Giving Effective Teachers the Opportunity to Be Effective

I read something this morning in the book The Quality School by Dr. William Glasser that really struck me. He was commenting on why magnet schools are successful--and I would add charter schools. He said the power of innovation is not that it increases the number of effective people, but that it gives effective people a better chance to demonstrate their effectiveness. He went on to say that effective teachers are effective in any school setting but they can be even more effective if they are in a setting where they are managed in the way they manage their students.

Being True to One's Core

For educators who truly want to make a difference it is critical that he or she act from one's own core rather than external mandates. To know one's core I would suggest that each educator buy a journal and then take the necessary time to answer the following questions:

• Why did I become an educator?
• What do I stand for as an educator?
• What do I think is important in education?
• What are the gifts that I bring to my work?
• What do I want my legacy as an educator to be?
• What can I do to remember my own heart?
• What do I value most?
• What do my strong interests and passions tell me about my purpose in life?
• What opinions do I have about education that I passionately care about?
• What is my vision of a quality school? What would I specifically be doing in such a school?
• What behaviors would I never engage in if I were in a quality school?
• What kinds of things would I say to all the different stakeholders in a quality school?

Ideas for these questions came from the book Inspiriting Quality in Your School by Robert A. Sullo and Failure Is Not An Option by Alan Blankstein.

Lessons from Dr. William Glasser

Dr. William Glasser is an internationally recognized psychiastrist who identified five innate needs we all have: 1) survival, 2) love/belonging, 3) power, 4) freedom/choice, and 5) fun that drive the behavior we choose. He has applied his theories to educational settings. One of his most well known successes where he applied his theories is with delinquent girls at the Ventura School in California. There are now a number of mainstream schools that have made a commitment to apply his theories in order to become a quality school.

The following books Dr. Glasser has authored are great resources that everyone who wants to make a difference for Hispanic learners will want to read:

• Choice Theory in the Classroom
• Schools Without Failure
• The Quality School
• The Quality School Teacher
• Every Student Can Succeed

For more information visit the website: http://wglasser.com/