On January 4th, 2010 I had the pleasure of presenting a seminar on teaching strategies to over 150 teachers from Havana School District 126 in Havana, Illinois. The Superintendent, Dr. Mark Twomey, was there too meet me before the session started, he not only introduced me, he STAYED for the entire presentation. It’s not uncommon for an administrator to stop by and greet me, or to say a few words of motivation before I begin a presentation, but for an administrator to make the time to spend his entire day, on the first day back from holiday break, in a seminar… that is huge.
We spent the day discussing teaching strategies and ways to involve all learners in the classroom. At the end of the full day session, Dr. Twomey got up and endorsed the ideas I had spoken about. He expressed his desire to see the strategies that we covered actually being implemented in the classroom and was so passionate about that desire that he offered an incentive to his staff. He asked that teachers nominate each other and identify who they saw actually using strategies to differentiate instruction in their classrooms. He promised that he would have periodic drawings to recognize and reward those teachers for implementing strategies learned in the session.
I learned late last week that Dr. Twomey had just awarded a FREE day off to each of three outstanding teachers (one from each district campus). I’m not talking about extra prep time, or a sick day. This administrator awarded each of these outstanding teachers a day off, with pay, and no strings attached!
So often administrators fail to follow through, or simply don’t know how to support their teachers, or motivate them to be the best teachers that they can be. I could not pass up the opportunity to recognize Dr. Twomey and the tenacious support he offers his teachers and, in turn, the students of Havana School District 126.
Congratulations to Wendy Saylor, Music Teacher at New Central Elementary, Janet Barker, 5th Grade Teacher at Havana Middle School, and Barb Ramsey, Chemistry Teacher at Havana High School for their hard work and dedication to good teaching!
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