Sharon Crossen
2003 Delaware Teacher of the Year
Ms. Crossen has been teaching students in grades nine to twelve English and Drama for thirty-two years. She currently teaches at Polytech High School in Woodside, Delaware.

What are your beliefs about teaching?
"The Lakota Sioux captured my philosophy when they said, 'Tell me and I'll listen; show me and I'll understand; involve me and I'll learn.' Confucius, Dewey, the modern constructivists and many others would agree. If we do not involve students in learning, if they are not engaged, in fact, they will not learn. It's this kind of engagement, I believe, that makes my students lifelong readers, viewers, listeners and learners."

How are your beliefs incorporated in your teaching style?
"How can I separate why I became a teacher from my philosophy of teaching or both of those from how I teach? I cannot. I believe teaching means going beyond the surface and digging deeper into the meaning of what we teach. Solving challenging problems is the truest way to integrate learning, so I challenge my students to grasp a deeper meaning in literature. I want students to act like a literary critic, professional writer, a eulogist speaking of a character in a story, a grounding in an Elizabethan play, a blind, deaf child seeking a way to communicate with the world."

What is your greatest teaching accomplishment?
"I am especially proud of my role as a member of the team of teachers who led the way to our high school becoming the highest scoring school on the state writing assessment. I am also proud of my ninth grade students, every one of whom played a role in acting out a scene from Romeo and Juliet."

What's the most critical issue facing educators?
"Accountability at the local, state and federal levels is the number one issue facing public school education today. "

What do you think can be done to solve this issue?
"Legislation has been enacted to make those of us in schools do better. For us to do better, however, we must all be held accountable, from the classroom to the statehouse and beyond. How? The governance provided by national and state leaders must be fair and even-handed. It must be an honest response to the needs of all of our children, not a turn caused by a shift in political winds. The local, state and national leadership must be held accountable to do the same for every child."

One thought to inspire teachers to excel
"I believe my generation of teachers should leave as its mark the renaissance and renewal of our profession because it will define us. If we can gather the will and help each other become our best for our students, I know we will leave our mark. I believe in the power of teaching."

One lesson every student should learn
"Knowledge is power! Every student needs to know that education is the ticket to a successful life."

Favorite Teaching Tool
"Students learn more and remember longer when they dramatize their learning. Dramatization engages."

Favorite Web site:
www.classicreader.com – Class reader
www.geocities.com - Geocities