"My comment to someone deciding to become an educator is that education is not a job but a mission that requires love of all children, dedication, long hours and deep concern," says Lawrence Garrett, principal of Florida Elementary School in Memphis. Under Mr. Garrett's leadership, Florida Elementary School has exchanged passive instructional strategies for those that engage students, such as "cooperative groupings, hands-on science instruction and interactive technology. The team-work and critical thinking fostered by these strategies are essential to a student's success," says Mr. Garrett. Computer technology, at Mr. Garrett's initiative, has been successfully introduced throughout the elementary school curriculum, and first and second graders now use computers to address different modalities in math and reading.
