1. Do you feel overwhelmed when you hear becoming a successful teacher entails understanding teaching, standards, students, and parents?  What about it overwhelms you?

2. What is meant by students getting fair and equitable pay?

3. Looking back on your education, do you feel all roles were clearly recognizable and defined?

4. What benefit do you see in an organizational chart?

5. What benefit do you see to the development of a working PLC structure?

6. What is the difference between organizing for learning and organizing students for work?

7. Why do you think there is such a high turnover rate for superintendents?

8. Who ultimately governs the school system? Why?

9. Do you think schools are more or less safe than 10 or 20 years ago?  Why?

10. What are the benefits to looping with your students? Can you see yourself in the teacher’s role of a looping class?

11. One of the issues that teacher candidates sometimes have with the concept of team teaching is that they are curious how dual authority operates. For example, who is really in charge of the classroom and how do you teach the students to not “play” one adult off of the other in a team teaching scenario?

12. What are the main differences between teaching in a self-contained classroom and teaching in a departmentalized classroom? Would the monotony of a single instructional prep cause you to burn out sooner as a new teacher?

13. Superintendents are under a tremendous amount of stress and pressure due to the responsibilities of their jobs. Why do you think  most superintended contracts are 1 year appointments? How is this advantageous to a school district? How is it advantageous to a superintendent?

14. Many teachers remark about their frustration with state mandates regarding educational topics from the legislature that they later do not fund with additional allocations for school districts. Does this mean that the schools don’t have to follow the mandates by the state government?

15. Many families wish local school districts had more control over the decisions affecting their children than the federal government.  Why is this not the case in America?

16. Oftentimes school board members are caring people from the community with good intentions, but they have no experience with public schools, and even sent their own children to private schools. Do you feel that a person who is not a product of, or sent their own children to a public school should have voting power on a local public school board? Why or why not?

17. As long as there are social classes in our culture, there will be disparities among public schools. Older, larger, urban districts have decaying buildings Downtown, and beautiful new buildings in the suburbs to serve all of the white flight families. How does a school district make sure everyone has access to what they need?

18. There is a great deal of controversy surrounding school funding from six taxes and gambling taxes, but many argue that adults choose to play, smoke or drink and they might as well be supporting education while they’re at it! What are your opinions on this topic?