From September 20, 2013

"I don't care if he's a black cat or a white cat. The question is...can he catch mice?'"

I heard a presenter at a meeting for transformation schools say this on Thursday and it has been stuck in my head ever since.  The presenter was illustrating that there are different ways in which teachers can be effective in growing students.  No one method or technique works all of the time or with every teacher or class of students.  At the end of the day, we have to do what works for our students, in our classrooms. I have always considered teaching as the most challenging sales job ever.  You have a product to deliver to a customer that is often convinced that they do not need it and are not interested. When you approach teaching as selling and adapt to the target audience when necessary, powerful things can happen.

There is little doubt that Greene Central is no stranger to change this year.  Much of our staff has changed, we are changing student attitudes, our bell schedule has changed and many other policies and practices are being examined and refined.  Along with this change I encourage you as teachers to consider your current teaching methods. What impact does your planning and actions in the classroom have on student learning? In short...are you catching all of the mice? If not, what could you try that might make you more effective for your students?  These are the questions that lead teachers toward being accomplished in Standard 5 of the NC Teacher Evaluation rubric, but more importantly, these are the ways in which we truly meet student needs. I challenge you to try one thing new next week and share it with a colleague, good or bad. Let's see just how many mice we can catch!