tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6114620616478146859.post6918167895939064468..comments2024-01-04T04:19:56.443-06:00Comments on Building Strong Schools to Strengthen Student Outcomes: Rethinking School Improvement and Success, Staff Development and Accountability, and Students' Academic and Behavioral ProficiencyDr. Howie Knoff/Project ACHIEVEhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00840424899738519344noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6114620616478146859.post-14067663120349311552016-07-31T09:37:28.354-05:002016-07-31T09:37:28.354-05:00Everything you say here hits the nail on the head!...Everything you say here hits the nail on the head! I know the research is right and that these systems do not work. I know because I lived it! Do you know that for 24 years as a teacher, I perfected my craft for each individual! I resented being told exactly what to do when I knew that what I was going to do was know my children, their families, their needs, and develop an entirely new program for every single child I was blessed to teach. <br />So how do we fix the fact that there are major communication errors.... Maybe not with the ideas of the programs, but rather the people that interpret the programs for our teachers. Why can't we just focus our attention on continuing to empower our teachers from college on how to think for themselves. Why can't we teach these professionals to research for themselves, plan programs for their classrooms, and hold them responsible for being able to justify why they made the choices they make. For the last 4 years, I attempted to do just that and with reasonable success the first 2 1/2 years. I say reasonable because the old ideology always sneaks back in. We need to focus on autonomy and accountability of schools. Teachers are trained individuals! They need someone to continue their education by teaching them how to think, plan, react, and self evaluate for the children they are responsible for from year to year. We need administrators that can think for their school and lead their teachers to greatness by empowering them to do what they went to college to do- teach and reach children and make communities prosper with knowledge. <br />It takes communication, caring, cooperation, consideration and creativity to empower people to empower our children. It takes none of the above things to do what someone else tells us to do based on their interpretation of laws. Patricia M. Stromhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14388120619625620095noreply@blogger.com