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COEUR D'ALENE, Idaho — When the sun shines on the Idaho panhandle, Lake Coeur d'Alene sparkles and shimmers, throwing off reflections of pine-covered slopes. If you pause to ponder this awesome scenery, you'll discover a story that begins in the last Ice Age. Study the mountains and big waters, and you'll learn how glaciers carved the hills and basins of today's Inland Northwest. Without taking time to reflect, however, it's all too easy to notice the scenery but overlook the bigger story behind it. The same holds true in the classroom. Raina Bohanek, a Coeur d'Alene teacher for the past 26 years, says she was a "pedestrian teacher" her first few years on the job. "I was wandering around, seeing the sights, but I didn't really know what I was seeing and why it was important," she says. Today, Bohanek is one of nine exceptional teachers who are the linchpins of an innovative approach to professional development in the Coeur d'Alene School District. For these lead teachers — one from each elementary school in the 9,200-student district — reflection comes as naturally as breathing. They constantly pepper themselves with questions: Why do we do what we do in the classroom? How could we do our jobs even better? What new approaches could help our students learn? Such questions are nothing new to the profession of teaching. What's new is the extra time that's been carved out of the daily routine so that all elementary teachers — from rookie interns to polished veterans, from those working in high-poverty schools to those working with affluent populations — have ongoing opportunities to pose and answer questions among themselves. "You can't be reflective," observes a lead teacher named Char Soucy, "if you don't have time to think."
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Date of Last Update: 9/28/01 
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