Teachers’ New Year’s Resolutions

An Example of New Year’s Resolutions

Recently, the blog featured a post on how to ensure that New Year’s resolutions are fulfilled. Today, let’s look at a specific example from the treasure trove of books of lists. There’s a book titled “(Almost) Everything You Need to Know About Early Childhood Education” [1].

This book includes a list called “New Year’s Resolutions for Teachers”, written in 1998. Let’s see if these resolutions are good enough to recommend to teachers in 2025.

So, the New Year’s Resolutions for a Teacher

1. Lighten-up!
2. Talk with children, not at them.
3. Foster creativity!
4. Utilize wisely the time spent with children—interact, laugh and play.
5. Let go — and let them do ______. (Give up some of your control and let the children plan, execute and even evaluate projects.)
6. Share! Share! Share!—ideas, resources and revelations with parents, children and other teachers.
7. Send thank-you notes directly to children's homes, addressed to the children.
8. Invite the children into your own home. How about a field trip to your house?
9. Add to your teaching portfolio on a regular basis.
10. Be yourself! Get Real!

Tricky Questions

Could some of these already have come true? Maybe, over the past quarter-century, teachers must have started communicating more simply with students?

What now seems like a less suitable piece of advice? Would you invite children to your home?

By the way, what’s included in a teacher’s portfolio?

Overanalysis with Good Intentions

If we look at this list with the full pedantry characteristic of this blog, there’s certainly room for improvement. Some items, while inspiring, are completely unverifiable and therefore impossible to fulfill. That is, it would be impossible to say whether you managed to fulfill your New Year’s resolutions, no matter how hard you tried.

For example, how can you determine whether you managed to foster creativity? And how can you assess whether you were yourself?

Still, as a New Year’s greeting, this list is quite fitting.🙂

On the other hand, there’s one item I like. It’s the thank-you notes sent to children at home. I would be proud to receive one.

Have you thought about the verifiability of your own New Year’s resolutions? Subscribe to the blog “So List” for more reasons to reflect. But all this is not just for fun — it’s to make life better.

List of Links

[1] Judy Fujawa, “(Almost) Everything You Need to Know About Early Childhood Education: The Book of Lists for Teachers and Parents,” ISBN 0-87659-192-6