Taking the “I” Out of Our New Year’s Resolutions

“I will try to work out every day.” “I will not eat any sweets.” “I will go to church more often.” “I will not procrastinate on a project.” These are few examples of new year’s resolutions that I have made myself or people close to me have shared over the years. It is not uncommon to make new year’s resolutions focusing on how we can better ourselves. PBS Learning Media has content that focuses on making resolutions that not only improve oneself, but also helps others.

A common resolution is to Improve Your Health. A great way to begin to improve your health is to change your eating habits.  Healthy Eating is a challenge where kids tackle healthy eating problems and share what they know with their communities. 

You Can Make a Difference is a short video clip that demonstrates what every person can do to decrease their carbon footprint and help the planet cool down.  This clip helps us to think about the role we each play in taking care of our environment.

To help our students understand how to improve their schools, you can have them participate in the Crumpled Paper Activity. This is a great lesson that helps students understand the impact bullying has on others.  Or as a teacher, maybe you are looking for ways to Improve Your Schoolwork. Here you can learn about easier ways to create engaging student assignments or track student progress with PBS Learning Media Tools.

Whether you made resolutions for 2017 or not, let’s all try to think about ways we can help others and make our communities, schools, and ourselves better.