Happy New Year!

I get excited for new beginnings; hence, I often like to capitalize on natural “restarts” throughout the year in order to refocus on areas I want to improve in my life. Typically, New Years and a new school year are my favorites! I’ve been plotting adjustments I want to make for the last month or so. Clearly, there’s no reason why these changes couldn’t be started at any time, but for me, clean breaks work better!

Academic Goals

Read an average of 2 books per month.
I started reading a lot more when I was living Nigeria without a lot of other entertainment opportunities and remembered that I DO like reading! My goal for the past few years has been to read 1 book per month, but I’ve been surpassing that, so now that I’m living abroad again with limited options after dark, I feel I can up my standards.

Read 1 Spanish book per week.
I’m going to start at a low children’s level and increase the reading level as I (hopefully) improve!

Internet Goals

Limit facebook usage to an acceptable amount.

-No facebook news feed in the morning.
-Only check email/facebook at lunch.
-No facebook news feed until workout has been done

I am a firm believer that facebook is a positive thing. I truly appreciate being able to keep in touch with so many friends from literally all over the world. However, I’m also confident that checking the facebook newsfeed every 30 minutes isn’t a good use of my time.

Diversify internet usage.
Read international news and Salvadoran news daily

Health Goals

Maintain running and include strength training.

-Run at least 4x’s per week.
-Other exercises (yoga/calisthenics) 4x’s per week

Running is just a part of my life, so it’s not a big deal. However, trying to increase my motivation to do strength training is ridiculously challenging for me. I think if I link it to facebook, it will help! J

Drink more water
Drinking more water will make me less hungry and help me to eat reasonable portions.

Eat fewer sweets-good rule of thumb is 1/day after Jaunuary.
I love sweets. It can get out of control…and did. After I once again realize I don’t need ridiculous amounts of sugar to function by going cold turkey, I can return to the happy place of moderation.

Service Goals

Participate in one weekend service activity per month.
I loved the opportunities I had to travel around this first semester here in El Salvador, but I also realized that I’m living in a developing country with all sorts of service opportunities available that I hadn’t adequately tapped into yet. I’m excited to mix that in a bit more this year!

Get involved in Glasswing –a program involved with Salvadoran public education.
I’m teaching at an elite private school, but I’d love to be able to get involved at some level with public education here in El Salvador as well.

Ask about volunteering at the nursing home.
I miss the elderly. I loved Gavino, the man I visited weekly in San Antonio, and the regulars I was able to see in Clinton. There’s a nursing home not far from where I live, so I’m going to go see if I can volunteer there on a regular basis. It’ll be interesting to see how similar it is to nursing homes in the states.

Increase Community

Cook a dinner to eat with others 2x’s per month.
This always sounds like a good idea to me, but then I get worried about whatever I made being strange and appealing only to me. I’m going to quit being concerned and make some arrangements!

Professional Goals

Do one chemistry demo per week.
I know that kids love demos and they can be a great teaching too both for application as well as engagement. It will simply take a little extra planning and effort to make sure they happen regularly. The results will certainly be worth the effort!

Increase the amount of patience displayed.
This doesn’t mean I want to decrease rigor or lower expectations but simply to teach the expectations that I desire instead of displaying frustration when those expectations are not met.

Investigate Curriculum Writing.
This is the first school I’ve worked at where the curriculum standards weren’t presented to me. The scope and sequence is also lacking. I have a master’s degree in Curriculum and Instruction in Science Education and should be applying that training to improving the curriculum around me!

Wow! This list turned out to be a lot longer than I had initially anticipated, but all of these things listed have been pondered regularly for a while now, so in theory they shouldn’t be that difficult to implement. As I review it, they all seem to be very do-able but just require a bit more mindfulness than I had been employing. I’ve never really written them out in such an official fashion before, but this will hopefully provide me an opportunity to look back and reflect on my progress! Now that I am officially settled and comfortable in new Salvadoran life, it’s time to tweak it from great to delightful AND worthwhile! J I’ll get started on all of this when I get back from a week of volunteering down in Costa Rica! Should be an exciting start to 2012!!!