Teach Middle East Magazine September 2014 Issue 1 Vol. 2 | Page 18

Sharing Good Practice

5 TIPS TO HELP YOU KEEP YOUR
NEW SCHOOL YEAR RESOLUTIONS
By Leisa Simapili

W

e do it every year. By the
month of June before
the current school year
even ends, we begin to
tell ourselves how we will do many
things differently in the upcoming
school year. Just like the start of the
new calendar year, many teachers go
through a process of soul searching
and then begin to make a laundry list
of new school year resolutions. Does
that sound familiar? Are you guilty of
it? It’s all too familiar to me and I sure
am guilty as charged. We begin to say
what we will do and how much more
we plan to achieve before we have
even met our new students.
There are those of us who even
agonise all summer long when we
should be resting and relaxing. We
take out our planning books and we
look back at all the things we should
have done differently. There is nothing
wrong with good self-reflection and
self-evaluation; however, this becomes
an issue if it takes up the majority of
our summer break.
The school year starts and we are full
of zeal and resolve to keep all of our
new school year resolutions. Some of
us even write them out and make a wall
chart. I know it may sound as if I am not
a fan of resolutions but that is not the

16

September 2014

case. I have done it every year; some
years I have succeeded in keeping a
few, while there has been other years
when I have failed miserably. After
many trials and errors I have come up
with what I believe are the top 5 tips for
keeping new school year resolutions.
Make it something you really want
your students to achieve
Don’t make it a resolution about you as
a teacher but instead shift the focus to
your students. In doing so you help to
increase your students’ achievement
levels. You also feel a great sense of
accomplishment when they do well.
Limit your list to a number you can
handle
It’s probably best to make two or three
resolutions that you intend to keep.
That way, you’re focusing your efforts
on the goals you truly want. I strongly
believe that if we set more than three
resolutions with all the other demands
that we have on our time as teachers,
we are far less likely to succeed.
Be specific
To be effective, resolutions and goals
need to be pretty specific. Write them
as if you are writing lesson objectives
with clearly thought out steps on how
they will be achieved.

Class Time

Automate
Make them something that you can
do a little of every day that over time
they become something you do
automatically.
Make a plan
Rather than stating one daunting goal,
create a series of smaller steps that
culminate into the overall goal. Have
an action plan. Figure out exactly what
you want to do and then do it. It may
sound easy but it takes consistency
and hard work.
If you need immediate rewards to keep
you motivated, here’s a suggestion.
Ask yourself: ‘What are the shortterm rewards?’ Plan incentives for
yourself and your students. When you
reach a milestone or achieve a goal,
reward yourself and [