Teachers are no strangers to goal setting. You likely set personal goals in your own life. As part of your teaching, you have academic goals for students. You regularly work with students’ IEP goals. You may even teach goal setting and encourage students to use goal setting procedures such as setting SMART goals.
The new year is a great time to focus on setting goals for the new year. We aren’t talking about New Year’s resolutions- which tend to be vague wishes without a plan for action and thus are likely left behind before the year has barely begun.
The kind of goals we are talking about are personal goals built around a vision of the way you want your life to be. When students create goals that they are deeply connected to, they have a vested interest in achieving them. Students see an end result that they want, and are motivated to take the steps they need to take to get there.
This creates intrinsic motivation, a far more powerful and lasting kind of motivation than extrinsic motivation. Extrinsic motivation seems like an easy fix. Teachers can dangle a carrot in front of students and students will perform to get the carrot. Students will work for a prize or a treat or a grade. Extrinsic motivation comes with problems. Extrinsic motivation works well in the short term. Teachers can dangle a carrot in front of students and students will perform to get the carrot. Students will work for a prize or a treat or a grade. However, when the going gets tough, or when the extrinsic reward is not motivating for a particular student, extrinsic rewards work less well. When the rewards stop, so does the work.
When students see the “why” behind something they do, they are likely motivated.
Having students create personal goals helps them to understand the bigger picture and to see how their actions will lead to the result they want.
Here is a 5 Step process to help students create personal goals:
Step 1: Create a vision of the way you want to be.
Students are often asked, “What do you want to do when you grow up?” or the secondary version, “What career do you hope to pursue?” Career education often starts at a young age, but is focused on future careers. Careers are only ONE part of a vision for the way you want your life to be. Ask these questions to stretch students’ vision of themselves.
What kind of person would you like to be when you grow up? What kinds of things would you like to do? How can you use your best skills to do work that you love? What kind of people do you want to have in your life? What will you need to learn or be able to do in the life you want to have?
Step 2 Break the vision down into smaller pieces.
What kinds of things can you do or experience in the next year that will set you on a path to being where you want to be? What things will you need to learn? What kinds of personal choices will help you be the person you want to be?
Step 3: Make the dream visual.
Vision boards have become a popular way to define what you hope to have or do in the future. Have students cut out pictures from magazines or draw things they envision in their future. You can also make electronic vision boards using Google slides. Encourage students to hang their vision boards in their homes or lockers or on a bulletin board as a visual reminder. Visualizing is a powerful tool and keeping our goals in front of us helps us to achieve them.
Step 4: Review your progress.
A simple way to encourage students to review their progress is to invite a quick reflection. You can do this in a written form, through discussion, or during a one-on-one conference. Try to revisit every few weeks. Here are some discussion starters:
What have you done in the last two weeks that will help you to get to your future goals?
What have you learned in the past few weeks that will help you achieve your goals?
What is something that you need to work on in order to achieve your goals?
The last question encourages students to develop a growth mindset. Even if we haven’t done or learned something in the past, we can still do it. We can learn from our mistakes and move forward.
Step 5: Celebrate wins.
Celebrations don’t have to be elaborate, but they can be frequent. A quick “high-five” or an acknowledgement of a positive step towards a goal can help you stay motivated. Teach students to give themselves a pat on the back. Have them keep a progress journal where they keep track of their small wins and next steps.
Envisioning the life you want to have and using that vision to make goals can be fun and life changing. Many of us have used this type of process to move forward in our own lives. We think that this process can also empower our students and give them another tool for success.
Have you used vision boards and/or goal setting in your classroom? We’d love to hear your examples!
Happy goal setting,
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