In this first week of the new year, it’s wise to pause and look back at the previous year as we figure out what we want to accomplish next. Around here, January means prep for 20Time, a passion project that’ll carry us through the spring semester. (More about 20Time2019 will be posted later this month. Working on some plans, y’all…)
Today, I’m sharing a handy organizer created by a bunch of humanity-loving Hungarians that could help us – and possibly our students – accomplish significant goals.
YearCompass is a 20-page booklet you can download here for free. (No email address required. My favorite option is the half-letter size. Click preview image to zoom in.)
In 2012, the creators “wanted to have a worthwhile New Year’s Eve with our friends, so we put together a few questions that would help us focus.” The party questions were turned into a downloadable booklet that went viral and now YearCompass, a non-profit organization with 100+ volunteers, has hundreds of thousands of downloads each year and is available in 22 languages.
“Self-recognition is one of the key things to become a better human – and we need a lot of awesome humans on this planet,” organizers said. For sure.
I like the booklet as a tool to help us sort through our personal and professional lives. (Full disclosure: I didn’t complete every page; instead, I focused on the pages, specifically 15-18, that’re most useful to me.) I also think some of this content could find a place in our advisory periods, study skills classes, AVID and career electives. The YearCompass folks report that one school in the U.K. prints a copy for every student and they fill them out together as a school-wide exercise. The booklet also seems especially useful for therapists and folks in recovery.
In these last few days before the chaos of the school year resumes, let’s grab a warm drink and take a bit of time to reflect on our quest to become awesome humans. Teach on, everyone!
Please note: I have no business relationship with YearCompass and have received nothing in exchange for this blog post. I just like learning about cool stuff and sharing it with my teacher friends. Thanks, too, to Tonya Skinner, business education specialist, whose Facebook feed alerted me to the YearCompass folks. You can learn more about Tonya and her work here.
Happy New Year. Looking forward to what you are planning for your 20Time project this year.
Smiles,
Kendall
Me, too, Kendall! This one’s definitely going to be out of my comfort zone. Stay tuned… 🙂
Happy new year!