New School Year Begins With Institute For Teachers
by Michelle Accorso

Often when we think about children’s heroes, we think of a basketball player or actor, and usually we are right in our assumptions. However, although pseudo-celebrities may pose as decent role models, the true leaders kids often look up to and actually remember into adulthood will probably never appear on television. These leaders are teachers.

On a recent September morning at the 100-year-old building of Public School 77 in Brooklyn, Principal Ivy Sterling held one of three Institute training days in the auditorium to welcome teachers back for a “focused, energetic and successful school year.” The Institute mirrored others held around the city to train teachers and prepare them for the beginning of the academic year. The theme was Full Steam Ahead, a take-off from the book by Ken Blanchard and Jesse Stoner, and emphasized not only working together “to move our ship out of port but to bring it back in safely,” said Sterling.

Guest speaker Dr. Charlotte K. Frank, former NYS Regent and Senior Vice President of McGraw-Hill, brought an interesting perspective to the morning meeting when she displayed an old Life magazine cover titled Teachers Are Appallingly Ill-Equipped for the Job. The group was shocked to learn that the article, dating to 1950, encompassed many of the problems facing teachers and students today.

Dr. Frank shared an anecdote with the group about her teaching days at Lehman College. In a class full of hopeful teachers, Frank placed before them a test commonly given to 5th graders. When she took it home to grade, she learned that only half the class passed the test. “You cannot teach what you do not know,” Frank stated adding, “You cannot supervise what you do not know.” Dr. Frank underscored the importance of educators having a clear, collective vision that will translate the standards clearly for the future success of students. She also underscored the importance of teaching material in a meaningful context for the learner, sharing an example about teaching her non-English speaking aunt to speak and read English.

Several hundred teachers in attendance over three days at PS 77 will have workshops on such varied topics as homework, behavior, preparing students for the future and literacy and math preparation. As Principal Sterling emphatically stated, the three R’s are Relevance, Relationships & Rigor.

It is clear from this introductory session: Ensuring that teachers “teach what they know” is the new leit-motif of the 2003-2004 school year.

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