Beliefs, mandates, standards, understandings, essential questions, skills, knowledge, varied assessments, constructivist instructional methods and interactive strategies, time lines, resources: These are some of the basic elements of personalized teaching. Each is critical. All are intertwined. Personalized teaching takes students' individual characteristics and needs into account when planning and organizing the learning environment. Teachers must clearly understand their school's mission, be able to articulate their own beliefs, and know how their beliefs correspond to the mission. A key factor in preparing personalized curriculum units and projects includes mandates, such as performance standards, standardized texts, and academy themes. If mandates are seen as "something they have to teach," they become a discouraging burden on teachers. If they are seen instead as ways to inspire, inform, and lend coherence to planning, they can be seen as useful. Teachers must identify the big ideas in their content area, establish essential questions to guide the students toward these ideas, determine what students will need to know and be able to do to thoroughly understand the ideas, then create appropriate tools to assess whether the students are learning what they need to know. Personalized teaching is best developed in mission-driven schools that practice collaborative leadership within design teams, best practices teams, small learning communities, and the like. The effects of personalized teaching on student performance have been well documented. What may be less understood and perhaps as important for the long-term viability of school reform is the effect of personalization on teachers. Almost all teachers find it emotionally fulfilling and personally energizing when students begin to succeed, especially where they have previously failed.