I recently started thinking about the numbers; the numbers of teachers and students that I have had the opportunity to influence myself.  Since the summer of 2009 I have worked directly, as co-director of the UMWP’s Summer Institute, with a total of 30 teachers from over 10 north Mississippi counties.  The strong pedagogical research-based strategies that each of the 30 teachers explored and were exposed to in our 120 hours together during Summer Institute went back to schools of around 25 teachers.  That means that in just my two years in a leadership position with UMWP, I have directly or indirectly impacted around 750 teachers in north Mississippi.  Averaging even 25 students per teacher, that spreads just MY impact to a possible 18,000 students.  I am but a single teacher, and when I begin to think about UMWP colleagues and the impact that they have also had the opportunity to make on students and teachers in kindergarten through college, the numbers become mind boggling.  I have enclosed a photograph that puts the numbers into perspective.  The photograph is of a 5 inch binder filled with information sheets on teachers from north Mississippi that have been served by UMWP from September 1, 2010 to March 1, 2011.  Please take note of the heft; the amount of teachers who have had the chance to improve themselves and their students in the last 6 months. See why I say it's mind boggling?

-Leslie Morton

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