Happy New Year!!

Happy New Year!! I know I have been a terrible blogger over the past 4 months, but my New Years resolution for 2012 is to be more consistent about blogging and write back to all of the people who have been kind enough to send me letters and packages.  Since I consider my life pretty boring and routine at this point, I would love to hear your comments, questions, or topics you want me to blog about. Overall, I have been doing well just extremely busy.  There was a period where I was the only teacher at the school and was trying to teach every form and help them prepare for exams.  Luckily, that will not happen again this year. I have deactivated my Facebook account, so this blog is now my main way of letting everyone know what has been going on in my life.  I have this feeling that 2012 is going to be a big year for me and I want to focus all of my attention on personal growth and my students. 

It’s hard to believe I have been in Tanzania for 7 months already!  There are only 20 months left of my service (unless I decide to extend) and I have so much that I still want to accomplish.  The school year officially starts next week and I am frantically trying to prepare.  My father came to visit over the holidays and brought me some new toys to use for teaching, so I am super excited!  (I plan to blog about his trip, so be sure to look at backdated posts). I am on a mission to make school and learning more enjoyable for my students.  However, my greatest task will be teaching critical thinking skills.  I am not sure how old I was when I first started asking questions about the world or challenging authority figures (i.e. my parents) on the logic behind their rules, but Tanzanian youth are discouraged from doing this.  So if anyone has any suggestions for me on how to teach or promote critical thinking, please let me know!  I will be teaching form one, form two and form three English this year (freshman, sophomores and juniors) as well as implementing the Grassroots Soccer program in our school/ village.  It is going to be a busy year for me, but I am excited! 

I hope that 2012 is off to a good start for all of you and I promise to keep you posted on my adventures in Africa.