Teachers Make the Difference

My nephew starts his senior year of high school tomorrow. My daughter starts third grade in two weeks. My wife starts another year teaching second grade in nine days (she says she's not counting). These are my signals that the summer's end is near.

My wife, like teachers all over the country, has spent the past few weeks reviewing curriculum maps, planning reading and writing genre units, setting up classroom libraries, and covering bulletin boards with butcher paper. Good teachers know that getting the year off to a good start requires lots of planning, reflection, and elbow grease. 

When I watch my wife do this planning I am always amazed. Calendars get spread out, professional books become filled with sticky notes, and armfuls of children's literature comes off our office shelves. I am not sure the rest of the world knows how much it takes for teachers to get the year started (time by the way, that they are never paid for).

This planning and preparation makes such a difference in the ultimate success of our students. No matter what programs we use and lessons we follow, in the end, it is what we do in our classrooms that make the difference.  This is, of course the point of my book. But it was also driven home to me in an article I ran across by Jason Felch, Jason Song and Doug Smith from Saturday's Los Angeles Times.  The article started by saying:

The fifth-graders at Broadous Elementary School come from the same world — the poorest corner of the San Fernando Valley, a Pacoima neighborhood framed by two freeways where some have lost friends to the stray bullets of rival gangs.

Many are the sons and daughters of Latino immigrants who never finished high school, hard-working parents who keep a respectful distance and trust educators to do what's best.

The students study the same lessons. They are often on the same chapter of the same book.

Yet year after year, one fifth-grade class learns far more than the other down the hall. The difference has almost nothing to do with the size of the class, the students or their parents.

It's their teachers.

When I think of all of the amazing teachers I get to work with every year I know this is true. We have a profound effect on the lives of the children we work with. We are the biggest factor once students leave their homes and enter the open arms of our classrooms.

This has been on my mind much of this month—August being a busy time for DSC as we help schools begin to teach in the "DSC Way." As a matter of fact, I am flying to Chesapeake, VA tomorrow to work with the Title I schools there as they begin to kick off their year. My colleagues and I at DSC are proud to be helping teachers do the difficult thinking, planning, and reflection they need to get their classrooms up and running.

Good luck to you all!