Schlechty Center

Deanna Howard Senior Associate

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I am especially passionate about students being happy and safe in school. I see this resulting from the engagement of everyone involved, from the superintendent to the student. The only thing I regretted when I figured out how to use the Working on the Work framework in my classroom was that I didn't know about it earlier. So, in connection to the happiness and success of students, I am particularly interested in playing a part in ensuring that teachers know about the framework and how they can use it to make their classroom engaging for their students and themselves.

Working with the Schlechty Center is all about learning. The first time I realized that was when the names of the Profile Elements were changed. Just the fact that they were changed was totally out of the reach of my experience in education. After I thought about it, though, it truly impressed me that this organization learned something new and then passed it on to clients. Since then I have learned so much that if I were to go back to the classroom today, I would do things differently, even though I thought I had gone a long way in figuring things out when I left. It is so exciting to be working with people who are never satisfied with the status quo, who continue to learn and grow. I never get tired of this work as it is always evolving and always challenging. I want school to be like that for everyone.

DEANNA HOWARD, formerly a teacher for Jennings County Schools in North Vernon, Indiana, joined the Schlechty Center as a senior associate. Her past experiences include 25 years teaching various grades at the elementary level, chairing school improvement teams, leading learning opportunities locally as well as at the state and national level, and mentoring student teachers. She has also been recognized at the state and national levels for her leadership in school reform. Perhaps her most distinguished work has been with School Design Teams. In 1995 she was elected as the teacher co-chair of her school's Design Team where she constantly put the school's core business front and center in all workings of the school. Under the leadership of that Design Team, the school prospered and was eventually named one of the state's top 10 schools, being listed first in two different academic categories. By popular demand, Deanna opened her classroom to hundreds of visitors yearly and shared her original unit designs that had proven successful in engaging students from many different backgrounds. In 2004 she was recognized as an Honorable Mention member of the All U.S.A. Teacher Team by U.S.A. Today. She is a graduate of Purdue University with a B.A. in Elementary Education and Indiana University with an M.A. in Elementary Education, but she says her true education has come from her work in the classroom and school, especially those years she has spent working with the Working on the Work framework.