Post #3

Post #3- Quotes from Chapters 1, 2 &3

"A distinctive responsibility of schools is to help young people develop the knowledge, skills, and understandings to contribute to society."  -pg. 12
     -I like this statement because it reminds me the overall goal we are trying to do as teachers.  We are preparing our students to contribute to society.  This is something we need to keep in mind throughout our teaching. 

"An effectively differentiated classroom is not simply one that seeks to balance the elements of student need, teacher response, and the role of curriculum and instruction.  Rather, it is a classroom in which it is clear that unless the three elements remain carefully calibrated to work in concert, each element will inevitably be reduced to less that it ought to be."  -pg. 12
     -Teachers need to remember that students needs, teacher response and curriculum all work together.  I can not just focus on one of these elements.  I must continually work to balance all of them in unison. 

"(teaching) It asks us to establish ties with each child-not to establish ties with all the children as though they were one student.  They are not."  -pg. 22
     -I need to remember that not all my students are the same and that I need to have an individual relationship with each and everyone of them. 

"The way we 'do school' often makes it easy to forget why teaching once seemed the best job in the world and makes it easy to lose sight of what we once hoped for."  -pg. 26
     -As a novice teacher I am really excited about becoming a teacher this fall.  However, I fear that I will be too worried about how I "do school" that I will lose my passion for the the career that I fell in love with. I hope that even when it gets tough I'll remember the reasons why I want to be a teacher.

"She (Meir) explains that her school's staff is not remarkable because they are more gifted than other teachers or because they have taught longer or because they went to more exclusive colleges.  They are remarkable because they live what they believe."  -pg. 26
     -I like this statement because it reminds me that I don't always have to be the best at something to make an impact or be good at something.  I just need to believe in something and let me actions go from there.