Preparing Students for Testing
Teacher: I was doing staff development in Oceanside Unified, which is … the district that I work in. And at the end of a Year 1 session, I had a teacher approach me, and she said, “Dinah I just want to thank you for giving me my soul back.” And I thought that was a rather funny thing to say, but I think what she says is what many teachers feel. So often our staff development and our scope and sequences and our textbooks and everything that we’re handed take us away from what’s important. And CGI gives us that back: paying attention to kids, listening to kids, asking kids what they think. And to her, that was giving her her soul back. It was reminding her of why she became a teacher and what mattered most about being a teacher. So that’s a precious story that I’ve held onto forever in time. I know I didn’t give her her soul back; CGI did, but … it felt good to be a part of that.
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