Barbara Morgan was a featured speaker today, and it was a real thrill to see her in person. She described her Space Shuttle mission with slides and videos, a wonderful sense of humor, and a real pride in being an educator. As I listened to her describe what makes a NASA mission successful, several words and phrases came to mind: collaboration, teamwork, the importance of multiple roles, technology, using data and feedback, authentic experiences in training, guided practice, debriefing, a set of goals, communications, focused inspections, celebrations. Shouldn’t these words also describe a successful classroom?