Alliance for Catholic Education
As 2023 kicks off, people around the world are setting New Year's resolutions, hoping that this will be the year they make a habit of going to the gym, kick their caffeine addiction, or finally convince Natalie Portman to fall in love with them. Naturally, our ACE teachers are no exception. Here's how a few of our bloggers are hoping to add to their ACE experience this semester:
Kenta Sachen (5th Grade, Indianapolis) - January 4th, 2023. It's the first day back and I haven't seen my
students all year (they hate that joke). I talk about my Japanese background on a weekly basis, so today I shared with them some of the customs and traditions of New Years in Japan. One such tradition I shared was the ema (絵馬). These are wooden panels in which you write down your goals and wishes for the year and hang up at the local temple. My students wrote down their academic goals on paper emas and I plan on hanging them up so these goals can come to fruition.
Jehdah Burton (High School Science, Mobile) - This semester my goal is to focus on movement and attention in my classroom. I tend to use my front desk in my classroom as a bit of a crutch so I'm working to increase the amount of time I spend circulating between my students. It's also really difficult as a student to be sitting in class for so long in a day, so in my planning I'm seeking to intentionally include spaces to stand up and move around, work with new people, draw something, etc. in order to keep students engaged and holding each other accountable.
Mary Grace O'Shea (4th Grade, Denver) - In this second half of the school year, we are focusing on three goals 
or resolutions in fourth grade at St. Therese. We spent some time reflecting on how we can love Jesus, ourselves, and our neighbors more during this upcoming year of our lives. Fourth graders spent time personally reflecting on specific ways they could achieve these goals, and placed them on a chart. Then we were able to take a look at all of our goals together and realize that there is beautiful unity in what we hope to accomplish in 2023!
Evie Kenney (High School English, Oklahoma City) - In 2023, I want to take my students on a field trip! I teach in Oklahoma City, where there is a deep devotion to Blessed Stanley Rother. Construction of a shrine in town dedicated to Blessed Stanley will be complete in February, and I am excited to take my students there to continue to learn about his sacrificial love.
Jack Maier (High School Science, Los Angeles) - I have two New Year's resolutions. The first is to keep a
gratitude journal where I write three things I am grateful for and one thing I did that made the world a better place at the end of each day. I think it will help me be more grateful, and it will be something I can look back at years from now to remember all the great parts of my life. My other resolution is to eat more oranges off the orange tree in our back yard. I did not make good enough use of them last year, and it’s something impossible to do back home in Pittsburgh!
Becky Tapanes (Middle School Language Arts, Louisville) - Our house has a New Year's resolution to play more games this semester. I got a card game for Christmas called Crew -- one that I play at home with my cousins all the time. It's my resolution to get my roommates as obsessed with it as I am so we can beat it by the end of our time in Louisville. If there's one trait we all share, it's competitiveness. The latest ping pong match on Lower Hunters Trace can be heard all throughout the city, but this year we're diversifying.
Colleen LOVES backgammon. She even has a homemade backgammon board that she and her dad crafted out of wood. To me, backgammon was always one of those classic games that I saw places but never cared to learn. She brought her backgammon board back after Christmas break, and so far we've had one intro game where I got the basic rules down. My resolution is to play enough backgammon with Colleen to get some strategy and beat her by the end of the year.
Ryan and I play chess together on a mini magnetic set. Neither of us really has any tactics up our sleeve besides the king's pawn opening. My resolution is to learn a super deadly play to beat him in just a few moves and stun him in his boots. Shhh... don't tell him.
Mike doesn't like drawing or being rushed, but recently the four of us played a random game that I got at a white elephant exchange over Christmas. You get a place, a person, and a location to draw in three minutes, and then you guess each other's. My resolution is to get Mike some more practice so we can tell what the heck he's drawing. Right now his drawings are too tiny, too bare, and too confusing (they still made the fridge though).
Here's to more frantic shouting, frustrated fists, and love-filled rage in 2023!