Goals for The New Year

Well, I shouldn't say "goals", rather areas of improvement I could focus for myself, for my friends and for my family. Nobody's perfect, as we all have flaws and weaknesses, though being aware of how we can be better people and better learners, I'm all for it. I need to make one of these for my classrooms!

My class about happiness did have the most influential and worthwhile impact on me. I'm pretty bummed that I took this so late in my undergrad, but better late than never right? Looking at the pictures and responses by my peers, their words remind me of what really does matter in life.

via GIPHY

When I see words like honesty - gratitude - optimism - kindness - and selflessness, I always reflect if I am just that. I feel like I am, I know that I am, but sometimes we all could be better in ways we struggle with.

I believe instead of working on individual and monthly goals, it's more realistic to work on one goal as a whole. I don't know if that makes sense with anyone, but it did for me in some capacity.

My main focus for 2016 is to be a better person. I'm more than just a person, I am Christian, I am a student, I am an educator, volunteer, colleague, cousin, brother, son, etc, that a person just sums up who we each individually are. Now, what's the best way to work on this "becoming better person" image?

I see this as a manageable and realistic goal to work on throughout the new year! From class we talked about being grateful for what we have and do, maintaining and creating new social relationships and smiling & laughing more often. I usually think New Year's Resolutions are a fad as everyone hits the gym for the January 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th; but if you interpret this as an opportunity to improve yourself in some fashion, no one should bring you down because of that. I found this last picture on facebook, which I thought was pretty deep. I'll leave it here for you guys and all the best in 2016!

Subject 4 - Health (or the elementary version of CALM class)

Health and Religion were interesting classes to teach, because there's no Alberta Program of Studies (POS) available online. However, my MT had certain objectives, similar to the POS that she has. She listed the outcomes I must focus on, thus my lesson revolved around that.

Here is an example of one of the objectives: R6.8 The students will analyze the influence of groups, cliques and alliances on self and others; e.g. at home, in school, in the community.

I introduced this class with a movie trailer and transitioned into a class discussion about cliques vs. group. I had to use examples and some kids even asked me "Mr. Fabia, were you a nerd?" I told them the truth. ;)

Here's the trailer I showed! They seemed to enjoy it, somewhat, maybe?

Teaching health was pretty cool, and I don't mind teaching it more! I also focused about community and forming relationships with older people. The outcomes were straight forward, it's the matter of using modern (and easy to assess) activities to use in class.

PS - Instead of playing the trailer above, I was going to play Mean Girls. However, the trailer was not appropriate for a Gr. 6 Catholic school class. Good thing I switched it last minute!