The following are Bob's (Social Studies/English supervisor) response.

Q:  Often Professional Development has not been long term, how can we embed PD into the daily lives of teachers.

A:  PD must be ongoing and productive.  PD must monitor the needs of the teacher, i.e.:  classroom management strategies.  Also, districts must send teachers to workshops outside the district that may enhance their teaching.

Q:  Many times students do not find education meaningful and relevant to their lives, how can we change this mentality?

A:  Why should kids be left out of the decision making process.  They should be involved in curriculum possibly via student council.

Q:  Currently many people regard standardized testing as an ineffective tool for assessment.  How can we change assessment to be more effective and to better evaluate all students?

A:  Standardized tests should be less important, if you take out standardized tests than they must be replaced with an alternative assessment.  I do not feel that they can be entirely eliminated.  There has to be a national standard.

Q:  Criticism that students are not making connections across curriculum, how can we restructure curriculum to prevent disciplinary isolation?

A:  Interdisciplinary curriculum planning should be implemented in all schools.  Unfortunately it is not, because it takes planning that many schools are not willing to work into their daily schedule.  The links between social studies and English could easily be combined to effectively teach.

Q:  Teachers often feel isolated, how can we foster a more collegial environment in schools?

A:  Let teachers teach each other at workshops, in-service days.  It helps bridge the gap, it is difficult in HS because many teachers feel that they are elitist snobs and do not relay on each other.

Q:  Often district discipline promotes the exclusion of students who break the rules, how can we make the discipline policies more inclusive?

A:  Discipline needs to be handled by the teacher and not passed onto the administration.  Teachers should try to deal with problems in the classroom, before referring students.