With 2025 upon us, we are all looking to try new things, set new goals, and embark on new adventures. Teachers and librarians are also planning new lessons, programs, and more. PW spoke with three such educators looking to roll out things that they have never tried before to renew their teaching, and to reignite their students’ learning.

Jennifer Guyor Jowett, a seventh grade English, literature, and religion teacher at St. Gerard School in Lansing, Mich., indie author, and #BookPosse member (a group of teachers/librarians who read, share, and recommend books on #Twitter) is trying a variety of new things in the classroom.

While her English and literature classes are often abuzz with talk about books and writing, Jowett hopes to get even more kids participating with a few new teaching tactics. “Usually, I direct classroom discussions with interpretive questions that have multiple answers, and students need to support their answers with evidence from the text,” Jowett said. “This year, I’ll start the same way, but I’m going to move my kids into student-moderated discourse where I’ll ask for volunteers to lead the discussion, and have kids move in and out.”

Jowett believes the tweak will create more balanced classroom conversations. “Frequently, it seems to be a battle between kids who have lots to say and the kids who are more content listening, although they do generally get engaged.”

To accomplish this, Jowett plans to set up a small group of students in a circle in the center of her classroom discussing a book or topic. The other students will sit outside the circle listening, taking notes, and preparing for their turn to talk. “As one student finishes sharing, then a different student will move in and take their place.”

When discussions turn to questions, Jowett hopes to evoke diverse answers and points of view from her students. “It’s important that they are able to find their voices to express their thoughts and opinions so others can hear them, reflect on them, and respond to them in respectful ways,” Jowett said. “And when they don’t agree, they’ll see multiple ways to look at things and learn to value other perspectives.”

The conversation will turn to values in Jowett’s religion class. This year, her school is choosing a new value each month for the entire school to focus on. The values will also be integrated into her religious education lessons. She’s planning ways to help her students define specific values (e.g. justice, fortitude) and what they look like in their everyday lives. Then, the whole student population will try out the values and watch for them in their classmates as well. When the staff sees a value in action, they will write the person’s name on a slip of paper.

Shortly after, the slips will go into a class box and be collected by the school’s front office. Then, at a monthly assembly, one slip will be pulled for each grade level, and students will be recognized for displaying that month’s value. “Our hope is for the students to develop these values and to become more empathetic human beings who can function with others in a society that is good for all.”

For Cindy Babich, a sixth-through-eighth grade ELA teacher at the IgKnight Academy in Maple Park, Ill., newness is all around at the start-up school. In the school’s second year, she works closely with her students to personalize their learning opportunities across their ELA curriculum.

Her plans for the new year include options for students to choose the ways they want to work, understand how they learn, and achieve the program’s learning standards.

“These opportunities will allow my middle grade students to handle more agency, and to be better able to advocate for themselves,” Babich said. She also believes that her students are more invested in their learning “when they are in the driver’s seat.”

The road ahead will include daily seminars (i.e. classes) with student-directed book clubs reading a variety of titles from dystopian fiction to novels in verse; a debate group learning the finer points of creating arguments; as well as ongoing informational reading and writing projects, multi-age groupings, and teacher/student conferences.

Babich will also be adding layers to her class’s personalized learning curriculum. First, she wants to bring more of her community into their classroom. “I want to find people within our school, and beyond, whom the kids can connect with, learn from, and explore future careers that might interest them.”

The second layer will expand this community focus to include journalistic and research opportunities for interested students. Her evolving plans include inviting students to read and analyze articles, interview subjects, and write their own stories. “This way, they will read and write through the eyes of a journalist and publish their own stories in our school newspaper or blog, or discuss them on our podcast,” Babich said. “I’m excited for the students to connect with the community and to experience interviewing primary resources for their articles.”

This excitement around trying new things fuels her teaching. “There’s something fun about having permission to try new things!” Babich said. It also ignites her students’ learning. “By continuing to try new things that allow us to grow and change, I can make sure that my students have a voice in their learning, that there is rigor in their learning choices, and that they become proficient learners and leaders advocating for themselves and others.”

Every day at lunch, John Gleason, the K–4 librarian at Springville Elementary School, in Mt. Laurel, N.J., tweets a photo of a new book he’s reading while eating. It’s one way he keeps up with his picture book reading and shares titles with fellow librarians and teachers on X.

Gleason focuses the rest of his day on creating new ways to engage his readers and create a library unique to itself. “I want the library to be as non-academic as possible: a place where children walk in and they have the freedom to talk, to choose books they want to read, and sit wherever they want,” he said. “It might look like chaos, but if you stayed for a minute and walked around, you’d be like, ‘Oh my goodness! Everybody’s on task and everyone’s engaged!’ ”

To build on this level of interest in the new school year, Gleason created a “buttons for books” program—an incentive reading program where his kids earn tiny buttons for the number of books they read. “If they read five books, they get a button. if they read 10, they get another, and so on,” Gleason said. “I customize the buttons, or they can create their own designs. I want it to be self-regulated and I don’t tell parents about it because the last thing I want is for anyone to force a kid to read books.”

He’s been happy to find that so many of his kids are actively reading on their own and proudly displaying their book buttons on their backpacks. “It’s the kind of incentive program that I needed as a kid who didn’t like reading,” Gleason said. “But when I had the chance to read books that I wanted to read, I fell in love with the Choose Your Own Adventure series.”

To attract other readers, Gleason creates weekly book videos in which he previews new titles yet to be added to their library’s shelves and invites kids to join in the fun. To be part of the videos, students need to read one of the new titles, record a video about it, submit it to Gleason, and wait.

“The kids go nuts when they see themselves featured in the videos. And the other students will yell things like, ‘Hey, he’s on my bus,’ or ‘she lives in my neighborhood!’ Then they’ll come into the library and say, ‘I want Justin’s book!’ Gleason said, “I love seeing the faces of the kids who have been asking me week after week when their video will appear, when it hits the screen.”

But it’s Gleason who cannot wait to unveil his first-ever Book Club of Solitude at lunchtime in his library for his fourth graders. “I’m going to play quiet music and put on a crackling fire on the white board,” Gleason said. “And the kids will bring blankets.” The club’s only rule? Read books of your own choosing.

And while Gleason thought that only five of his “book nerds” would sign up for the club, more than half of the fourth graders showed interest. “I’m truly shocked that more than half of the class seriously want to miss recess—to read.”

He is heartened by the increased interest in reading that is transforming his readers and the library.

“I am hopeful that all of this reading will open their eyes to new people, new cultures, and new perspectives, grow their bubble a bit, and help them become more empathetic people.”

Gleason would also like to elevate the library’s status in his school. “I want the library to be more exciting than the gym!”