There is a comedian on television who jokes about putting together a difficult, five-thousand-piece jigsaw puzzle: It was all sky! Too much talk about standards, and not enough of the kind of professional development that makes change at the classroom level is like putting together a jigsaw puzzle of the sky. It takes an impossible amount of time and it doesn't add up to much.

Shelley Harwayne

When we reflect on why things work for a few students, we can begin to formulate a stance toward all students, a stance based on our commitment to respect the depth of their potential and the dignity of their person.

Robert Fried

This became a credo of mine: attempt the impossible in order to improve your work.

Bette Davis

The only man who behaves sensibly is my tailor; he takes my measurements anew every time he sees me, while all the rest go on with their old measurements and expect me to fit them.

George Bernard Shaw

Success and failure are both greatly overrated. But failure gives you a whole lot more to talk about.

Hildegard Knef

Ordering a child to write a CTB/McGraw-Hill writing prompt in the narrative, informative, or persuasive mode is like commanding a pregnant woman to give birth to a red-headed child.

Susan Ohanian (with apologies to Carl Sandburg)

True genius resides in the capacity for evaluation of uncertain, hazardous, and conflicting information.

Winston Churchill

The teachers I work with continue to assess our thinking on assessment. One question that guides our conversation is "Who will learn something if we do this?"

Joanne Hindley Salch

One test of the correctness of educational procedure is the happiness of the child.

Maria Montessori