10 New Year Resolutions for High School

Students
The New Year is a great time to reflect on the changes we want to or
need to make. If you’re a student looking at ways to improve yourself
and make the transition to college easier, International College
Counselors offers a few more resolutions you might want to add to
your list.

1. Stop procrastinating. How often have you underestimated how

much time it will take to get something done? Then, how sad are you
when you don’t have the time to do your best. At some point, the
procrastinator has to write four college essays in one night – on top
of completing schoolwork. Usually, this doesn’t turn out so well. If
you finish a project earlier than you thought you would, then consider
yourself ahead.

2. Commit yourself to getting good grades. Good grades are entirely

necessary to get into a good school unless you’re a top notch athlete.
The best case scenario is that you have good grades from the
beginning. However, if you start off badly and improve your grades,
colleges will give you points for this. Many admissions officers won’t
look at your application if your grades are too low or show a steady
decline. Spending a night studying while your friends play Wii may not
excite you, but you need to look at this long-term. Think of it this
way, grades are a bridge. They will serve you to get into a college
where you will have more freedom. In college, grades may not be as
important as in high school.

3. Don’t do it all. It’s better to concentrate on a few things and excel

in them than if you join every sport, activity and club that you can
cram into your schedule. Anyone can join 10 clubs and be marginally
involved in them all. Schools are looking for commitment that shows
you’re willing to stick with something and make the most of it.

4. Keep a calendar. Deadlines creep up quickly. And the closer the

date, the more you’ll feel the pressure. Most students don’t do their
best under pressure. And colleges, scholarships, federal aid, and
standardized testing services are not going to be sympathetic to any
excuses you have about missing a deadline. If you miss a deadline, you
miss an opportunity.
5. Take standardized tests early. You won’t know how high you can
score until you take the test. Wait too long and you won’t have
enough time to retake it. And many things can affect your test score
on any given day, including the state of your health, and you can’t
plan not to get the flu or food poisoning. Taking the test early will also
allow time to take a test prep course if necessary.

6. Do your research. Know what the choices are when it comes to

colleges. This way you can avoid any coulda, shoulda, woulda regrets
later in life. Research could be as simple as visiting a school’s website.

7. Try something new. High school is a great time to spread your

wings. It’s about new experiences and self-discovery. Want a certain
internship, there’s no harm in calling up and asking if they have any
room for an eager high school student to work there. Want to try a
new sport or activity, go ahead and try it. You’re not expected to
leave high school knowing exactly what you want to do, but this is a
chance to start narrowing down your interests. You’ll never know
what you like – or how good you are at something – until you try
something.

8. Be excited about going to college. Wherever you go to college,

you’re going to meet new people, learn new things, and have a great
time. That’s reason enough to be excited whether you end up
attending a first choice school or a safety.

9. Do what your college counselor tells you. Students: We at

International College Counselors are here to get you what you want
out of life.

10. Banish the self-doubt. Doubting your own abilities only holds you
back from achieving what you want to achieve. Just say no to these
thoughts and others like them:

“I can’t do this.”
“I’m not as smart as my classmates.”
“I’ll never get better than a 2.7 grade-point average.”
“I’ll only get into a community college anyway”
“There’s no point in thinking I’ll get into my first choice college.”

HAPPY 2017
3 Writing Activities Using New Year Resolutions for ELLs

Posted on 27 December 2013 by Elena Shvidko

As the end of the year is rapidly approaching, a lot of us start thinking about our New Year resolutions: things we
want to change, goals we want to reach, personal qualities we want to develop, places we want to visit, books we
want to read, etc. This list can go on and on. New Year resolutions can be a great teaching tool in your writing
class, too. Whether you are teaching a beginning writing class or an advanced composition course in college, you
can create lots of engaging activities incorporating the concept of New Year resolutions to help your students
develop their writing skills. In what follows, I share some activities, and I hope they can help you generate further
ideas for your own classes.

Practicing Categorizing
Purpose
The purpose of this activity is to help students practice categorizing items. When I was teaching an intermediate
writing class a few years ago, a classification essay was one of the course writing assignments. I realized that many
students had a difficult time grasping the concept of principle of organization. This activity, I think, can be a very
good exercise for students to understand how different items (e.g., objects, concepts, ideas, phenomena) can be
organized based on a common feature they share.

Description 
The idea behind this activity is simple: The students need to organize the given New Year resolutions into several
categories. You can design this activity in multiple ways.

1. You can divide the students into small teams and give them the pieces of paper with the New Year
resolutions written on them. As a team, the students have to organize them into the categories, which you
can either write on the board or put on a worksheet for each team.
2. Another way of doing this activity is to write the categories on the board and give each student one or
two New Year resolutions (depends on how many you prepare). Each student will come up to the board and
put their resolution(s) under the corresponding category.
3. You can prepare several groups of New Year resolutions with several resolutions in each group,
including one resolution that doesn’t fit into the group. The students will need to find a resolution that
doesn’t belong to the given category.
Examples of New Year resolutions

Health and Fitness Resolutions

To lose 5 pounds
To run three times a week
To learn a new meditation technique

Education and Training Resolutions

To learn a new language

To learn to play the piano
To learn 5 English words every day

Relationship Resolutions

To spend more time with the family

To write a thank-you notes to my friends
To smile to people more often

Recreation Resolutions
To visit Disneyland
To spend more time outdoors
To learn how to fish

Practicing Reported Speech

Purpose
The purpose of this activity to help students use signal phrases and reporting verbs used for incorporating the
reported speech and quotations in their essays.

Description
Divide the students into small groups or pairs and have them interview each other about their New Year
resolutions. Encourage the students to obtain as much information as possible about a particular resolution, as
opposed to getting a list of things that their classmate wants to do. For example, the students can describe to each
other why they think a particular goal seems to be valuable at the present moment of their life, how they are going
to achieve it, some necessary changes they need to make in order to achieve this goal, etc. After the students are
done with their interviews, they will write a short paragraph reporting the results that they obtained from their
classmate. Encourage them to use the reporting verbs and signal phrases as they compose their report.

The examples of the signal phrases and the reporting verbs:

According to A, __________.
In A’s opinion, ___________.
In A’s (his/her) words, ____________.
In A’s view, _____________.
Assume
Admit
Argue
Believe
Point out
Say
Specify
Suggest
Think

New Year Resolutions: Improving English Skills

Purpose
The purpose of this activity is to help students think about the variety of ways they can improve their English.

Description
As a class, brainstorm with the students and write on the board the different things they will do in the coming year
to develop English skills. The examples can include:

Reading an English book

Listening to the radio in English
Watching a movie in English with English subtitles
Using an English-English dictionary
Doing online chat in English
Doing an Internet search in English
Writing e-mails in English
Playing language learning computer games
Recording myself speaking English
Learning English idioms

Ask the students to write a paragraph or a short essay on the most effective way(s) of developing their English
skills. You can also adjust this activity to the beginning level by simply asking the students to list on the piece of
paper their goals of improving their English skills in the coming year. The students then can share their ideas with
the class.
All these activities can be adjusted to fit the particular goals and objectives of your class as well as meet the
individual needs of your learners. In addition, they can also be adapted to other English classes (e.g., grammar,
reading, speaking). I hope that you find them useful.

What New Year resolution activities do you do with your English language learners?