My #teacher5aday Pledge for 2017!

I was recently contacted by Martyn from the UK to see whether I would be interested in creating a vlog to talk about something I have been doing to improve my wellbeing. I was the first person from the southern hemisphere to be approached by Martyn & the team so I was very chuffed. Because of this I wanted to make sure my video had a true Aussie flavour, so waited until I was in the city to film it so I could include shots of the Harbour Bridge & the Opera House. I filmed my video last Wednesday and have uploaded it to Youtube, but here is it in all it's glory!

I'm not usually a fan of having my face in my videos (if you follow my YouTube channel you will see that I appear in NONE of the videos I have created apart from my voice!), but this was a bit of fun and quite liberating! I do plan on trying to make some more in the future - but need to wait until I have something exciting to share.

Now some of you are probably wondering what #teacher5aday is. It was started by a number of teachers in the UK - Martyn being one of them. The idea behind it is that teachers focus on 5 different areas to help them improve their wellbeing, with ideally the goal of doing each of those five things every day. Obviously, this can sometimes be a challenge, so teachers are inspired to spend at least some time each month to invest more time into the five areas.



The five areas are:

• connect
• notice
• learn
• volunteer
• exercise

So here is my pledge for each of the five areas:
1. Connect :

• to actively work on maintaining friendships this year, not just those online
• work towards building my PLN through attending #TeachMeets & conferences in areas that interest me

2. Notice:

• take part in the 'Fat Mum Slim Photo A Day' challenge
• make an effort to compliment people or congratulate them when they do amazing things
• each day, create an image with a motivational quote that gets posted to my social media accounts. When school goes back, print one off each week and give them to students in my homeroom to put in their diaries so they have a positive thing to focus on each week

3. Learn:

• complete my Masters
• if I don't get accepted as a Google Trainer this round, work on improving my application and resubmit in the next round
• continue to submit proposals to present at conferences & learn from others through networking

4. Volunteer:

• donate blood - for the first time... I am a needlephobe so it's a big thing for me!
• next Christmas I wish to spend the day helping with a charity
• help at least one local charity in some way every few months

5. Exercise:

• meet my 'Move' and 'Activity' goals on my my Apple Watch at least 5 days a week
• go to the gym and do a solid workout at least twice a week
• allow myself one cheat meal a week to ensure that I am eating healthy & providing my body with the best that I can 

So as you can see, it's pretty easy to make a pledge... like any resolution, the hardest thing is maintaining it! I think that my pledges are quite realistic this year. I have looked back on my resolutions for 2016 and think I went a bit too big too fast. There's not point in setting unrealistic goals and then being disappointed when you don't reach them.

So, set realisitc goals, smash them & then set more!

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