[teachers] have to find their own identity and their own sense of value and work because they tend to get bashed down a little bit – or a lot – by so many different factors. … I think it is important to give teachers tools so that they can develop their own self efficacy, their own self determination to be successful. I know, personally, that’s where I fell a little short. I didn’t have the confidence in the classroom to be persistent and to rise above the issues that were coming out of things that didn’t have anything to do with education.
Robin Grenier, Fellow, Teachers for a New Era Project, University of Connecticut. TNE at UConn Bulletin, Fall, 2006.