During the month of September, my students watched the video for the monthly lesson on the topic of Goal Setting, by Canadian Olympic athletes, Justin Snith and Tristan Walker. It only took a few short moments for my students to challenge me on how I was going to make this not about only Classroom Champions, but about their ELA or Math class. If you have not watched this video yet, take a moment to watch it, as it is very encouraging and motivating, to say the least.
In the short, 4 minute video, Tristan and Justin explain in a way that all students can understand, the importance of setting goals and how to create a strong, SMART goal that will help people reach success many success. Below is a quick outline of what was covered:
- Setting goals need to be part of keeping track of anything that needs to be achieved
- SMART Goals break down into 5 important components that help build commitment to the end result of achieving any goal
- S - Specific goal that has specific details that you can "pin-point on"1
- M - Measurable - How do you know if you have reached your goal
- A - Agreed - When you are working in a group, is everyone on the same page?
- R - Realistic - Is it something you are in control of, or are their other factors that you cannot keep control of
- T - Time Based - Do you have a time-line to check to see how you are progressing.
- Long term goal - a month - a year
- Short term goals - easier to achieve; check points to achieving your long term goal.
- Who will you share your goals with??
- Challenge for this month
- Set 1 long term goal for this school year
- Set 3 short term goals that help you to reach your long term goal.
Something that I chose to do this year, that I had not done for the past 3 years was to make it about academics. This took goal setting to a new level for my students. Each student now had to actually set a plan in motion to see if they could try and come up with 3 realistic goals that would help them achieve better academic in the long run.
STUDENT TASK
To help complete this task, the students had to first plan out their work by using the Student SMART goals worksheet that I developed. Instead of using the same acronym that Justin and Tristan used, I used another version of the SMART goals. You will notice that I have:
- A - Attainable - What resources will you need to be able to attain this goal?
- R - Relevant - How will reaching this goal affect who you are or what you will do later in life? How is it relevant to you?
It is easy for students to pick goals that really do not impact who they are, which is ok when you are starting out on learning how to goal set. But to make sure you are setting goals towards bettering yourself, it is important to set goals that are going to help you in many other instances, besides that one specific goal.
Once students completed their planning sheet, and because we are working on the writing process in ELA, students then had to peer assess a classmates to help each other understand the importance of making sure we are following the correct criteria that has been outline, as well as to make sure that conventions of writing are being followed.
After I made a few suggestions to goals and planning sheets, and everyone's goal planning sheet had been approved, we began the fun part; creating the posters. We took a picture of every student, printed them out and everyone received:
- 8 1/2" x 11" black poster paper
- 3 pieces of coloured 3 x 3 card stock - record the 3 short term goals
- 1 piece of 4 x 6 card stock frame for their picture
- 1 piece of die-cut cardstock speech bubble - record their name, and what their academic goal was for this school year.
Completing the project
- Using pencil first, students recorded the information they wrote on their planning sheet onto the new cardstock.
- Their peer assessors then gave them feedback on the proof reading.
- Placing each of the cardstock papers on the black poster paper, each student then organized a layout for their posters. To help them make decisions on how to organize the material so that it was visually pleasing, we discussed which layouts would be appropriate and which would impede the audiences ability to fully appreciate what is being shown on the poster.
- Next, the their individual pictures where glued to the larger cardstock, to work as a frame.
- Being careful to leave room for the speech bubble, the picture and frame was then glued to the poster, followed by the speech bubble and the short term goals.
- Over the year, we hope to embellish these posters, as we address how well we are progressing individually, towards achieving our successes.
The Finished Product
Personal Reflection
As I was beginning to record this post, I began to look for some more information that would help to support my pedagogical and philosophical beliefs on goal setting. Not that many teachers would disagree with what I was sharing, as the goal setting process is a basic requirement for many professionals, as well as those who strive to become better people.
I uncovered a very informative article written by entrepreneur and behavioural psychology analyst , James Clear, who wrote a blog entry titled Forget About Setting Goals. Focus on This Instead. Clear explains that you need to fall in love with systems as "goals are good for planning your progress and systems are good for actually making progress."2
Mr. Clear was prompted to write this post after reading/watching interview hosted by Gary Rosen of the Wall Street Journal. The topic of this event was to discuss Scott Adams' Secret of Success: Failure.. Some may know Mr. Adams as the creator of what may be the first "reality" television cartoon based on the life of one white-collar work, named Dilbert.
In his book, How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big, Adams reflects upon his own experiences and observations that it is not always a great idea when developing a business to follow your passion. Now before you click the little red x in the corner of this web page, listen to what is shared her; it just might make sense.
- Is your passion rational - This goes directly back to the goal setting piece; is your goal relevant for what you want to achieve. I may truly love sail boats, but that doesn't mean that I am going to put hours off effort into achieve goals related to sail boats. Ironically, I am land locked and do not find it logical to even own a sailboat to sail down the Mighty Saskatchewan. this doesn't mean that I cannot set a goal to eventually have a summer home on the coast of the Maritimes where I can sail. It is also quite easy to be passionate about something while it is work, but once it begins to be less successful, we tend to lose our passion.
- People that have a good business plan find more successes with their plan - The analogy Adams gives is to someone who is requesting financial support from a bank. The person who comes in with a business plan that says they wish to open a dry cleaning business, which may sound like a a great money laundering front (no pun intended), along with the numbers to show the bank that it makes financial sense to invest.
- You need to have a system or a process - There is nothing wrong with setting goals, but that you need to have a system in place. To connect this idea, Adams explained he did not have a goal to have the above mentioned book published by a certain time, but instead he had processes that would help him to get to the point that he would have a book published.
- Failure is good - This isn't to say that being successful a bad thing, and luck does play a big part of it. I am sure this does not pertain to the fact that you should go out and follow the MLB playoff "unwritten rules" of success of not shaving for the entire playoff season, wear the same jersey to show your support for the team, and be sure to put that lucky rabbits foot in your pocket while your team is playing. But instead you will have better luck at finding success when you try multiple steps/things to help you reach your success.. This is what becomes the process or the system.
The Thumb Switch
In this journey as a Classroom Champions teacher, I have learned many practical and important lessons. One of which, always takes me back to the simple exercise that developer and facilitator of the Life Synergy for Youth pre-crisis intervention action plan program taught our students at Provsot Public School while on a visit; the thumb switch. For just a moment, put both your hands together and fold them. Now normally we always put our hands together with either the right thumb or the left thumb on top. There is only one way that feels comfortable to you, yet the next person may find the opposite way more comfortable. Next, shake it up a bit...if you have your right thumb on top, switch it so that you have your left thumb on top. You can either keep all your fingers exactly where they are and just switch the positions of the thumbs or you can actually move the fingers and the thumbs so that they are positioned exactly opposite to what you usually do. As my students always say when I use this exercise, "oh, that feels so weird!" Yes, it does feel weird, different, odd, backwards or whatever you are thinking. But the idea is the same, it is only different. It is not improper, it is not impossible and there is definitely no right or wrong way to fold your hands.
When you do a "thumb switch" it doesn't have to be a long, drawn out, complicated process, but instead can be as simple as looking through a difference lens. We can still function with this difference, and can still continue with life as we were heading and planned and not change our charted destination, however, we may be able to appreciate aspects of the journey we may not have otherwise been able to.
When you apply this analogy to the mind and how we think about what is the right way, the best way or even the perfect way, based on pedagogy in education, we are then able to embrace other possibilities that just might help ourselves or others make the connections in learning, that we as educators work so hard to nurture.
Before signing off this post, I want to share with you an piece of work I found on the Life Synergy For Youth site. It is a person folding their hands, in prayer, and in the back ground of the hands is the sun glowing around the hands. The bible verse "We do not face the storm alone", Psalms 27:5, is written to the right of the hands. This can represent many thoughts, depending on a persons belief system, but in the end it means the same. Connect the praying hands to the thumb switch, then we have a whole other interpretation of the verse and the image, but it still represents the same end; that no matter what challenges we face, and what changes we need to make to work through the challenges or systems to reach the end result, there are always people around to support us. It may be our family, friends, teachers or colleagues, it may even be the support of the Holy Spirit, God or any other number of spiritual beings that we may believe. But when all is said and done, we are not on this journey alone and we can support each other through out the process.
When you do a "thumb switch" it doesn't have to be a long, drawn out, complicated process, but instead can be as simple as looking through a difference lens. We can still function with this difference, and can still continue with life as we were heading and planned and not change our charted destination, however, we may be able to appreciate aspects of the journey we may not have otherwise been able to.
When you apply this analogy to the mind and how we think about what is the right way, the best way or even the perfect way, based on pedagogy in education, we are then able to embrace other possibilities that just might help ourselves or others make the connections in learning, that we as educators work so hard to nurture.
Before signing off this post, I want to share with you an piece of work I found on the Life Synergy For Youth site. It is a person folding their hands, in prayer, and in the back ground of the hands is the sun glowing around the hands. The bible verse "We do not face the storm alone", Psalms 27:5, is written to the right of the hands. This can represent many thoughts, depending on a persons belief system, but in the end it means the same. Connect the praying hands to the thumb switch, then we have a whole other interpretation of the verse and the image, but it still represents the same end; that no matter what challenges we face, and what changes we need to make to work through the challenges or systems to reach the end result, there are always people around to support us. It may be our family, friends, teachers or colleagues, it may even be the support of the Holy Spirit, God or any other number of spiritual beings that we may believe. But when all is said and done, we are not on this journey alone and we can support each other through out the process.
1. Snith, J., Wlaker T, , (19 Sept 2016), Tristan Walker & Justin Snith: S.M.A.R.T. Goals Help You Keep Track of What You Want to Achieve [Video File]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQluFq9eKBE
2. Adams, Scott. "Scott Adams: How to Be Successful." WSJ.Wsj.com, 12 Oct. 2013. Web. 29 Oct. 2016
2. Adams, Scott. "Scott Adams: How to Be Successful." WSJ.Wsj.com, 12 Oct. 2013. Web. 29 Oct. 2016
