Someone once said, “Children are the future that we will never see.” This is a true and intriguing statement, but in thinking about it, the job of an educator becomes even more important. I believe that all children can learn. As educators it is our responsibility to find out how each child learns, make school safe for them, teaching them at their level by differentiating, and use the very best teaching skills we have. That is not an easy task, yet is the task that all educators have.

  • As an administrator my guiding force has always been, “The decisions made will always be in the best interests of the children. The outcome of that may mean that those decisions are not always what is best or convenient for the adults.” By adopting that philosophy, that meant that I had to make a lot of difficult decisions, but I knew if I kept to that philosophy, then each decision would be ok in the long run.

  • We need to teach using “best practices.” When using a program or strategy that is research-based, then it must be implemented with fidelity, or we cannot expect to see the results shown in the research. Too often we tinker with things and then wonder why it did not work.

  • We need to have the very best and the smartest people teaching children, working with families, and running schools, centers, or programs. And we need those same people to be energetic, creative, fun-loving, kind, know teaching pedagogy, and always be willing to learn themselves and try new things.

  • We need to use a 2-Gen approach and move entire families forward. Student outcomes plus parent/caregiver outcomes equal family outcomes.

  • I believe that through working with teachers, providing staff development, and working with administrators/leaders, coaching them, I can help make education more engaging, environments safer, and student and family outcomes even higher.