Well, it's that time again: the semester is coming to a close. My last day of class was Monday. This week I've been finishing a term paper (which I turned in yesterday morning), studying for my two finals that I have to take, working on completing an electronic portfolio with all of my teaching documents from this semester, preparing materials for the class that I'm still teaching (the last day of class at UVU is next Thursday), and getting ready for the classes that I'll teach in the summer. So even though I'm not in class I'm still pretty busy. And then, when I finish a lot of this stuff, Dave will finish classes and be studying for his finals. So the rest of April is going to be pretty busy for us.
And here's a quick inventory of my school year goals, as I am finishing off the school year:
Work Goals:
1. I really enjoyed my work this semester. I was able to tutor quite a bit this semester, which was a good job to have around my busy school schedule. I felt like I worked hard at all 3 of my jobs (TAing, tutoring, and teaching). For the goal I set in January, I was able to stay on top of my work and not get overwhelmed by how busy I was. And now, for the summer, I have arranged to teach 4 different classes, 2 reading classes and 2 writing classes. I'm really looking forward to these classes, because they will be my first classes to teach all by myself. Woot! Now my goal is to be a good teacher for my students. This means scheduling preparation time for myself every day, and using it! I also got quite a bit of feedback from my teaching practicum this semester, and I'm going to set some sub-goals for myself from that feedback so that I can be a better teacher.
School Goals:
2. Of course I don't know what my grades are yet for this semester. But I still have my goal of getting all A's. I feel like my effort in my classes this semester has been A material, so I guess we'll just see if my teachers feel the same way. I still have my electronic portfolio and my two finals to work on, so I am going to put a lot of effort into those for the next 6 days until I am done. And then we'll see what happens!
3. This semester I applied and was accepted into BYU's MA TESOL program. This was one of my major goals for myself, and I'm so glad that I accomplished it. Now my goal for myself this summer is to follow the schedule that my adviser and I have set up for myself in getting parts of my project done.
Personal Goals:
4. Well, I can't say that I've done that well at writing in my journal this semester. But I have started writing in my journal this last week. And it feels so good! It relieves stress, and it reminds me of things that I want to do and accomplish, since I can easily go back and read what I wrote about wanting to do. I've written in it once a day since Sunday. I don't think that I will always journal once a day. But my goal is to write in it at least twice a week. And I think that I'm going to start a teaching journal that will help me reflect each time I teach a class.
5. Dave and I started running about 2-3 times a week this semester. We don't always make it running when we plan to, but it is becoming more of a habit. Dave is really good at remembering this goal, and he even goes running by himself when I don't want to go (I've been a real slacker this week!). We're hoping to keep this up throughout the summer.
6. My lessons in my Primary class have been going much better. I plan each lesson out with specific times that I'm going to move on to the next activity, so that I know if I'm on schedule. And then I've been much better at thinking of lots of activities so that we can move on to something new if the 3-year-olds' attention spans are shorter than I thought they would be. :D This calling is pretty fun, and I am happy!
Showing posts with label Goals. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Goals. Show all posts
Thursday, April 15, 2010
Monday, February 8, 2010
Budgeting
I recently started following a new blog called Frugal Wife = Wealthy Life. This blog is all about how a wife (or the financially responsible person in a marriage, whether it be husband, wife, or both) can really help a family by living and managing money frugally. Some of their tips deal with spending, some with saving, and some with budgeting.
The blog is written by two sisters and their mother, and they offer suggestions that they personally use to manage their families' finances. I think that it's a very useful blog, and if you're trying to get your finances in order I would recommend that you check it out.
Right now Dave and I are trying to start budgeting again. We started out last semester with a budget, and I would say that we've done a very good job spending money only on things that we can afford. But we've stopped looking at our budget regularly and consciously thinking about it. We've decided (at the recommendation of the Frugal Wife blog) to try out the budgeting tool mint.com. The website keeps track of the different categories that you spend in, and helps you know if you've overspent on your budget. I'll let you know how it goes!
The blog is written by two sisters and their mother, and they offer suggestions that they personally use to manage their families' finances. I think that it's a very useful blog, and if you're trying to get your finances in order I would recommend that you check it out.
Right now Dave and I are trying to start budgeting again. We started out last semester with a budget, and I would say that we've done a very good job spending money only on things that we can afford. But we've stopped looking at our budget regularly and consciously thinking about it. We've decided (at the recommendation of the Frugal Wife blog) to try out the budgeting tool mint.com. The website keeps track of the different categories that you spend in, and helps you know if you've overspent on your budget. I'll let you know how it goes!
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
Change
I have been teaching a community ESL class at BYU's English Language Center (ELC). The class is called TTTC. It started about 4 weeks ago, and I have about 1 week of instruction left. The students are adults who are seeking English skills to improve their daily life living in an English speaking country.
After my last week, I will move into teaching another class, which will be a regular class offered to ELC students. These students will be focusing on passing the TOEFL and entering an English speaking university.
There will be a lot of change. The setting will be different. The amount of time that I teach will be different. The teacher that I work with will be different. The students' ages, goals, and maturity will all be different. Some of these changes might be hard to get used to. However, I think that the change will be good for me.
After my last week, I will move into teaching another class, which will be a regular class offered to ELC students. These students will be focusing on passing the TOEFL and entering an English speaking university.
There will be a lot of change. The setting will be different. The amount of time that I teach will be different. The teacher that I work with will be different. The students' ages, goals, and maturity will all be different. Some of these changes might be hard to get used to. However, I think that the change will be good for me.
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
The Really Big Question...
Merry is great, thinking about goals and highlights and stuff. I, on the other hand have been thinking about much less (or perhaps more) weighty stuff. Namely burgers, whose is better.
Five Guys started as a Washington D.C. area chain but has since branched into many parts of the county. They offer burgers and fries and that's about it.
In-n-out I think we all know, so I won't say much about it.
To be honest I've already made up my mind. Both resturants opened in Utah recently and I've tried both. In-n-out's big plus is that it's cheap; that having been said, the burger was small, unexceptional, and hardly worth the hype. The problem with In-n-out, and most of the other burger joints is that they seem to have forgotten something important along the way, namely beef. The beef on their burgers could be switched with the beef from any other burger place and no one would notice the difference.
The fries were even less interesting than the burger and could have been served at any burger joint in town, in fact I will go go so far as to say that each of the big three (you know who they are) serves better fries than In-n-out. The strawberry milkshake I ordered was depressingly reminiscent of a McDonalds milkshake and did absolutely nothing for me except shorten my life a little (yes, in California it is heresy to mention McDonalds and In-n-out in the same paragraph).
Ewww gross, if I'm going to stop my heart early through the consumption of fried potato sticks, it sure as heckfire ain't gonna be these ones
Five Guys, on the other hand, is a spiritual experience every time I go. The burgers get all the free toppings you could want, the beef is delicious, and the buns hold together even though they can get a bit overloaded. The fries however, are one of the best things about Five Guys. They are made in the fine tradition of English Chips, fried to a golden brown, more than enough to satiate any Irish potato lover.
An image so inspiring it should have been painted by one of the old masters...or at least silk screened by Andy Warhol
I must also admit a sentimental attachment to Five Guys. When I spent a summer in the District (for the uninitiated this is Washington D.C.) I had no money and so lived on rice and beans the entire summer. In spite of my poverty however, I still went to the Five Guys in Georgetown and ordered a cheeseburger every Saturday. For someone who's been living on 800 calories a day (for once I am not exaggerating), those burgers are absolutely delicious.
So that's it. In-n-Out stinks, Five Guys is much much better, I've said it and I won't take it back. The gauntlet is down.
Five Guys started as a Washington D.C. area chain but has since branched into many parts of the county. They offer burgers and fries and that's about it.
In-n-out I think we all know, so I won't say much about it.
To be honest I've already made up my mind. Both resturants opened in Utah recently and I've tried both. In-n-out's big plus is that it's cheap; that having been said, the burger was small, unexceptional, and hardly worth the hype. The problem with In-n-out, and most of the other burger joints is that they seem to have forgotten something important along the way, namely beef. The beef on their burgers could be switched with the beef from any other burger place and no one would notice the difference.
The fries were even less interesting than the burger and could have been served at any burger joint in town, in fact I will go go so far as to say that each of the big three (you know who they are) serves better fries than In-n-out. The strawberry milkshake I ordered was depressingly reminiscent of a McDonalds milkshake and did absolutely nothing for me except shorten my life a little (yes, in California it is heresy to mention McDonalds and In-n-out in the same paragraph).
Ewww gross, if I'm going to stop my heart early through the consumption of fried potato sticks, it sure as heckfire ain't gonna be these ones
Five Guys, on the other hand, is a spiritual experience every time I go. The burgers get all the free toppings you could want, the beef is delicious, and the buns hold together even though they can get a bit overloaded. The fries however, are one of the best things about Five Guys. They are made in the fine tradition of English Chips, fried to a golden brown, more than enough to satiate any Irish potato lover.
An image so inspiring it should have been painted by one of the old masters...or at least silk screened by Andy Warhol
I must also admit a sentimental attachment to Five Guys. When I spent a summer in the District (for the uninitiated this is Washington D.C.) I had no money and so lived on rice and beans the entire summer. In spite of my poverty however, I still went to the Five Guys in Georgetown and ordered a cheeseburger every Saturday. For someone who's been living on 800 calories a day (for once I am not exaggerating), those burgers are absolutely delicious.
So that's it. In-n-Out stinks, Five Guys is much much better, I've said it and I won't take it back. The gauntlet is down.
Monday, January 11, 2010
Reflection on School Year Goals
As the New Year starts, I thought I'd take a look at the school year goals I set back in October.
Work
1. I've done well with my work goal. I worked hard last semester and finished off all of my work for the semester with a bang! And I am starting 2 new jobs this semester! I'm going to be tutoring, and I'll teach a grammar class. There's also a third job that I'm applying for right now, to be a writing tutor. I hope I get it! So, with my 3 (maybe 4) jobs, I am sure going to be busy this semester! My goal now is to stay on top of my work and not get overwhelmed.
School
2. My classes were pretty time intensive last semester, and took a lot of effort. But I'm glad to say that I did very well! I'm looking forward to my classes this semester (we've already had 1 week of class, but the work hasn't really started yet), and I hope to achieve my goal of getting all As!
3. I've already accomplished my sub-goal of finding a project for my masters program. I've written the project proposal and had several people look at it. I've also started my letter of intent, although I'm not as far along with that as I thought I would be by this point. But I'm going to work hard on finishing those two things this week, and I'll have my TESOL MA application turned in by this Friday!
Personal
4 and 5. I have not done well at achieving my personal goals. I haven't journaled or been running once since I set these goals. But I'm going to try again to start these goals. I think that this semester I can get better at both of them. To do this, I'm going to make a reminder for myself, so that I think of these goals more often than once a semester!
Marriage
6. Well, Dave and I were teaching the 13-year-olds. Now he is teaching them by himself and I am teaching in the Primary. I just started teaching the Sunbeams (the 3-year-olds). In my class there are 3 little girls. This makes planning lessons for them really difficult. First of all, they want to be out of their seats and moving around a lot, so the lessons have to take that into account. You have to use a lot of activities to keep their attention. And then the second thing is that there are so few of them that the activities always go so quickly. If we had a few more students the activities would take longer, and then the activities I planned would last the whole hour that I have them. As it is, my lesson went short. I'm going to be teaching again in a couple of weeks, and I'm going to try to plan enough materials to keep the little girls busy and happy the whole time. And since this is now a goal for myself, I'm going to move it to my personal goals.
It has been fun to look back at these goals and reflect on them. I think that I'm going to set some more goals for this year, and try to take an inventory on them at least once a month. Wish me luck!
Work
1. I've done well with my work goal. I worked hard last semester and finished off all of my work for the semester with a bang! And I am starting 2 new jobs this semester! I'm going to be tutoring, and I'll teach a grammar class. There's also a third job that I'm applying for right now, to be a writing tutor. I hope I get it! So, with my 3 (maybe 4) jobs, I am sure going to be busy this semester! My goal now is to stay on top of my work and not get overwhelmed.
School
2. My classes were pretty time intensive last semester, and took a lot of effort. But I'm glad to say that I did very well! I'm looking forward to my classes this semester (we've already had 1 week of class, but the work hasn't really started yet), and I hope to achieve my goal of getting all As!
3. I've already accomplished my sub-goal of finding a project for my masters program. I've written the project proposal and had several people look at it. I've also started my letter of intent, although I'm not as far along with that as I thought I would be by this point. But I'm going to work hard on finishing those two things this week, and I'll have my TESOL MA application turned in by this Friday!
Personal
4 and 5. I have not done well at achieving my personal goals. I haven't journaled or been running once since I set these goals. But I'm going to try again to start these goals. I think that this semester I can get better at both of them. To do this, I'm going to make a reminder for myself, so that I think of these goals more often than once a semester!
Marriage
6. Well, Dave and I were teaching the 13-year-olds. Now he is teaching them by himself and I am teaching in the Primary. I just started teaching the Sunbeams (the 3-year-olds). In my class there are 3 little girls. This makes planning lessons for them really difficult. First of all, they want to be out of their seats and moving around a lot, so the lessons have to take that into account. You have to use a lot of activities to keep their attention. And then the second thing is that there are so few of them that the activities always go so quickly. If we had a few more students the activities would take longer, and then the activities I planned would last the whole hour that I have them. As it is, my lesson went short. I'm going to be teaching again in a couple of weeks, and I'm going to try to plan enough materials to keep the little girls busy and happy the whole time. And since this is now a goal for myself, I'm going to move it to my personal goals.
It has been fun to look back at these goals and reflect on them. I think that I'm going to set some more goals for this year, and try to take an inventory on them at least once a month. Wish me luck!
Friday, October 9, 2009
School Year Goals
If you remember this post, you'll know that I decided to set some goals for this school year. Here they are:
Work Goals:
1. I will work hard! Next semester, I will possibly be looking for another job, because one of my current jobs conflicts with my class schedule. So I think that I will try to get individual tutoring jobs that I can schedule flexibly around my classes.
School Goals:
2. I will get all As. This is going to be hard. Graduate school has been harder than I thought it would be. But I'm glad that it's hard. I have wanted to go back to school, and I'm willing to put the effort into it. So, all As - that's three this semester and three next semester.
3. I will apply to BYU's MA TESOL program, and be accepted. In order to accomplish this, I'm going to need to do a couple sub-goals:
a. I will find a project that I can do for my masters (They give the option between a thesis and a project.), This will involve talking to a few people down at the ELC to see what needs to be done.
b. I will start writing my letter of intent now, so I can have it looked at and edited by a few people.
Personal Goals:
4. I will journal at least once a week. I blog now, but I can't really say a lot of things on this blog. And blogging on my blog makes me want to read all of the blogs I subscribe to, and that can be a real time-waster during the week.
5. I will run for 20 minutes, three times a week. That is only the commitment of 1 hour per week. I can do that. I need to do that.
Marriage Goals:
6. Dave and I teach the 13-year-olds at church. My goal is that we will prepare good lessons for them that are involving and meaningful.
Work Goals:
1. I will work hard! Next semester, I will possibly be looking for another job, because one of my current jobs conflicts with my class schedule. So I think that I will try to get individual tutoring jobs that I can schedule flexibly around my classes.
School Goals:
2. I will get all As. This is going to be hard. Graduate school has been harder than I thought it would be. But I'm glad that it's hard. I have wanted to go back to school, and I'm willing to put the effort into it. So, all As - that's three this semester and three next semester.
3. I will apply to BYU's MA TESOL program, and be accepted. In order to accomplish this, I'm going to need to do a couple sub-goals:
a. I will find a project that I can do for my masters (They give the option between a thesis and a project.), This will involve talking to a few people down at the ELC to see what needs to be done.
b. I will start writing my letter of intent now, so I can have it looked at and edited by a few people.
Personal Goals:
4. I will journal at least once a week. I blog now, but I can't really say a lot of things on this blog. And blogging on my blog makes me want to read all of the blogs I subscribe to, and that can be a real time-waster during the week.
5. I will run for 20 minutes, three times a week. That is only the commitment of 1 hour per week. I can do that. I need to do that.
Marriage Goals:
6. Dave and I teach the 13-year-olds at church. My goal is that we will prepare good lessons for them that are involving and meaningful.
Monday, September 21, 2009
Thoughts on New Year's Resolutions From Dave
I personally think that New Year's Resolutions should be more like the fiscal year. Corporations and other entities can establish their fiscal year at any point they want to, and although I'm not sure, I think they can change it without a whole lot of trouble (cue all the CPA readers with correcting comments) as long as it consists of 365 days.
In the interest of my self-esteem I will now be making fiscal year resolutions instead of New Year's Resolutions: I will run at least once a week, and since the fiscal year starting last Saturday I am 100% in compliance with that goal. Whoo-hoo!
Resolutions no longer induce a cringe for me, it's all about Fiscal Year Resolutions from here on out
For those of you who cringe every time you think New Years, I recommend the new improved, fiscal year resolution. For the low price of $59.99 plus shipping I will send you a copy of my best selling book (really, it's the best selling book I've ever written) Fiscal Year Resolutions Done Right: How to Make the System work for You. Lest there be any doubt about the scholarly quality of my work, please take note of the colon in the book's title.
Thursday, September 17, 2009
New Year's Check Up
I read a post by my friend Camille today checking back to her New Year's resolutions. In it, she had a status update on her goals, and whether some of them needed to be put off until 2010. I was impressed with her idea to go back and review, to make sure that she was accomplishing what she wanted. I decided to go back and read what I wrote for New Year's, so I could do the same. This is what I wrote.
As you can see, the only goal I talked about was my one new-ish goal, to exercise regularly. This was because I was just going to continue with some older goals for the year. Well, here's my update.
--I think I've gone running about twice this whole year. I haven't exercised in any other form, except for the various hiking, snow shoeing activities I've done with Dave.
--I don't remember any of my other goals! I must have been working on them last year, and probably kept working on them for a while after the new year started. But whatever they were, they are long gone now.
What I can take from this: Even if I'm not going to add any new goals for the year, maybe it would still be a good idea to write down what I am working on, as a reminder and a way to track progress.
In the spirit of this lesson, I'm going to write a post soon stating my goals for the new school year. Hopefully I'll be able to keep looking back at that, and accomplish what I want to by the end of April. That's 4 months less than a normal calendar year, but I think it'll be something fun for me to focus on outside of school and work.
As you can see, the only goal I talked about was my one new-ish goal, to exercise regularly. This was because I was just going to continue with some older goals for the year. Well, here's my update.
--I think I've gone running about twice this whole year. I haven't exercised in any other form, except for the various hiking, snow shoeing activities I've done with Dave.
--I don't remember any of my other goals! I must have been working on them last year, and probably kept working on them for a while after the new year started. But whatever they were, they are long gone now.
What I can take from this: Even if I'm not going to add any new goals for the year, maybe it would still be a good idea to write down what I am working on, as a reminder and a way to track progress.
In the spirit of this lesson, I'm going to write a post soon stating my goals for the new school year. Hopefully I'll be able to keep looking back at that, and accomplish what I want to by the end of April. That's 4 months less than a normal calendar year, but I think it'll be something fun for me to focus on outside of school and work.
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