Once upon a time...

Once upon a time students came to school to learn. They were thankful for the opportunity school presented them. They understood that what they learned at school would determine much of their potential future. Those who learned more had more options for their future. Those who didn't...well, they didn't.

Somewhere along the line, though, things changed. Students kept coming to school, but it seemed that fewer students understood how imprtant their time spent in the schools was to their development. Students came to school with private, individual agendas, often at odds with the agendas of the teachers and the schools.

What was a teacher to do?

Times change. They will continue to change. Like any business or service provider, if we as teachers and schools want to remain viable and vital both for our students and to our communities, we must change as well.

This doesn't mean any drastic life-altering changes that make us different people - even though this can happen over time. Rather, the changes we make are primarily in how we deliver content and engage students. We can't assume that every student in our classes will just automatically want to be there and want to learn. Occasionally (and sometimes quite often depending on your school) you'll need to convince your students the value of what you're teaching them.

Why don't they understand this?

This is difficult for many of us as teachers to accept. We've seen the value of education. We personally had positive education experiences in our lives. We have even chosen to spend most of our adult lives in an educational setting of one kind or another!

Simply stated, we love school!

But our students might not. Does that mean we should allow these young people to fall by the wayside and become marginal members of their learning community?

No. Just as I won't let my daughters watch too much TV or eat too much junk food, I won't let my students waste their potential and limit their futures.

I see this as my duty as an educator. It bears repeating.

I won't allow my students to waste their potential.

Easy to say, isn't it? How exactly do we go about doing this? If a student is dead set on wasting their time in my classroom, how do I convince them otherwise?

That is the crux of the question. And that is the basis of this organization.

Helping Teachers Grow!

Helping Teachers Grow! works to provide valuable tools that enable all teachers to handle a variety of difficult learning situations. All of us who remain teachers past our first couple of years have developed systems and methods designed to facilitate our students' learning. HTG! helps distribute, teach, and reinforce these skills in other teachers.

We know teaching can be a struggle. We want to help you with your struggles. We want to support the individual teacher, and in so doing, support the teaching profession as a whole. We need strong teachers. We need to grow beginning teachers. We need to build the foundation of our educational system.

We are in this together.

Shall we begin?