The following interview was conducted with Mr. David Kaplan, principal of Bogert Elementary School in Upper Saddle River. Bogert Elementary School houses three grades, third, fourth, and fifth. Each grade is made up of seven classes, which have, on average, 22 children each. Mr. Kaplan's responses are posted just as he spoke them to me.

Professional Development: So many teachers regard Professional Development as a ≥one shot deal≈. Do you have suggestions to embed Professional Development into the daily lives of teachers?

Professional Development is a pet peeve of mine. I know many districts are famous for one-shot deals, where a speaker comes in and preaches and then nothing is done with it. I think professional development needs to be meaningful and relevant for the teachers. I think teachers need to collaboratively decide what kind of professional development they would like. This way, teachers take ownership and build it into their daily lessons. Many teachers also complain that they have no time to implement the ideas. That≠s why I tried using our Professional Development Day in a productive way this year. We had Grant Wiggins come in and I tried to use faculty meeting time to brainstorm ideas of how to use this new knowledge. We also offered a summer work program based on how to implement his ideas in everyday teaching. Teachers need to be provided with opportunities to work on it, so they have a desire to use it, and go above and beyond a normal lesson.

Authentic Curriculum Connections: It seems many students find education disengaging. How can we increase student involvement in the curriculum process?

Get out of textbooks. The traditional method of reading and answering questions after reading doesn≠t cut it anymore. We need to start engaging students in things that interest them. I think involving the community as much as possible in a service-learning type of activity is the most beneficial thing we could do. The traditional doesn≠t work anymore. Groupwork exciting for children and needs to also be done more often. I know some people do not agree with this, but children have shorter attention spans today than they did years ago. We need to be aware of this and teach in a way that recognizes this and keeps kids going.

The New 3Rs?Research, Reflect and Retain: Many regard standardized testing as an ineffective measure of assessment. How can we change current assessment practices to better evaluate all student learning?

We need to stop focusing on every student in one large group, and start focusing on cohorts, for example, a low-achieving group of students or a high-achieveing group, and see how they improve from year to year or September to June. We need to review individual growth instead of an entire school≠s growth. We also need more detailed score reports, because saying a child is ≥proficient≈ isn≠t enough.

Community Connections across Contents: We often hear the criticism that students are not making connections across the curriculum. How can we restructure curriculum to prevent subject matter isolation?

Teachers need a strong understanding of their curriculum in order to see where there are ≥natural connections≈. Although you can try to force connections, for example reading Number the Stars while studying the Houlacoust, learning is more meaningful if there are natural connections. If teachers offer over-arching questions for children, like coming up with their own tasks, they take ownership and gain a sense of responsibility so they are willing to learn. Project-based learning outcomes have meaning in life and when they learn that way, they will never forget it.

Teamwork: A Personal Commitment: Teachers often feel isolated in their classrooms. How can we foster a more collegial atmosphere/environment?

The main thing that a school needs to have is a culture where everyone feels comfortable sharing ideas. At faculty meeting, I think teachers should share their ideas with each other and dissect each other≠s lessons. When teachers go to workshops, they should feel comfortable sharing each other≠s ideas so that we can all get better!

Building Citizenship Through Discipline: Positive Approaches to Traditional Procedures: Often district disciplinary policies promote the exclusion of students who break rules. How can we make our disciplinary policies more inclusive?

This may not sound too positive, but I think many times in order to punish kids we need to take things away from them. I do believe that you need to take each child and each situation case by case. We need to take the individual as well as the incident as separate entities and focus on what the best situation is for the child, but we need to teach them a lesson as well. The kids in this district get everything they want, so in order to punish them I feel something needs to be taken away.