class site during the session.

By 6:00pm Friday, August 5th, Complete your pre-class self-assessment survey.

• The survey should take you about 20 minutes.

• I will use your answers to help shape the class. This is not a test, so please be candid! Please note that a survey summary will be shared with your organization for trends analysis, but comments will not be attributed to individuals.

Read Together Leader Read all of Chapters 1, 3, and 4. Choose at least one of chapters 6, 7, and 8 to read.

Block time for each class and for follow-ups and implementation.

After class, participants often need time for reflection and to fully implement changes to their systems. We recommend blocking off at least 1 – 2 hours on your calendar – either in the evening or the following day.

Download the zip file of Templates and Resources.

We have tons of templates and other resources to download ahead of time! You can download here from Google Drive or Dropbox. Please note that these templates are for your personal use only and not for sharing or distribution within your school or district.

Get your tech ready.

• Download and test Zoom. We will be utilizing some of Zoom’s newest features, so please make sure that you have upgraded to the most recent version.

• Revisit our Tips for Setting Up for Class video. We’ll be using Zoom, Nearpod, and this class website, so we’ve put together some recommendations about how to set up your screen so you can seamlessly transition between tabs.