"Students who are loved at home, come to school to learn, and students who aren't, come to school to be loved"
-Nicholas A. Ferroni
Reflection
Everyone who works in a school wants the best for the students they interact with. Unfortunately, not all students enter the building with the same life experiences. It is up to the school community to establish a trusted, safe environment for all students to succeed. I believe this quote expresses the sentiment that all members of the school community need to be actively engaged in building positive, working relationships within the school environment.
"To be a teacher you must be a prophet - because you are trying to prepare people for a world thirty to fifty years into the future."
-Gordon Brown
Reflection
It is important for every member of the school community to remember that our jobs do not create instantaneous results. While we live in a world where immediate gratification has become the societal expectation, our work as educators is to prepare our students for the world they face as adults. Every decision we make should keep the students' best interests in mind as we attempt to prepare them for the world that may be.
"School improvement is most surely and thoroughly achieved when teachers engage in frequent, continuous and increasingly concrete talk about teaching practices [...] capable of distinguishing one practice and it's virtue for another."
-Judith Warren Little
Reflection
An effective teacher must always remain current in his/her craft. All members of the school community should constantly seek to improve their teaching practices. Reflective practitioners look at what they have done and seek ways to improve upon it. Good leaders should encourage and expect all staff members to collaborate with one another so as to improve the education of all members in the school environment.