Thursday, January 1, 2015

Year in Review

Wow I cant believe 2014 is over. It was an amazing year full of challenges, adventures, changes, travel, and so much more. I want to highlight some amazing things and reflect on the goals I made last January.  I also want to thank all of my friends and family for making this year incredible. 

Highlights ;)

I turned 25... It was sorta a big deal for me. I feel old now. I feel maturer. I feel appropriate. What I mainly am referring to was teaching. As a newbie teacher and being 23 I felt young, inexperienced, and unknown. Now that I am 25 (I know that 2 years isnt that much) I feel more qualified to be a teacher. I know weird. 

Also in January I started my masters, at Michigan State.  I completed 6 courses this year which is quite impressive in my opinion. I did all of them well and am pleased with my learnings and grades. I still have 4 to go though... 

Moe and I went to the beach in April during our break. It was a wonderful getaway and one that I will always remember. 

In June I finished my 2nd year of teaching and then traveled to America alone, which was sorta scary! Being home with my family was definitely a highlight of my year and being able to watch my baby brother get married to his beautiful bride was wonderfully terrific. 

I started year 3 of teaching in August and became the "head" of my grade band (grades 3-5). I have had to work closely with our new principal this year and help remind and encourage my department, especially since a handful of them were new. It has been a challenging but enjoyable responsibility. 

I coached middle school volleyball again this fall and one of the cool things the school did after the season was have a staff vs. students game. So I was able to truly show my skills ;) during the game. But in reality it was a lot of fun to actually play volleyball again! 

Moe bought a charcoal grill as one of his Christmas presents. We have been enjoying learning how to grill and enjoying the tastiness that comes from the grill! Its been fun and a nice addition. 

Lots of other things too but Im done thinking...

Goals

These were my goals from last year with my comments of review added to them 
-  Be intentional about relationships - I do think I did this well this year. I feel more connected and involved in my community now than I have before. I do think I can progress in this, but I have made the first step which is very encouraging to me. 
-  Spend quality time with family and friends - In review I think that this goes hand and hand with the first one. I did spend much more quality time with people. I love quality time though so I might use this one again! 
-  Cook more dinners/Try new recipes - I definitely did this! Moe and I had been eating out way too much our first year here.  This year (2014) we definitely cooked more and tried a handful of new recipes. Some worked and some didnt... we had quite a few complete fails too. But again I want to continue this and maybe try even more new recipes!!
-  Travel (to the beach, Malaysia, and America) - We did travel to the beach and America. We didnt make it to Malaysia... hopefully this year??
-  Finish this school year to the best of my abilities - This will probably always be on my list. I did okay this year though. 
-  Be more specifically encouraging to my students - not just "keep going" "you're doing great" - This is a struggle for me. I am getting to know my students better this school year so hopefully I am able to be more encouraging and more specific with them. Those that I am able to do this with I can see the benefits and their appreciation. 
-  Get organized - UGH! I have done a few things, but still LOTS of room for improvement
-  Blog more - new goal, twice a month.... - UGGGGGGH again. Might have to be the same goal this year. 
-  Be more budget conscious & Save - This one we definitely did. I feel so much better about saving money and being able to do the things we want to do. We were able to travel and buy a 2nd motorbike and all kinds of things because we started saving! Who knew! 
-  Read 15 books.  (I read at least 17 this year, but more than half of them were from my class library...) - This one I can say I definitely did! I read 17 books this year! And I would say only 3 could be consider kids books (but really they were middle school books). 

...... new goals will come in a later post......

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