Professional » NC Professional Teaching Standards
North Carolina Professional Teaching Standards
Standard 3: Teachers know the content they teach.
3.04. Teachers make instruction relevant to students.
Teachers incorporate 21st Century life skills into their teaching deliberately, strategically, and broadly. These skills include leadership, ethics, accountability, adaptability, personal productivity, personal responsibility, people skills, self-direction, and social responsibility. Teachers help their students understand the relationship between the North Carolina Standard Course of Study and 21st Century content which includes global awareness; financial, economic, business and entrepreneurial literacy; civic literacy; and health awareness.
- Incorporate life skills which include leadership, ethics, accountability, adaptability, personal productivity, personal responsibility, people skills, self-direction, and social responsibility
- Demonstrate the relationship between the core content and 21st Century content that includes global awareness; financial, economic, business and entrepreneurial literacy; civic literacy; and health and wellness awareness
Resources for professional development
These resources available from LEARN NC can help you improve your teaching in this area.
Best practices & instructional models
Records 1–23 of 23 displayed.
- Why study a foreign language?
- Foreign language study enhances academic skills, raises SAT scores, and prepares students for careers.
- By Bernadette Morris.
- Who cares?: Using real-world perspectives to engage academically gifted learners
- In Reaching every learner: Differentiating instruction in theory and practice, page 5
- This article shares strategies for engaging gifted learners by creating assignments in which students adopt real-world perspectives on curriculum objectives. The result, the author suggests, is rich, rigorous, challenging learning for those who are ready to go beyond proficiency. Includes step-by-step instructions and sample assignments.
- Format: article/best practice
- By Linda Pigott Robinson.
- Where are they now? And where are they going?
- In The First Year, page 4.4
- Your standards for students' achievement must be high enough not only to get them through your class, but to prepare them for what lies ahead.
- Format: article
- By Kristi Johnson Smith.Commentary and sidebar notes by Lindy Norman.
- The value of oral history
- In Oral history in the classroom, page 1
- Why use oral history with your students? Oral history has benefits that no other historical source provides.
- Format: article
- By Kathryn Walbert.
- Teaching world cultures
- According to the new Professional Teaching Standards, every North Carolina teacher must promote global awareness in classroom instruction. This article presents some general guidelines and specific strategies for global teaching.
- Format: article/best practice
- By Regina Higgins.
- Teaching students about the Creative Commons
- Technology makes stealing easy, but it makes sharing just as easy. The Creative Commons will let your students innovate in and out of the classroom without having to worry about copyright violations.
- Format: article/best practice
- By Bill Ferriter.
- Superfund in science class
- In Bringing current science into the classroom, page 2
- Four Web-based activities let students identify Superfund sites, define hazardous waste, see how aquifers work, and explore cleanup solutions.
- Format: activity/lesson plan (grade 9–12 )
- By Michele Kloda and Dana Haine.
- Seeing, wondering, theorizing, learning: Inquiry-based instruction with Kishia Moore
- In this article, first-grade teacher Kishia Moore shares some of the strategies she uses to bring inquiry-based instruction into the elementary classroom. Ms. Moore teaches in Mitchell County and is a member of the 2011 cohort of the Kenan Fellows Program.
- Format: article/best practice
- By Dan Lewandowski.
- Real-world learning in a virtual environment
- Want to try project-based learning to get your students involved in real-world issues? A former North Carolina Technology & Learning Teacher of the Year talks about how she worked with the North Carolina Zoo to get students excited about learning.
- Format: article
- By David Walbert.
- Reading is for the boys (and girls)!
- This WebQuest for teachers looks at the difficult issue of how to get — and keep — boys interested in reading. It guides you through the research, then looks at text selection and pedagogy and helps you find specific strategies for narrowing the adolescent "literacy gap."
- Format: article
- By Kimberly Bowen.
- Math for multiple intelligences
- In Math for multiple intelligences, page 1
- How a middle-school math teacher realized she was boring and jump-started her career — and her students.
- Format: article
- By Gretchen Buher.
- Making connections for environmental education
- How can you get students fired up about environmental education? Get them outside and get them involved in local issues through activism, service learning, and teaching others.
- Format: article/best practice
- By Carolyn Moser.
- International classroom collaboration on the worldwide web
- This article discusses the benefits of participating in international collaborative projects, in which two geographically distant classrooms connect via the internet. Includes resources for developing projects, advice and tips for novices, and suggestions for curriculum connections.
- Format: article/best practice
- By Aaron Fowles.
- Implementing perspectives-based assignments
- This video uses classroom footage and teacher interviews to offer ideas on implementing assignments based on real-world perspectives. Teachers from elementary, middle, and high school share advice and suggest how to overcome common challenges. This video is...
- Format: video/video
- Hands-on biology
- Hands-on science exploration clarifies difficult concepts and engages learners who have difficulty in more traditional classrooms. This article looks at an inquiry-based classroom that meets the needs of all of its students.
- Format: article/best practice
- By Waverly Harrell.
- Grouping skills for mastery
- In Math for multiple intelligences, page 4
- Thematic planning helps relate mathematics to students' lives.
- Format: article
- By Gretchen Buher.
- Differentiation with real-world perspectives
- Using classroom footage and teacher interviews, this video explores the practice of creating assignments based on real-world perspectives. Teachers from elementary, middle, and high school discuss how a variety of populations can benefit from this approach,...
- Format: video/video
- Designing your gym class
- From classroom organization to warm-up procedures, one physical education teacher provides a blueprint for a structured physical education program.
- By Bozena Mielczak and Kim Campbell.
- Citizen science: Real-world applications for science students
- Citizen science projects enlist everyday citizens to collect or analyze data for real-world research studies. This article suggests that bringing citizen science projects into the classroom can help students understand the relevance of curriculum objectives. Several projects are suggested, for elementary, middle, and high school.
- Format: article/best practice
- By Rebeccah Haines.
- Bringing current science into the classroom
- Activities for middle and high school on groundwater, water quality, and environmental stewardship have students exploring current environmental research without leaving the classroom.
- Format: series (multiple pages)
- Asynchronous conversation matters: Part II
- Meaningful online asynchronous discussion requires careful planning. Using the tips from this article, teachers can create questions that will generate enthusiasm for a topic and motivate students to think critically and practice skills of collaborative dialogue.
- Format: article
- By Bill Ferriter.
- Asynchronous conversation matters: Part I
- Tap into your students' ease for using digital communities by structuring meaningful online conversations using free tools for asynchronous discussion that center around classroom learning.
- Format: article/best practice
- By Bill Ferriter.
- The “who cares” approach: Long-term benefits
- Using classroom footage and teacher interviews, this video addresses the long-term benefits to students of using assignments based on real-world perspectives. Teachers from elementary, middle, and high school share observations and success stories. This video...
- Format: video/video
