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1.I will give at least a 10% tithe in addition to any other giving I will do.
This goal has been achieved this month AND I have become more generous in addition to this giving. Having said this I have noticed I have still been far to concerned and worried about money and my additional generosity is still very much in a limited sense. I have a post I want to write on it soon so I'll leave it there but admit that it has been an improvement.
2. Making Prayer a stronger habit.
Again I've had some more success here as well, one of the things I realised is that there was a great chance to pray quickly for students in my classes whilst they were working through their activities. In addition I have had some success in changing my morning activities so the first thing I do isn't always going to get a cup of coffee. I haven't yet completely changed my routine but it's on the way.
3. Use skype more to chat to people back home/Britain
This month I have had several chats, some short, some longer including a couple with people I haven't spoken to in a while. So all in all a success.
4. I will improve as an EFL teacher.
I have definitely improved in this area again, a few simple things have lead to big improvement in my teaching. I certainly thank the more experienced teachers who I have gained some much from their supervision and guidance. For the upcoming conference I am trying to put together something with some of the other teachers about motivating teenagers in class. If you know any good resources then please pass them on.
5. I will improve my Russian.
The Russian has been coming along and I have managed to get hold of a resource that I haven't had for a while. I picked up the learners dictionary at the old school which has Russian words arranged by usage. As such it is a good way to check how many of the most common words I know. Admittedly this is not the best way to learn words as they are usually very different from each other and it is easier to remember groups of words that are connected with each other. However it is a possible way to remind myself of words that are just starting to enter my active vocabulary and force them along.
I am fairly certain that I could do with a Russian grammar book to help me advance my understanding of the cases as that is certainly an area I am weak on.
6. I will write more songs.
er.... there are some songs coming and I have been experimenting with changing around some things. One of the biggest challenges is that when I do have time to write songs I usually revert to consumer mode and just want to watch a film or listen to something rather than produce something new. Still I have written the start of a few things and I guess now I just need to finish them and then actually put them up for peer review [the part which is scaring and hindering me the most!]
7. Host a weekly meal at my flat.
This has been an area where I have failed the most recently. I don't think I have even had one meal in my flat this month! I can throw out excuses about meals out with the new teacher who arrived. The high work load and so not feeling like entertaining but there has been plenty of time and I have failed in this aspect. As such I am inviting people round tomorrow evening to start this month well!
8. Regular and higher quality blogging.
This month has been of mixed success here, most recently there has been a continued period of lack of blogging [with this long weekend being an exception to the general pattern. However I've still put out a lot of post this months that you can look at in the archive.
9. I will get involved with some form of charitable work in the Ukraine.
I have attended the orphanage less this month, due to a few reasons including being ill on a couple of occasions. One of the things that really struck me on one occasion was that I really didn't feel like going and then inside my head I tried to persuade myself to go. What shocked me was that I was trying to pursuade myself with incredible selfish motivators. "you'll feel good afterwards" "you're a good person and this is what good people do." " what will other people think if they find out you chose not to go." and a few others. I Didn't really think about whether the kids there would want me there, how they'd feel having someone else around to talk to.
10. I will make a Public video each month.
I have some video footage from the weekend that I'm making into a new video so you can see some of the stuff from the weekend. I may even get some more clips today to add in. However this will probably end up being next months video, so yet again this is a fail I'm afraid.
So that was April, there are certainly some areas to work on and some progress from the month before. Please comment add advice/point out criticism/ ask for skype chats etc.
