THE CENTER FOR STRENGTHENING THE TEACHING PROFESSION
The highest performing schools operate by a “collective leadership” that involves ... parents and teachers in decision-making. ~ Karen Seashore Louis, 2010
The highest performing schools operate by a “collective leadership” that involves ... parents and teachers in decision-making. ~ Karen Seashore Louis, 2010
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The writing shared in these two volumes is insightful, reflective, and thought-provoking. These teachers have made valuable contributions to our profession. Click on an image to view Teachers' Voices.
The school year moves along, you think you have a handle on the next math lesson, but the behavior of your students is exhausting. You wonder if you will make it as a teacher after this year. Sometimes you wonder about tomorrow! Why is it that other classes seem to know how to behave and your class management feels like a disaster? Read more »
They arrived much as they have for any other ProCert meeting. Someone plops down an opened box of Oreos, others make last minute cell-phone calls. They sign in with signatures that reflect the joys or frustrations of their teaching day. A new mom rushes out to pump for breast-milk one more time before the session begins just as the volleyball coach rushes in from practice. Two single teachers flirt a bit as others use sub-sandwich bags and water bottles to define personal space in the room. Candidates quickly organize the assignments they had intended to organize yesterday and set their piles of evidence and notebook materials under chairs. Everything seems familiar and routine. Read more »
As other college students learned to play racket ball or joined a sorority, I was driven by a need to leave campus and get into the city, that city being Philadelphia. Part of the pull to the people was probably a longing to make up for lost time, a longing to understand who America was, to know the people I had been so loosely connected to living as an ex-patriot in Europe for most of my childhood. And so I made daily treks my junior and senior years of college from my nice little women's college in Bryn Mawr to the University of Pennsylvania located in the heart of downtown Philadelphia. From there, I often continued on to a church in the heart of one of the worst ghettoes in North Philadelphia or one of several schools. Read more »
I didn't appreciate all the things my parents had imparted to me until I began to have my own children. Suddenly it was important to think about what I wanted them to know and be able to do. There were other things I wanted them to avoid like the plague. With my first son, we were careful to talk to him in the womb and read to him regularly, everything from children's books to passages from the Bible. Growing up, language acquisition was a critical skill. My parents read to us as small children. They read for hours to themselves and encouraged us to do the same. To be honest, as one son became a toddler and the other was born, I could think of no skill greater than that of communication in both the written and spoken word. Read more »
Our family is headed to a party to celebrate the 160th anniversary of the liberation of the Republic of Liberia. As my daughter heads out the door, I call her back, "What are you wearing?" I ask with a note of frustration in my voice. She has on a bright orange pair of men's basketball shorts, a blue t-shirt, a black headband with skulls-and-crossbones and a green pair of flip-flops. I think she's covered just about every color of the rainbow. Read more »
Educator and author, David Funk (2002), asks a question critical for all teachers to answer: Read more »
Teachers wonder why they're so drained at day's end. Perhaps, they're thinking not only for themselves all day, but for 25 others, as well.
Visit the Research & Data center to view CSTP resources by topic.
