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Resolve to remember why you teach.

Resolve to begin and end each day with a smile and

a sense of humor.

Resolve to practice what you teach! Be a model foryour students, if you want them to practice patien-

ce, be more patient with your students.

Resolve to accept that every day and every lesson

won't go well. Reflect on what did work, write it

down.

Resolve to work smarter, not harder. Use your time

wisely, make lists, get organized, remember you

don't have to grade every single assignment.

Resolve to do your best each day. We expect this ofour students, we should expect no less from oursel-

ves.

Resolve to make time for yourself. Rest, exercise,

eat healthy.

Leave school at school. Even though you may have

papers to grade, or planning to do, leave the things

that trouble you at school.

Resolve to make a difference in a child's life each

day.

New Years Resolutions for Teachers

January 2011

Inside this issue

New Years Resolution for Teachers Pg. 1

Reduce Time Spent on Transitions Pg. 1

To Get the Best from

Students, Give Your BEST

Pg. 2

Connecting With Parents Pg. 2

Connect Homework to Specific Learning

Goals

Pg. 2

The 20th Century Classroom

vs. The 21st Century Classroom

Pg. 3

21st Century Education : School,

Teacher, Learner and Curriculum for

21st Century

Pg. 4

Time ManagementReduce Time Spent on Transitions

How many transitions do your students make each day?

Probably dozens. If you could reduce the time they

spend on those transitions, you could gain extra time for

instruction.

A first-grade teacher researched ways to reduce transition

time in her classroom. She recommends the following

steps:

1.Develop a signal. There should be a clear way to say,

"It's time for a transition." Some teachers clap in a rhyth-mic pattern. Some sound a bell. Some blink the lights. The

signal means, "Be quiet and listen."

2. Give specific instructions. "It's time for math. Please

fold your workbooks. Put them in your desks. Take out

your math books."

3. Combine oral and written directions. It's tough to re-

member directions that are longer than two steps. So

write directions on the board or on an overhead.

4. Practice. Challenge students to beat their own time.

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Start the new year by planning to reach out to all the parents of your students. Here are some ideas:

Personalize report cards. When possible, add something about improvement or progress you've seen in a student's

effort, behavior or maturity since the last grading period. This is especially important when the student's grades may

be less than stellar.

Write a positive note home to as many families as you can. So many families have never received one! If youve alrea-

dy done this, pat yourself on the back. Keep it up.

Set aside some time in the late afternoon or evening for parent calls. Send a note to all parents in advance saying

that you will be calling each family in the month of January. Ask parents to respond with a list of available dates and

times to chat about their child or ask questions about school. Stress that you plan to keep each call to about 10 minu-

Connecting With Parents

Plan to Connect With Parents This Month

To Get the Best from Students,

Give Your BEST

If you want students to meet your ex-pectations,

you'll have to back your ex-pectations with ac-

tions. One education expert calls this giving stu-

dents your BEST:

B Belief. There is little point to setting expec-tations if you don't genuinely believe your stu-

dents can hit the mark. You must show students

that you believe in them. For example, do not

avoid calling on, or rush in to answer for, a parti-

cular student. Instead, guide the student to an

answer by drawing on prior knowledge.

E Encouragement. Give encouragement through

constructive feedback. Notice effort, remark on

improvements, give earned praise and sugges-tions for a better result the next time.

S Support. Many students cannot meet expecta-

tions on their own. Make sure they can access all

resources available to them.

T Time. Students need your time to ask and ans-

wer questions, to receive help--and sometimes

time outside school hours, too.

Homework should be a benefit, never a detriment, to your stu-

dents. That means that all homework you assign should help

students practice a key element of the curriculum. Homework

should never be assigned as "busywork." Remember that stu-

dents and parents can tell the difference.

As you plan your homework assignments:

Make sure students understand the connection between their

homework and the learning goal. Write the learning goal on the

assignment if nec-essary. If students realize that you are assig-

ning homework to help them move to mastery, rather than just

to take up their time; they may be more likely to finish it and

hand it in.

Ask yourself: Can the majority of my students complete this

homework on their own? There will always be exceptions, but

if students cannot complete homework on their own, you are

not asking them to practice. You are asking them to learn new

material which should be done in the classroom with you--not

at home alone

Communicate with parents. Explain to parents how they can

act as a resource during homework time--without doing the

work for their children. Encourage parents to contact you if

they have questions about how to help their children with

Connect Homework to Specific

Learning Goals

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USA 1960s typical classroomteacher-centered, fragmented curri-

culum, students working in isolation, memorizing facts.

A classroom at the School of Environmental Studies, aka the Zoo School,

in Minneapolis. A perfect example of real-life, relevant, project-based

21st century education.

Timebased. Outcomebased.

Focus: memorization of discrete facts. Focus: what students Know, Can Do and Are Like after all the details are

forgotten.

Lesson focus on the lower level of Blooms Taxonomy knowledge,

comprehension and application.

Learning is designed on upper levels of Blooms Taxonomysynthesis,

analysis and evaluation (and includes lower levels as curriculum is desig-

ned down from the top).

Textbook-driven. Research-driven.

Passive learning. Active learning.

Learners work in isolationclassroom within 4 walls. Learners work collaboratively with classmates and others around the

world.

Little to no student freedom. Great deal of student freedom

Discipline problemseducators do not trust students and vice

versa, no student motivation.

No discipline problems - students and teachers have mutually res-

pectful relationships as co-learners; students are highly moti-vated.

Fragmented curriculum. Integrated curriculum.

Grades averaged. Grades based on what was learned.

Low expectations. High expectationsIf it isnt good it isnt done. We expect, and ensu-

re, that all students succeed in learning at high levels. Some may go hig-

herwe get our of their way to let them do that.

Teacher is judge. No one else sees student work. Self, peer and other assessments. Public audience, authentic as-

sessments.

Curriculum/school is irrelevant and meaningless to the students. Curriculum is connected to students interests, experiences, tal-ents and

the real world.

Print is primary vehicle of learning and assessment. Performances, projects and multiple forms of media are used for lear-

ning and assessment.

Diversity is ignored. Curriculum and instruction address student diversity.

Literacy is the 3 Rsreading, writing and math. Multiple literacies of the 21st centuryaligned to living and work-

Factory model, based upon the needs of the Industrial Age. Global model, based upon the needs of a globalized, high-tech society.

Driven by the NCLB and standardized testing mania. Standardized testing has its place. Education is not driven by the NCLB

and standardized testing mania.

What is 21st Century Education?

The 20th Century Classroom vs. The 21st Century Classroom

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21st Century Education

School, Teacher, Learner and Curriculum for the 21st Century

How should education be structured to meet the needs of students in this 21stcentury world? How do we now defineSchool, Teacher Learner and "Curriculum"?

Schools in the 21st century will be laced with a project-based curriculum for life aimed at engaging students in addres-

sing real-world problems, issues important to humanity, and questions that matter.

This is a dramatic departure from the factory-model education of the past. It is abandonment, finally, of textbook-

driven, teachercentered, paper and pencil schooling. It means a new way of understanding the concept of knowledge,

a new definition of the educated person. A new way of designing and delivering the curriculum is required.

We offer the following new definitions for School, Teacher and Learner appropriate for the 21st century:

Schoolswill go from buildings to 'nerve centers', with walls that are porous and transparent, connecting teachers,students and the community to the wealth of knowledge that exists in the world.

Teacher - From primary role as a dispenser of information to orchestrator of learning and helping students turn infor-mation into knowledge, and knowledge into wisdom.

The 21st century will require knowledge generation, not just information delivery, and schools will need to create a

culture of inquiry.

Learner - In the past a learner was a young person who went to school, spent a specified amount of time in certain

courses, received passing grades and graduated. Today we must see learners in a new context:

Firstwe must maintain student interest by helping them see how what they are learning prepares them for life in the

real world.

Secondwe must instill curiosity, which is fundamental to lifelong learning.

Thirdwe must be flexible in how we teach.

Fourth we must excite learners to become even more resourceful so that they will continue to learn outside the for-

mal school day.

So what will schools look like, exactly? What will the curriculum look like? How will this 21St century curriculum be orga-

nized, and how will it impact the way we design and build schools, how we assess students, how we purchase resources,

how we acquire and utilize the new technologies, and what does all this mean for us in an era of standardized testing

and accountability?

Imagine a school in which the students all of them are so excited about school that they can hardly wait to get there.

Imagine having little or no discipline problems because the students are so engaged in their studies that those pro-

blems disappear. Imagine having parents calling, sending notes, or coming up to the school to tell you about the drama-

tic changes they are witnessing in their children: newly found enthusiasm and excitement for school, a desire to work on

projects, research and write after school and on weekends. Imagine your students making nearly exponential growth in

their basic skills of reading, writing, speaking, listening, researching, scientific explorations, math, multimedia skills and

more!

It is possible. It has happened, and is happening, in schools across the country. I have seen this first-hand with my clas-

ses, and I have seen it at other schools with whom I have worked. And there is growing evidence of schools everywherehaving the same results when they implement a 21st century curriculum.