About the Author

With over forty years in the education profession, Dr. Shirley Ann Smith has taught at several levels, produced multiple digital resources for teachers, and provided professional development for teachers across the country. Among the many experiences of her career, her favorite has been in classrooms observing teachers and children during the complex process of teaching and learning.

Dr. Smith believes that the collective power of every teacher in a school, working towards a common goal of improving foundational practices based on research-based evidence, is how a great teacher can be in most, if not all, classrooms. By working on what a teacher can control himself or herself, this vision can be accomplished. But it needs to start with individual teachers. She wrote this book to describe and distill the process needed to make this major cultural shift happen--a process that is accessible to teachers and can be adopted as continual professional growth.