It is not so important to have all the answers as to be hungry for them.

We have students at the university say on a regular basis, "You're asking us to think and no one has ever done that in school."

We need teacher educators who regularly spend a great deal of time in classrooms so they have a deep understanding of where they students will teach.

Until a teacher learns to use elements like time, space, materials, groupings, and so forth flexibly, it's incredibly difficult to teach students as they need to be taught.

In differentiated classrooms, teachers begin where students are, not the front of a curriculum guide.

Differentiated Instruction is a teaching philosophy based on the premise that teachers should adapt instruction to student differences. Rather than marching students through the curriculum lockstep, teachers should modify their instruction to meet students' varying readiness levels, learning preferences, and interests. Therefore, the teacher proactively plans a variety of ways to 'get it' and express learning.

Important element is deeply understanding our curriculum. Most teachers know what they're going to cover this week or this term. Few of us can specify precisely what students should know, understand, and be able to do as a result of any particular learning experience or set of learning experiences. Without that specificity, alignment between content, assessment, and instruction is weak.