5 Ways to Cause Your Own Personal Shift Towards "Teach Less, Learn More"

This shift {Shift #2} has really helped us to focus on the individual needs of students, in relation to 21st Century skills.  We have found ways to get through our day with "teaching less" but have our students "learning more".  Here are 5 suggestions to help make "the shift" possible:

1. Create an SLC (Student Learning Community)- a student-centered classroom that engages all learners. This enables students to grow and be responsible for their learning!

2. PLC's and PLN's develop your network of people to bounce ideas off of, learn from, and with whom you can share successes. Last year the teachers in our building bounced around the ideas from Tanny McGregor's book Comprehension Connections (http://www.amazon.com/Comprehension-Connections-Bridges-Strategic-Reading/dp/0325008876 ), sharing new thinking with our students and each other in order to provide better reading instruction for our school.

3. Common Core Standards (http://www.corestandards.org/ ) provides that core knowledge base to start from; then seek methods and ideas for empowering your students through understanding themselves as learners. In fact, there is even an app (http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/common-core-standards/id439424555?mt=8 )!!

4. Technology, get educated! There are so many options for learning from and through technology.  Becoming Digitally Literate allows technology to be incorportated naturally into the learning environment and relieves that sensation of it being a separate entity.  It becomes one less "thing" to cover, as it is now a tool/resource for learning. 

5. Lastly, build your own growth mindset. It is imperative to look at education as an evolving opportunity to learn. We must also recognize that flexibility is essential in order to effectively prepare students for an unknown future. Read, connect, grow and watch your students do the same.