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OSSTF District 11- Thames Valley
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District 11 Office |
Education Matters Online
Feature
Volume 4, Issue 2: December 12, 2005
Do you have "Life Balance"?Submitted by Nancy McDougall, Federation Services Officer |
The District 11 Educational Services Committee sponsored a Life Balance Workshop which was held on Thursday, October 26, 2005. Approximately twenty-five District 11 members attended the workshop presented by Robin MacDonald from The Ontario Teachers Insurance Plan (OTIP). Robin walked participants through a series of exercises designed to help educators in re-evaluating their life balance. Participants were asked to evaluate where their time is spent currently and to identity their degree of satisfaction in the following areas:
| Education | Do you aspire to further your education? Do you have goals for personal improvement and accomplishments? |
| Family and Home | Have you realized your dreams for your home environment and family relationships? |
| Spiritual and Ethical | Have you defined specific personal values to yourself? Do your personal values guide you? Is religion or spirituality important to you? If so, are you happy with your current practices? |
| Social and Cultural | Does your circle of friends enrich your life and contribute to your sense of fulfillment and well-being? Do you have at least one other person with whom you can discuss important life experiences? Do you have interests and hobbies, outside of your career and family? |
| Financial | Do you have a financial plan? Will you have sufficient financial resources to retire with security? Do you have a plan in place to save for your children’s education? Are you able to manage debt? |
| Career | Do you find the work that you are currently doing to be interesting and fulfilling? Do you fell that you are making a positive contribution to society? Are there realistic changes that you would like to make to enhance your career? |
| Physical and Health | How satisfied are you with your current level of overall health and fitness? Are you living up to your goals for diet and exercise? Do you feel fit and healthy enough to pursue the things that you want to do in life? Are there any activities or wellness programs that you would like to incorporate into your life? |
Participants were next led through an exercise to determine personal and
professional priorities and finally were shown how to develop a step-by-step
action plan, with timelines that will assist them in achieving their goals.
Special thanks to the planning committee for a job well done! Committee
members included Kathy Wildfong, Bryan Smith, Jennifer Hillis, Don Edgar,
Keith Falconer, Sherry Titus, Carolyn Gaskin, Heather Reid, Karly McNeil and
Joe Mountenay.
