ABSTRACT

We all wish that every teacher in our school put the needs of students first. Every school has many staff members that readily do so, and some schools have others that are a little more reti­ cent to put the student needs front and center. Potentially a few staff members' actions may seem a little more self-centered than student-centered. One challenge all leaders face is to change the beliefs or feelings of their staff. This is quite a noble effort, and I would encourage everyone to work at doing so. One of the limi­ tations we face in doing this is that we cannot know what someone's true internal convictions are . The only thing we can really measure are their actions. These actions may or may not be a result of their sentiments. To the students in our schools and classrooms, the reasons teachers do things are not what they are affected by. What we actually see and are affected by are a person's actions, not beliefs . Let's look at an example involving a very effective teacher.