"I plan on spending more time with my family." - Wendy
"I want to become ambidexterous." - Katie (14)
"Reading 3 books a month." - Martika (9)
"I want to learn how to whistle." - Val-michelle (14)
"To talk less in class, not to be on the phone as much, keep my attitude cool, not to be rude, to be nice to my nephew and to get straight A's." - Valerie (14)
"Meet new guys." - Liz (14)
"I would like to be able to wear a MED shirt and a size 7 pants." - Mim (11)
"To work to get what I want and to try my hardest at it." - Laura (18)
"To do really good in running club, get along with my little brother, and make good grades." - Allison (10)
"Lift weights, exercise, run & ride my bike daily." - Phillip (7)
"To do excellent in school." - Dana (13)
"1. To start exercising at least twice a week.....preferably 3 times. 2. To learn how to play the harmonica....cuz it really looks cool and, 3. To always remember that I am perfect exactly the way I am, and to always love myself no matter what others might say about me. " - Calm (15)
"I want to: 1.) Learn to play the guitar 2.) Volunteer in the summer 3.) Do better in science 4 .) Get a job 5.) Get my learner's license 6.) Listen better 7.) Stop putting other people down even when I'm just kidding (My theory: If you have to SAY you're just kidding, it's probably not funny.)" - Sunny (14)
A sixth-grader can improve by listening to directions the first time given. He can be a friendlier dude. He can wait his turn in line. He can learn to stay on the right side of the hall. He should learn to follow the dress code. He will certainly stop sitting in Miss Jenkins' chairs. He will stop kicking the lockers. He can chew with his mouth closed at lunch time. He should take school seriously. He should use his passes wisely. These are a few things that a sixth-grader should do to improve during the year. - By Sara J.
A sixth-grader can lead a better life. She can be careful about personal hygiene. If she is not careful, people will talk about her. She should study better or she will get bad grades. She ought to pay more attention or she will not know what to do. She should be nicer or she will have no friends. She should do her homework. If not, she will get into trouble. She should listen to others. What they have to say might be important. She should do her own work. Someone else's might be wrong. She should brush her teeth or they will look bad. That is how a sixth-grader could improve. - By Kelly K.
Do you have your students make resolutions and goals to help them improve? Making resolutions is one way we strive to better ourselves. Resolutions become goals that we steadily work towards achieving. As educators, one way we can help our students become life-long learners is to teach them the importance of making and keeping resolutions (or setting and meeting goals).
Keeping a resolution and working steadily towards a goal is not an easy task. We each operate with a set of learned habits. Sometimes these habits are positive and include activities and behaviors that are healthy, such as making our bed, eating vegetables, exercising, and reading daily. Most of the time our resolutions include building good habits where poor ones (or none) exist.
For the longest time I had no idea how to go about keeping my resolutions. Each year I made them and each year I dropped them. As a whole the resolutions seemed too overwhelming to actually succeed. However, I came across a most helpful lady who showed me that we can keep our resolutions by building new habits. I'm going to borrow a little from her for this article, but I give her complete credit for the ideas. Her name is Marla Cilley and she is the FlyLady.
A habit is something that you do each day until it becomes an unconscious action or behavior. I think back to the day when my mother forced me to make my bed each morning before coming downstairs to breakfast. Now I made my bed without even thinking about it. In fact, sometimes I have to go back and check because I can't even remember doing that simple task.
We want to help ourselves and our students build healthy habits. A habit is formed when a task or behavior is performed the same way each day for 25 days. Marla gives it an extra oomph by saying it takes 27 days to build a habit.
The first step to building a habit is to make a resolution or set a goal as we discussed above. The next step is to start with small baby steps. If a poor reader makes a resolution to be a better reader, he/she will become overwhelmed at the prospect of reading a 150 page novel right at the start. However, if we help the student set a goal of reading 1 page per night and start out with a smaller book, the task is more manageable.
Taking baby steps also means breaking a goal into specific tasks or routines. The more you follow your routine, the better chance you have of forming a new habit and thus meeting your goal. In our tips section, we continue this discussion and offer a few further tips for helping your students keep their resolutions.
I also strongly recommend you to check out the FlyLady's website (http://www.flylady.com) if you are wanting to help yourself become more organized both at work and at home. Her ideas make sense and easily apply to the classroom.
