Teacher Appreciation

“Most of us end up with no more than five or six people who remember us. Teachers have thousands of people who remember them for the rest of their lives.”    ~ Andy Rooney

May 6^th – 10^th has been designated as Teacher Appreciation Week, and while teachers everywhere deserve our thanks and appreciation all year long, the staff at the Institute wanted to take this opportunity to send a shout out to the innovative teachers who are involved in the Personalized Learning Initiative. These educators, and the districts they are employed by, are pioneers, engaged in an effort to truly transform the education system. They are working to gain an understanding of each student and then focusing on changes to learning and teaching that ensure each student gets the tools, supports and guidance they need, when they need it.

This is hard, unfamiliar and often uncomfortable work. Examining old assumptions about education and the delivery system and helping to design a new one is really hard work. This has led them to a very different, but much more powerful way of teaching. Yet, others often don’t understand what it is they’re doing, which can be uncomfortable.

However, every teacher we have talked to who is involved in the Initiative tells us that they would not want to go back to their legacy teaching practices. As hard as this work is, the results they are seeing in their students – academically, emotionally and behaviorally – reinforce to them that they are doing the right thing.

So we applaud your efforts and thank you for being courageous, for being willing to take this leap with us and try something different: To get learning right the first time, every time.

THANK YOU!

Jim               Kathy            Jean             Kim

Carolyn      Teresa           Laura           Diane