I think [testing] has had a profoundly problematic impact on student learning. It must seem to students that their worth as individuals is equivalent to their test score. The stress the high stakes culture has on teachers is also highly negative and must surely impact students in a negative way. It also de-professionalizes teachers because it encourages them to be script readers, followers of rigid schedules, and to disregard the needs of the people they teach in favor of the scripts and schedules.

We need to understand where are students are at any point during a unit - in other words, what each student actually knows, understands, and can do at a given time based on the content goals we've established.

Differentiation is simply a teacher attending to the learning needs of a particular student or small groups of students, rather than teaching a class as though all individuals in it were basically alike.

[Students] are exposed to many things the majority of their teachers didn't encounter until much later in their growing up years.

Interest refers to student’s affinity, curiosity, or passion for a particular topic or skill.

We can always gain more depth and breadth in our work [as educators]. There are always new discoveries to be made.

Teaching is a very habit-bound endeavor. We're unsettled by the unfamiliar. We're creatures of habit too.