It’s fitting that during Teacher Appreciation Week we acknowledge an undeniable truth in education: When it comes to advancing student learning, the most important thing a school system can do is put an effective teacher in the classroom.
Category: Priority Notices
Honoring our effective teachers
It’s Teacher Appreciation Week, and two Maine teachers are receiving prestigious honors this season for the important and noble work they do each day for our children.
Change, for the better
Done the right way at these two schools, staff members and students have become convinced of the value of hard changes.
Change is hard. But it’s worthwhile when done right.
That’s a message that rang true recently at two schools I visited at opposite ends of Maine as part of my statewide listening tour.
There’s plenty to learn from Sumner
Landing on the School Improvement Grant eligibility list can be difficult news to accept. It can also be an important opportunity.
Ten communities across Maine this week are digesting the news that their local schools have landed on a list of 10 schools eligible for federal improvement grants.
This can undoubtedly be difficult news to accept, but it’s important not to dwell so much on how a school landed on the improvement list. It’s more important to focus on the future.
A meaningful change
Shifting Maine to the Common Core state standards is the right change to make for our children. And it’s a change that will last.
When you bring up academic standards with a group of Maine teachers, one of the most common requests you’ll get is a simple one: pick a set of standards and stick with them.
Promising signs from Washington
I traveled to the nation’s capital earlier this week, and I liked what I heard.
It’s not every day one can travel to Washington, D.C., on official business and hear encouraging news about education policy changes coming down the pike.
But my recent meeting in the nation’s capital with state education chiefs from across the country defied expectations.
What’s getting in the way?
As I tour the state, I wonder what’s getting in the way of letting educators do what’s best for their students.
Fred Woodman has done it all in his career in Maine schools.
He’s been a teacher, principal and superintendent. Now, he’s director of the United Technologies Center in Bangor, which I visited Thursday on the second day of my statewide listening tour.
Our listening tour gets off to a great start
Parents, teachers, and superintendents offered good feedback on how the Maine DOE can help them make schools better. That, and a personalized tour by students at Greene Central School.
What a great start to the Listening Tour yesterday.
Continue reading “Our listening tour gets off to a great start”
Archive
For more stories, please visit the Maine DOE archives.
