Helping Students Set Goals

Graphics courtesy of Melonheadz

[spp-tweet tweet=”You can’t get to where you are going, if you don’t know where you want to go.”]

And if you don’t know where you want to go, how do you know where to start?

At the ripe age of 9, my fourth grade teacher’s talent made me realize learning can be fun even if the content is hard to understand. She made me love trying and more so instilled in me the possibility of opening myself up for help so that I can become successful. I admitted when I was struggling, first to myself and then to those who could help me. Through that year, she unlocked my potential and changed the trajectory of my life from that point forward.

I didn’t have to be born with all the tools already in my belt, but I did have to know how to hunt them down. So I became a hunter of knowledge and skill.

Also in my corner was my family. They poured into me, always asking me what I was interested in and how they could help me make it happen. Their investment, interest and modeling of setting and achieving goals made me realize that I could be a life-changing teacher just like the one I had in fourth grade. I could unlock student potential and by doing so positively affect the future for us all.

Step One: The dream was born

Now that I knew where I wanted to go, I needed to focus on how to get there. I was no instructional professional in elementary school nor did I have the hindsight to create a backwards plan, but I did know I had to take a step. Since I wanted to become a teacher, I had to start teaching.

Step Two: The journey towards my destination began

I slipped into my mother’s high heels, grabbed a stack of blank lined paper, lined up my stuffed animals and began to “teach.” On occasion, my parents stepped in as real students- my dad causing a raucous and copying off my mom’s paper all to “help you learn how to handle misbehaving students.”

I read every teacher book and watched every teacher movie. When it was time to apply to college, there was no question I was going to become a remarkable, life-changing teacher.

After over a decade in education, I look back and realize a dream plus actionable steps equaled goal accomplishment.

Step Three: Cross the finish line

Do I just stop here? I realized when at the top celebrating my goal achievement, I must get right back to the bottom and start all over with a new goal. It’s a cyclical growth process of life-long learning, being in the driver’s seat regulating speed, direction, and desire.

As I started developing new goals, I took a moment to reflect and look around.

Without knowing it, I had a crew behind me- every one of my students watched me goal set over the years and without fail started to do the same for their own journey. Modeling is powerful motivation. I shared my personal and professional goals with colleagues, parents and students. They were all rooting me on just as I was doing for them.

We began our day talking about the objectives we would slay and celebrated advancements to new learning levels. Students knew in their heads their job was to come to school to learn but they knew in their hearts their job was to dream big dreams and run like the wind to snag them.

Student empowerment put them in the driver’s seat, tracking their own data in subject area folders, setting and resetting goals with stickers and post-it notes, one-on-one conferencing with me to discuss plans of action and support needed, and of course demonstrating their newly learned skills to peers.

Although each student had their own goals, we were there to support each other. It takes a team of people to guide and support you on your journey, and its your job to return the favor to others on their own.

Goal setting is how we do learning and life. John’s airplane sat in plain sight working out math problems, keeping his eye on the prize. Without conceptual numeral knowledge, he couldn’t reach that dream of becoming an aerospace engineer. Cassie no longer played with her seatmate’s hair during science class; she leaned in learning about combinations of substances so she could properly color her future client’s hair.

“What you do now determines what you do in the future. Stay focused and give it all you got,” I would chant.

How can you climb the mountain of success with us?

• Take action daily.
• Look ahead, look behind and adjust.
• Keep going.

Our future is only as bright as we allow it to be. Go light up the world!

How do you set goals with your students?