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Intentional team leaders make learning possible.

District priorities move forward when schools develop teachers, coaches and administrators to lead teams with intention, skill and an unwavering belief in students and each other.

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Elisa MacDonald

Two-time bestselling author, consultant, and always a teacher at heart.

Some think of me as"The Team Lady."

But my work is much more than teaching educators how to facilitate meetings. 

 

I partner with districts, schools and organizations to build leadership capacity, helping teams advance priorities and achieve lasting improvements.​​

Specializing in:

teacher
leadership

What if your team leaders could skillfully mobilize others to advance instructional priorities?

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Team
Collaboration

Imagine the impact your teams could have with greater focus, trust and communication. 

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Leadership
Coaching

There's no limit to your growth with a partner who believes in you, challenges you and laughs with you.

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Strategic Planning

What could you accomplish if your school aligned around a vision grounded in shared values that guided all decisions?

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What District and School Leaders Say

Bestselling Books
by Elisa MacDonald

What Highly-Respected Authors Say

Jim Knight

Author of Instructional Coaching 

"Written in a clear, practitioner-friendly style, this book provides team leaders with an array of useful strategies to address common team hurdles and realize the promise of powerful, collaborative learning."

The Core Framework in Elisa's Work

The MacDonald Team Matrix ™

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MacDonald, Elisa B. (2023) Intentional moves: How skillful team leaders impact learning. Corwin. (Original publication (2013) in The Skillful Team Leader: A resource for overcoming hurdles to professional learning to student achievement.)
 


I remember driving into work about to lead school coaches in our monthly PD about how to best support our teacher-led teams when a question that had been nagging me for years finally made sense.

How is it a team can get along and get things done, but still have little to no impact on teacher practice and student learning?



 

For more free resources subscribe to my popular blog.
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"SMA-A-HRTIE Goal" Checklist!
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I have trained and developed thousands of teacher leaders, coaches and administrators in skillful and intentional leadership to get their teams to Quadrant One (high function, high impact) on

The MacDonald Team Matrix™ .

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What Teacher Leaders Say:

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