Opinions Have an opinion? Contact us at opinions @theotherpress.ca @ A resolution revolution Why New Year’s resolutions are in need of some rethinking By Natalie Serafini new year. Time to emerge from our Christmas comas and accept that the glitter has been Jingle Bell Rock-ed off of our festive gear. As we return to reality, I want to take this opportunity to share one of the many holiday traditions that irritate me—and unfortunately, as common at Christmas time as flashing lights on the family tree, it’s also one of the more widely-celebrated ones. This holiday season, like those that came before, I found myself thinking about the lack of logic behind the staple of the new year: resolutions. My reasons for disliking this start-of-year bent for self- improvement have nothing to do with a personal lack of commitment; it’s not that I’ve been stung too many times by my inability to keep a resolution. | simply can’t accept this tradition noticing, as I often do, its many flaws. Frequently, resolutions are based on results rather than iE January—the start of a brand process. Instead of focusing on developing a lifestyle, people focus on one specific endpoint. While concentrating on results can centre plans so they aren’t broad and ambiguous, goal-setting like this can turn destructive: you might set a grand total goal that doesn’t help you to stay on track or develop a good lifestyle change. For example, planning to lose 25 pounds in a year could be a reasonable target for you, but what does it mean in terms of long-term life changes? What does it mean for the next year of your life? If you want to do something like lose weight, consider concentrating on a manageable weekly objective to help you stay on track, as opposed to an end-of- year Holy Grail of a goal. Even I—a dyed-in-the-wool procrastinator—think New Year’s resolutions are ridiculous excuses to put off self-improvement. Why put off until the New Year what you can accomplish now? Why wait until you're even more set in your ways to change them? You might say, “A new year is a new beginning. It’s a fresh start.” To that I say, why not think of every week as a fresh start? Or even every day? If you eat too many chocolates one day, just make the decision (or the resolution, if you will) to do better tomorrow. If you want to stop smoking, start exercising, or start living life to the fullest, why not start today? You’re only wasting time getting into bad habits and leading a life you don’t want to lead. You’re only allowing yourself to be afraid of change. I know you're entirely wonderful, and I know you know you’re entirely wonderful too, but nobody is perfect; even you, dear reader, and myself could stand for some improvement. Don’t wait until next year to reach your most awesome potential. Start today. Resolve to improve yourself today! It’s really destructive to get into a pattern of putting off what you have to do and looking down on your accomplishments because they aren't good enough (trust me: I’m a procrastinator and a perfectionist). Unfortunately, New Year’s resolutions tend to encourage this way of thinking. If you genuinely want to improve yourself, the best ike ee way to do it is continually. We’re returning to reality: the Starbucks holiday lattes will slowly disappear, as will the Christmas lights on every house. It means accepting that the glitter is gone from our plans to improve astronomically in the next year. My plan is to evaluate my life on a monthly basis and see if I like where I’m going. In terms of bettering myself, it seems the only realistic thing to do. School Wars: Episode I—The phantom entrance requirements Things you didn’t know you needed to know about SFU’s Elementary Teaching program By Jace A column that combines life’s most important things: your education, Star Wars, and bad wordplay. someone recited to me the phrase “Those who can’t do, teach,” I’d probably have enough money to skip the whole career part of my life and just retire already. It wasn’t until coming to college that I realized just how many other people were pursuing the same career path as me, and it’s somewhat frightening. I’m good with kids and know I'll make a great teacher, but it’s a lot of my potential future co-workers that I’m worried about. Some of them are painfully passive aggressive, while others have even admitted that they hate working with kids. The thought of these wombats teaching children makes me look back on all of the awful teachers I’ve had and wonder “who the hell left these |: Thad a nickel for every time 16 people in charge of the future?” Luckily, it seems like the standards for teachers have gone up since I was an overall-clad youth, because just looking at Simon Fraser’s website for the Faculty of Education gives my head the spins. Douglas College did a fine job informing me of what academic requirements were needed to transfer into the Professional Development Program (PDP) for Elementary Teachers, but what they didn’t mention were all the little side-quests one should complete in addition to the 2.5 or higher GPA. Because most academic advisors are about as useful as a DVD copy of Season of the Witch, I thought I’d share with you folks some of the useful tips I’ve come across. Keep in mind though that this is primarily for those looking to teach at the elementary level. How much work experience you’ve had with children is one of the main things the program looks for. It makes sense that people should dabble in their profession before making it their life’s work, and this is especially true for teaching. Almost half of my friends who initially decided to become teachers after high school have since changed their minds, mostly because they were put in situations with kids and found them to be unbearable, monstrous brats. Hey, it’s not for everyone right? One of the easiest ways to bulk up the working-with-children portion of your resumé is to sign up with Big Brothers Big Sisters and be paired up with a buddy. The program requires you to commit at least a year of your time, but the experience will look great on your resumé . Also, if you’re lucky, you can use their guardian as one of the two references you'll need when applying, since one of them must be a non-academic reference that has seen you working with children. As well, experience working in a classroom is strongly encouraged for candidates trying to get into an elementary teaching program. Your best bet for this is to get in touch with local schools (preferably in the same age range that you want to teach) and look for any classroom volunteering opportunities. Another category taken into account that no one warned me about is Academic Preparation. This refers to any courses that you’ve taken that help ensure that you'll be the best damn educator you can be. This includes courses in the Fine Arts, Kinesiology, and Education. While none of these courses are required for the program, they do have an impact on your score and can affect whether you’re accepted or not. Credentials aside, they’re also helpful in preparing you for the things you'll face in the classroom. I took an Intro to Educational Psychology course last semester and it’s been undoubtedly the most useful course I’ve taken at Douglas. You learn about effective teaching methods, the different types of students you'll encounter, how to deal with disruptive behaviour, and everything else related to teaching. What's great is most of the information provided isn’t merely based on someone’s opinion, but is actually supported by studies and plenty of research. I didn’t even bother selling the textbook back at the end of the semester because | know it will come in handy in the future. It’s irritating how many people are simply going into teaching just because they don’t know what else to do. Teachers have a lasting impact on their students’ lives and it requires a great deal of dedication. If you’re truly serious about going into education, start loading up on relevant courses, get involved with youth in the community, and learn to love kids for who they are. Your future students will thank you for it.