Put 50 kids in a classroom, add 2 passionate educators, involved families, an innovative and effective principal and what do you get? Well, I don’t know what you’d get, but what I get is inspired!

Because these children have the benefit of being surrounded by caring adults, they are thriving. They like themselves–that is evident from the way they look me in the eye when I work with them. They like each other–easy to see from the way they interact like family. They are a family and it’s a treat to visit them each week.

When I have the opportunity to present my TeamMastermind seminars in classrooms like this one, I leave incredibly inspired, rejuvenated, and hopeful despite all of the dismal news about education.

Maybe the first step in fixing the problems with our educational system should be to re-inspire & re-energize our teaching corps. As my friend Cate suggests, teachers should continually remind themselves of the reasons they chose to be educators.