“Fortune favors the prepared mind.” — Louis Pasteur In less than a month millions of children will begin the 2014-15 school year. They start a new academic year in which every child will be instructed and assessed and expected to … Continue reading
School’s Pre-Season Is A Lost Preparation
Teacher Talent: Professional Coaching Required
“Do you want to know why you lost today?” Sam Mussabini asked of Harold Abrahams regarding Abrahams’ loss in the 100 meter dash. “You’re over striding. Now these coins represent the steps in your sprint.” Mussabini pushed the coins together. … Continue reading
Teacher Talent: The New Professional Teacher
The new professional teacher is not the teacher of your youth or your mother’s or grandmother’s. The words “new” and “professional” are used with a reason; the teacher of tomorrow will be a new breed. I lay back on an … Continue reading
Teacher Quality: You Don’t Have to Settle for What You Get
Thelma and Louise taught us, “You get what you settle for.” They were discussing life’s ups and downs with men and money. Getting is one thing. Settling is yet another. If you get what you settle for, it is necessary … Continue reading
Summer – School’s Second Season to Achieve a Perfect School Year
June, July and August traditionally are down time for scho0ls. Summer vacation! “Schools out! Schools out! Teachers let the monkeys out.” Traditionally, classrooms go dark in the summer and teachers either assume summertime, non-school employment or settle into “kicked back … Continue reading
Adapting and Adopting: Necessary Skills When School Leadership Changes
The shade of influence cast by the person at the top of the school district’s organizational chart is wide and deep. It does not matter if the organization is an immense urban school district or a compact rural district. The … Continue reading
Teacher Talent: Egads! Only 7% of Teacher Prep Programs Earn High Quality Status
I like James Durbin’s commentary on a life’s many turns. “It is what it is. It is what you make it.” Durbin is a singer-song writer living and succeeding with Tourette syndrome. A bad public image is what it is. … Continue reading
The School Year: A Purchase of Time Not Achievement
Right now, discard everything you have been told about why a school calendar is nine months long. Forget being told that the school calendar is matched to an agrarian lifestyle when children were needed as farm labor in the summer … Continue reading
Teacher Talent: Recognize and Honor Franchise Teachers
Franchise teachers? They exist, but I cannot ever recall a public conversation about a franchise teacher. We accept that professional sports, high powered businesses, and medical and tech enterprises have franchise employees. The Green Bay Packers win or lose on … Continue reading
Education Needs the Best and Brightest To Be Teachers
Creating a new generation of talented, professional teachers begins when today’s teachers and counselors say to the most academically advanced children in each classroom and school, “You should be a teacher.” Implanting a positive conception of teaching as a profession … Continue reading