Frank McCourt, author of Angela's Ashes and 'Tis,
and former English teacher.
"Teachers are heroes who deserve more of a voice in education issues. . . . Kids have no vote; that's why they are forgotten after Election Day ."
"You learn a lot about yourself when you teach.
Kids demand honesty."
Melinda Marsh, Wisconsin Coop Ed Service Agency.
"Think about what our society values and how society rewards.
If we try to teach kids something not valued by their culture, they may not be motivated to learn it
because everyone needs social affirmation."
"Eighty percent of today's students are visual-kinesthetic
learners so it is vitally important to illustrate, visually, whatever you want students to remember ."
Greg Budzien, Wisconsin high school instructor.
"Research shows that if students are low level writers when they enter college, it is almost impossible to
remediate them. That is why it is so important to teach revision-editing skills to high school writers."
Marsha Krabbenhoft, Omaha, NE, teacher.
"Reading scores on standardized tests go down from eighth to eleventh grade because too many teachers only
assign reading; we do not teach it. Content area teachers must also teach reading strategies.
Most teachers focus too much on after-reading responses when we really need to focus more on pre-reading strategies if we want to teach
our children to read and to comprehend what they read."
Janet Allen, Florida teacher-author.
"Reading and writing should float on a sea of talk."
Lucy McCormick Calkins, teacher-author.
"We're a nation where words matter; ours is a literate life.
But too many children don't know the value of literacy because they are not being
listened to. Literacy begins with a gesture, a noticing. . . . Children's
voices are no longer welcome in a standardized world of education. Will we have the courage to object?
In our hurry to do everything for everyone, we must hold tight to what is important."
Marilyn Whirry, 2000 Teacher of the Year.
"To see the world is bigger than we are, to see that we must work to
preserve and to change it, is our teacher gift and our teacher
responsibility."