STUDENTS: Challenging students to New Year’s resolutions!

Challenging students to New Year’s resolutions







Do you remember celebrating New Year’s Eve when you were still a
child? Perhaps you have faint memories of staying up until midnight and
sharing your excitement with friends, snacks and the T.V. But even that
excitement never compared to the REAL New Years when you were
younger…the last day of school. This is the time when the excitement
really hits grade school students. Another year down – this means they
are officially another grade older and let’s face it, grade school
seniority is awfully important. The last
day of school means months of sunny days without a class on the
horizon. Without doubt, the school year is the calendar students live by
and unfortunately that may mean that they consider the real New Year’s
celebration as less important.

One way to get students excited
about the New Year (the one in January that is) is challenging them to
make a New Year’s resolution. This is a great way to hone in on a
particular subject in school that a student is struggling with. For
example, a New Year’s resolution could be to improve his/her math grade by an entire letter.
Children love a good challenge and the excitement and determination of
sticking to a New Year’s resolution could motivate them to seek out a
tutoring service or even academic coaches to help them stick with their resolution.

Another
option for a good New Year’s resolution is to challenge students on
their reading capacity. Set a number of books that he or she must read
before the end of the year or perhaps challenge them to read a certain
number of books outside of their normal reading materials (newspapers,
magazines, novels, etc.).

New Year resolutions are not for adults
only. By celebrating the New Year with children, you can help them
appreciate the holiday at a deeper level as well as challenge them to
their own resolution. While it may not be as exciting as the last day of
school, it is still fun and a great way to enhance their studying
skills.