Creating a Personal Curriculum in Google Classroom

Yes, This is my New Year’s Resolutions Post

It’s time to review last year’s effort and fit this year’s goals into a TikTok trend! As I am not on TikTok, I’m not sure how popular the idea of creating a personal curriculum still is (I think it peaked in August 2025??), but I’m here for it. And to take it to the next level (or possibly over-engineer it), I’m using Google Classroom to set up my New Year’s resolutions as a personal curriculum. Notion seems to be the most popular option with the young ‘uns for setting up a personal curriculum, followed closely by a journal filled with stickers, drawings, and notes that require approximately 87 differently colored pens. I looked at some Notion templates, but quickly realized I could organize a better method for myself in Google Classroom. I’m excited to reveal how I broke down my goals for the new year into what’s sure to be a fool proof system for success, but first- how’d I do with last year’s goals?

2025 Goals

First Goal

Eat more plant-based meals – I will try to eat plant-based 70 percent of the time, which means about 15 meals a week to help with my blood pressure, cholesterol, blood sugar and kidney disease. I’m not in terrible health, but I do have chronic kidney disease and a family history of heart disease and diabetes.

The Result

Eh. Not the best. Especially any time there was travel, family get togethers, or basically the last five months of the year when things were pretty chaotic. I will say Tony and I talk about fiber a lot more these days, but that could be a result of our age, and not my resolution.

Second and Third Goals (since they’re closely related)

Engage in more meaningful rest/ downtime. – I want to read more, do language learning, write, or work on crafts instead of mindless scrolling when I’m tired and need a break. To help with this goal, I’m going to charge my phone away from my bed. 

Be purposeful in my social media and online time. – I’m going to limit my time on my phone to one hour a day. Use social media with an eye towards growth, not just entertainment.

The Result

I did read more this year (31 books) and I managed to stay off social media more, but until October when I set up some more long terms goals, it was easy to slip into scrolling on YouTube when I was bored or tired. However, for the last few months, I have much more defined activities that I pursue during downtime in addition to reading. I am no longer interested in social media for growth as it’s not part of my bigger goals anymore.

Fourth Goal

Read four spiritual books this year and attend daily Mass at least one time a week. 

The Result

I did read four spiritual books, though admittedly none were great spiritual classics, however I still count that as a win. I did get to daily Mass pretty much every Friday we had co-op, but the way the boys morning routine is right now, I don’t get to daily Mass most other days. I’m not going to beat myself up over it. I think there’s going to be seasons when it’s easier to get to daily Mass and other times it’s not, and this is just a season of less opportunity.

Fifth Goal

And my one “fun” resolution: I’m going to select 12 fun projects off of my “Crafts: Creating for Myself” Pinterest board to complete this year. I think this will also help with resolutions #2 and #3 and my overall goal to be a creator.

The Result

I did do more crafts, though not 12. However, I did paint two bedrooms and complete some redecorating. That did scratch the creative itch. Overall though, even when I had time, I didn’t want to get out a bunch of supplies and make a mess. By the second half of the year, I decided to do some isometric drawing and get back into photography which are both easier to do even in smaller chunks of time. But once I set some new goals for myself in October, I did even fewer creative projects, but it doesn’t bother me since I’m pursuing other things.

2026 Goals and My Personal Curriculum

A personal curriclum is basically a study plan you set up for yourself based on whatever current interests you have. It can be just a reading list, or you can include videos, courses, and assignments, like writing a summary of each book you read or discussing it in a group. The idea is to get excited about learning and consume content of value that helps you learn something meaningful, rather than simply consuming content that only teaches you trending dances or headlines.

I realized my New Year’s resolutions often fall into four categories: Physical, Spiritual, Personal/ Creative, and Professional. I always set at least one goal to improve my diet or exercise, and one to improve my prayer life. I also have always set professional goals for my writing, speaking, blogging and ministry, though I don’t always share all those here. And lastly there are the goals based on personal improvement, like staying off social media, reading more, and doing more craft projects. So I created a Google Classroom titled ‘Personal Curriculum’ and created four topic headers; one for each area I will work on. (If you have a Google account you have access to Google Classroom for personal use. If you need tips for getting started you can read this post I wrote that outlines the basics of using Google Classroom.) I created the classroom with one Gmail account, and use another to access it as a student, but you could save your progress from just the teacher/ creator side of the Classroom.

I created the actual resolutions as assignments, and as I’ve found it helpful to do quarterly check-ins, I selected March 31 as the due date. But then here’s the fun part, I started thinking about what I would need to learn and do to actually achieve or make progress for each resolution and then started dropping in books to read, videos to watch, study questions to reflect on, and links to documents of relevant information. Here’s a snippet of the results.

So now I have very specific things to do to make progress on my goals. I feel less aimless and whenever I have downtime, even if I’m exhausted and only want to watch videos, I’m using the Unwatched app on my phone to only watch videos I’ve saved from YouTube related to my resolutions. I don’t get stuck endlessly scrolling on Shorts. I can make progress on meaningful things, even when I’m tired because I set up tasks in advance- which makes it easier to do things I won’t regret later. But here are my actual resolutions.

Physical Resolution: Eat less processed food.

A big part of this is just defining: what is processed food? Lots of foods are “processed”, but what makes a food unhealthy and one I want to eliminate from my family’s diet? Tony and I have talked about it, and I have some ideas, but I also have a couple books to read, and cookbooks and cooking YouTube channels I’m following. I like the idea of studying various traditional diets throughout the year to get inspired on how to avoid eating processed foods. By March 31, I want to try a few new recipes, and create a working definition of processed food (that works for our family) that I can use when selecting foods to purchase and prepare. It’s a bit loose-y goose-y right now, especially coming off the holidays when we still have a lot of junk in the house, but I’m hoping to get everyone in the house eating better this year. Honestly, this goal isn’t as defined as others because I want to put my mental energy elsewhere.

Spiritual Resolution: Read Life of Christ by Ven. Arbp. Fulton Sheen

I plan to update my spiritual resolutions quarterly. By March 31, I just want to read this book, and I found some reflection questions online I’d like to write out answers to, perhaps in my journal. I’m not sure if I’ll choose a spiritual book to read each quarter or focus on something else, but for now this is where I’ve placed my focus.

Personal/ Creative Resolution: Build Focus

I know that wasting time online, and jumping between tasks, makes it harder to focus on more complex tasks. Since there are things I want to study and devote serious effort to, for the first quarter, I want to really zero in on building focus; if I want to be virtuous, maybe I could say perseverance. I have a few videos saved, and I want to revisit some ideas from the book Deep Work, but each week I will select a specific task related to building my ability to focus for longer periods of time and see how I’m doing by March 31. At that point, I may select a more creative endeavor to pursue. I’m starting off by not keeping my phone on me when at home, and setting a timer to focus for set chunks of time (Pomodoro method).

Professional Resolution: The Four Year Plan

Okay, so what is this “Four Year Plan” I keep mentioning? Basically, once Teddy graduates high school, I want to become a history professor. I love the idea of teaching, researching, and writing about Medieval history. My plan is to get my masters degree in history before Teddy graduates, and then either begin teaching at a small college the fall after he graduates, or enter a PhD program. Honestly, I think the PhD is a long shot; I don’t know how much of the boys care will be outsourced by then, and I don’t know how competitive I can be as a potential PhD candidate, especially since I’m limited by geography and specialty to the number/ type schools I can apply to. There’s also still the question of how I pay for the masters degree. My preferred method involves teaching at a local community college. I have applied to two to teach public speaking, which I feel I am qualified to teach, but I’ve gotten no response so far. My BA is in General Studies, with a focus on writing and photography, so I’m moving in a completely new direction, which also complicates the masters degree application process. But- I’m optimistic.

For the first quarter under my professional resolution topic, I have a number of academic papers to read, videos to watch on how to write academic papers, and I’m studying German, so there’s assignments and resources related to that. It’s my most ambitious section by far, but I hope to start my masters later this year, once Fulton has graduated so getting in an “academic mindset”, while working on focus, will hopefully be helpful. If you have any advice, please share!

It’s a much different set of New Year’s resolutions, and while I love the planning phase, we’ll see if the personal curriculum style organization a la Google Classroom, makes a difference in success. At the very least, it’s a helpful way for me to organize the reading and study related to my four year plan.

I’m not choosing a word, or a saint for 2026, but I’ve still chosen a beast of the year and made it the header for my class.

It’s a Basilisk, which I didn’t realize, evolved from ancient times into a Cockatrice by the Middle Ages. (You could get either variation for your own Beast of the Year by using my spinner!) It has toxic breath and venom, plus it can kill with its gaze; I think my kids can agree I’m well on my way to achieving all those things! The Basilisk also likes to hide alone in dark places, which I’m more than happy to adopt as park of my personal curriculum.

Let me know if you wrote up any resolutions in the comments below. I always enjoy sharing my goals for the new year, regardless of whether any of you enjoy reading about it; but hopefully there’s at least a couple of you. I’d love to hear what you’re working on! Happy 2026 everyone!