"I never considered becoming anything but a teacher," says Bernadette George, principal of Delcroft Elementary School in Folcroft. In response to direct community need, Ms. George has invited an outside agency into the school to provide before- and after-school child care services. She has also instituted a school breakfast program that offers a reduced-cost or free breakfast to qualifying students. In the area of academic reform, she has helped to implement the Botel Written Retelling Teaching/Assessment Project. This project, which promotes collaboration among teachers, has as its engine an assessment technique that drives instruction. As Ms. George's philosophy of education favors direct experience over second-hand knowledge, she believes that educators must "provide children with experiences that prove to them that everyone can learn."
