Do you find resolutions to be ineffective to start a new year and so you just skip that process altogether? If so, hello friend! Me too!
But I know how useful a fresh start can be for ourselves as people and teachers and for our students too. Using goal setting and updating and revising those goals is part of my own practice. You can read more about that here or here.
But in recent years after stumbling across the article We Are A Determined Household by Saeed Jones I shifted my thinking and practice to establish determinations and not resolutions. (You can listen to the author read the essay here.)
The essay is about the author’s mother who had an annual tradition of setting determinations rather than resolutions.
Every December Jones’ mother would ask her son if he had written his determinations yet. And she’d echo a familiar refrain: “We are a determined household.”
These determinations were central to their year ahead in the hopes of meeting these ideals; though they were not always possible the aspiration and positive thinking was admirable for the start of every new year.
The essay, like so much of Jones’ writing, is poignant. It resonates with students with his turn of phrase as well as the essay’s impact and brevity (at just under 700 words). And that final paragraph, oh my it’s so good – eloquent, emotional, and a perfect resolution to the essay!
Making Determinations in Your Classroom
Upon the return from winter break to start the new year, students read the essay or they can listen to the audio version. From there, have the class write their determinations. These can be personal or academic. Distribute a series of index cards (same as the author and his mother would do) and ask students to write out their statements. The key to these statements is to start with “I will…”
From there post them in your room. In my classes, we populate the door to the classroom with our determinations. I don’t require students to put their name on them. They do submit their determinations to me before they go on the door as part of an accountability strategy.
I give the option of placing their index card backwards on the door so it’s not immediately visible. We do this as an accountability piece to ourselves and the class but still enabling some opportunity for privacy.
To facilitate this, they place a star on the side they want visible. So if a student doesn’t want to have their determination face outward then I go with that and tape it up so that the blank (or doodled on) backside of the index card is visible. But I’ve read through each card and generally noted who handed what in so if there’s a need for a check-in or further supports that’s easily done.
We Are A Determined Class
After that we revisit our determinations in time. Often they stay up on the door for a long-time and sometimes they get moved to a smaller bulletin board in the class.
At the end of the course – at the change of semester or end of school year – I encourage students to take theirs with them to continue the reminder of what they are determined to do in the year to come.
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