We can close the gap and improve what happens in the classroom by using educational technology that is the same high quality everywhere.

As the daughter of a schoolteacher I feel very strongly that the most important thing in school takes place right there in that classroom and the interaction between the teacher and the child.

I was terrified of being a teacher. To stand in front of a classroom the responsibility is boggling. Imagine! Standing in front of people!

In the depth of the near depression that he faced when he came in Barack Obama and Democratic leaders in Congress provided 'recovery funds' that literally kept our classrooms open. Two years ago these funds saved nearly 20 000 teacher and education jobs - just here in North Carolina.

We can not wait until we have enough trained people willing to work at a teacher's salary and under conditions imposed upon teachers in order to improve what happens in the classroom.

Children are already accustomed to a world that moves faster and is more exciting than anything a teacher in front of a classroom can do.

In the ideal classroom the teacher is either spending all of their time doing deep interventions with students on a one-on-one basis or facilitating true interactivity - labs simulations projects.

When I was a teacher teachers would come into my classroom and admire my desk on which lay nothing whatever whereas theirs were heaped with papers and books.

It's the teacher that makes the difference not the classroom.

We've heard from many teachers that they used episodes of Star Trek and concepts of Star Trek in their science classrooms in order to engage the students.