Your blogger is back, contemplating Sandy Hook, which includes mourning loss yet celebrating teaching. The wonderful work by those teachers and the principal reflect education at its very best — promoting thinking and inquiring, while caring for the children and recognizing them as individuals, continually improving teachers’ practice even though they were already outstanding. We should all remind our communities of this part of the loss, along with the loss of children and teachers themselves. A wonderful institution has been devastated.

In that spirit we hope you’ll read and share the following valuable stories. First, a portrait of an outstanding Quincy, Mass. teacher, Ron Adams, by journalist Michael Winerip for the N.Y. Times on Tuesday, Dec. 11. And second, a Los Angeles teacher, Julia Adams, describing for the Huffington Post how new teachers benefit by telling each other stories of their work and listening to one another. In this second account the stories don’t go out to the public, but they do show the salutary effect on the tellers themselves, enabling them to grow into their challenging jobs.

Share these stories and share your own. And hope our nation learns from the Sandy Hook disaster.