Episode 21: Allen Fort -Talking about Rural School Systems and other Education Topics in Georgia

Allen is currently the superintendent of schools in Quitman County, Georgia. He has 39 years of total education experience. He was a teacher, a coach, an assistant principal, a principal, and worked for five years as a GA Department of Education School Improvement and Redesign Specialist.

He feels that he is very fortunate for his opportunities to travel across the state and get to know educators in many different regions of Georgia.

Allen is familiar with the needs of the rural school systems. He has created a rural school system learning group that is comprised of educators from rural systems. He sees this group as providing an opportunity for the different systems to learn from each other on how best to use their limited resources.

As a principal he instituted one of the first ninth grade academies in the state. We talk about his thoughts and lessons learned.

We also talk a little about the challenge of teachers working with kids who have access to incredible amounts of information through Google and other web based solutions. We talk about how when we were kids the teachers had the information or it was in books that they could direct us to, whereas today, the kids can study beforehand and actually know more than the teacher about some topics. This becomes a challenge in that the teacher is often trying to keep up with the kids, but another challenge is that all kids don’t have access. It is quite possible that in the same class there will be those who can and those who can’t access web based information.

I enjoyed talking with Allen and I think that you will enjoy your time listening!

You can find out more information about Allen at www.allenfortga.com

Length 33:27