Learning a lot...

I've now been in this position for about a month. One thing I've learned is: People in East Tennessee CARE about supporting quality teaching.

Just a short listing of all the organizations that care about supporting quality teaching (there are many more, but this is just a sampling):
- Public School Forum of East Tennessee
- Hamblen County P-16 Council (other P-16 Councils around the region exist)
- Blount Education Initiative
- Education Consumers Foundation
- Niswonger Foundation
- ALL THE SCHOOL SYSTEMS
- Leadership Knoxville (and organizations like it)
- Chambers of Commerce (the business community)
- Eastman Chemical Foundation
- Cornerstone Foundation
- PTA (local, regional, and state)
- The Literacy Imperative
- The Dollywood Foundation
- Tennessee Education Association (and local affiliates)
- Youth Action Council in Knoxville
- Public Education Foundations (Great Schools Partnership in Knoxville, Oak Ridge Education Foundation, Maryville City Schools Foundation, etc.)
- THE LIST COULD GO ON.
I'm hoping to compile all these groups with websites and contact information and link off of the United Way of Greater Knoxville website. Stay tuned to that.

Do YOU know of anyone that should be included? E-mail me! luterg@unitedwayknox.org

As I think about moving forward with this community-driven project to support teachers, I'm thinking of having people consider 3 things:

1. What are some successes in supporting teachers that you want to share?

2. What is it that we (as a community) want from teachers?

3. What is it that we (as a community) can give back to a school to make it successful?

If you want to get involved, comment! Contact me! We hope many people get involved in this discussion.

Let's hope this gray sky goes away. I'm ready for spring!