My Five Classrooom New Year's Resolutions

As a seasoned teacher of 20 years, I have made many a classroom New Year's resolution. By January 31^st, things are back to the status quoi. This year, I vow to make a set of New Years resolutions that are obtainable and will help me to be a better teacher, and my students to learn more efficiently.

1. I vow not to take my student's behavior personally. After spending countless hours making lesson plans, grading papers, and attending meetings, a teacher tends to take a student's misbehavior personally. I must remind myself that if Johnny is acting up, there are reasons that have nothing to do with me as a teacher. By realizing this, I can be a better teacher, and help Johnny in the process.

2. I will include every parent in my classroom. Schools use to not require teacher/parent contact. Most schools , as part of their positive discipline plan, require teachers to contact parents. My school requires five positive parent emails, phone calls, or meetings per nine weeks. I plan to contact every parent every nine weeks with a positive comment about their student. Parents should be my partners in education.

3. My classroom will be print rich. Print rich is a code word for teachers meaning there is reading material or something to read in many places in a classroom. While I attempt to make this happen, I am going to try harder this year. My plans are to not only have books to read, but to have a comfy reading center complete with bean bag chairs. In addition, I want toe expand my word wall to an interactive word wall where students can match words, or sort words.

4. I want to plan better for downtime for my fast learner students or bored students. These are the children who will distract others when they are finished. In addition, they are wasting time that they could be using for learning. My goals are to have more learning centers, interactive word walls, and age appropriate folder games to keep these students occupied and learning.

5. I will take into account that all students learn differently and do a better job planning. As teacher, we know that children learn through three different means. Some of our students are verbal learners, some are auditory, and still others are tactile/kinesthetic learners. I will plan my lessons to take all of these learners into account.

All teachers should make a New Year's Resolution list. If you have problems coming up with your own, feel free to borrow mine!