WORTH READING 19 Feb 2007

Spirit Whisperers' New Year's Resolutions
-By Chick Moorman and Thomas Haller

In 2007, I resolve not to teach children to have a happy, productive
life,
but rather to help them choose a happy, productive day.

I resolve to design lessons to help students appreciate that there is no
such thing as failure, only temporary results that students can use as
feedback to determine their next step.

I resolve to fix problems rather than fix blame by maintaining a
solution-seeking mindset and teaching students a problem-solving
process.

I resolve to aid students in their struggle with autonomy by creating a
balance of power through a shared-control style of classroom management.

I resolve to remember that I want children to behave in ways that
reflect
what THEY now find unacceptable, not in ways that I, the teacher, find
unacceptable.

I resolve to welcome interpersonal skill errors as learning experiences
and
as important opportunities to implement consequences.

I resolve to teach in a way that demonstrates that I believe the only
authority children take with them everywhere they go is their inner
authority.

I resolve to allow my responses to students to reflect a knowing that
some
lapses in self-control are developmentally appropriate. I remember they
do
certain behaviors because they are 5 or 8 or 14 years old.

I resolve to aid children in their ability to make "BE" choices as well
as
"DO" choices.

I resolve to teach in a way that reflects my belief that the process is
as
important as the product.

I resolve to remember that I don't have to punish children for their
anger.
They are already being punished for their anger.

When I am stumped and don't know how to respond to a student, I promise
to
ask myself, "What would love do now?" I also intend to listen internally
for an answer.

I resolve to recall that I can choose to see any classroom situation
differently from the way I have been seeing it. I will remember that
perception is always a choice.

I resolve to relax, remembering that relaxing does not mean resigning.

I resolve to make my approach to teaching reflect the notion that
education
is more about drawing out what already exists in a student than it is
about
putting in to fill perceived deficiencies.

I resolve to focus on the main purpose of education, the creation of who
and what I really am as a human being.

I resolve to remember that "being right" doesn't work.

I resolve to teach as if I believe that a child's I AM's (I am athletic,
I
am creative, etc.) are more important than his or her IQ.

I resolve to live today as if attitudes were more easily caught than
taught.

I resolve to help students and myself stay conscious of the choices we
are
making.

I resolve to remember the adage, "If you want a behavior, you have to
teach
a behavior," and I resolve to put that adage into practice in my
classroom.

I resolve to teach for wisdom, which is knowledge applied. I will
remember
that children are not in school to pass a test, earn a 9-week grade, or
memorize a poem. They are in school to learn to apply knowledge to their
own individual lives.

I resolve to stay conscious of the fact that information doesn't make us
happy. No one ever got a divorce, became abusive to self or others, or
began an addiction because he or she didn't know the capitals of all 50
states.

I resolve to help students live in more uplifting ways, reflecting the
notion that school is more than a preparation for life. It is life.

I resolve to see the hurting child in the child that hurts.

I resolve to "be" the change I wish to see in education.

I resolve to avoid fighting the educational world that is and work to
bring
forth the educational world that could be.

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