The New Year is here! As you make your New Year’s resolutions and goals for the year ahead, take a breath. Look back at the past year with gratitude. Remember the friends you made and relationships you strengthened. Take stock of what you learned.
During these trying and divisive times, we can often feel stuck. If we focus on the uncertainty around us or the opposing opinions flying, our emotions can overtake us. This year, focus instead on the beauty, hilarity, and potential that just waits to be uncovered and experienced.
We challenge you to commit to learning something new in 2022. It could be an academic subject or a helpful project around the house. As your children join you – or even watch from afar – it will remind them that a love of learning is lifelong.
Follow these simple steps to master a subject for your New Year’s resolution:
Write out the idea.
As you learn about your subject, write a teaching plan as if you were teaching it to a child. Leave out the complicated jargon and instead use everyday words that capture the details and the meaning behind what you teach.
Acknowledge the gaps in your lesson plan.
Once you’ve written out your subject, go back through it to find holes in your explanation, things that don’t make complete sense to you, and any points of confusion. Then find the answers and the clarification for yourself, before you update your lesson plan.
Read your lesson plan out loud and practice as if you were a teacher preparing for a lesson.
This will help you organize and simplify to find the most succinct and impactful lecture on your subject. It also continues to drive the subject home as you master it.
Find a real student and teach.
If your subject matter isn’t the right fit for your child(ren), find someone who shares your interest and present your lesson. You’ve worked hard, and you deserve to be heard! By the end of this process, you will be familiar with not only your subject, but the process of mastering any piece of knowledge.
If looking for a new school is part of your New Year’s resolutions, contact us at (480) 641-2640 or (602) 274-1910 to get more information about our K-8 nationally awarded charter school of excellence with an advanced learning curriculum. In addition to online learning, we have campuses in Phoenix, Glendale, East Mesa, and Mesa.
