The importance of setting goals

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Jerry Talandis Jr. on May 17, 2007 at 3:04am

As educators, do we sometimes set goals for ourselves and our students that don't mesh with the personal lives of those people?

What do you mean, exactly? Could you provide an example of this situation?

What can we do, especially for our students, to ensure that the goals they have are not conflicting?

Seems like having some system (like GTD?) of writing out and prioritizing one's goals would be a good thing to do. There are many systems out there... I think carefully examining how you go about goal setting would be a good start. Once you are clear about how you do things, you could investigate some other ways of doing it.

So how do you go about setting goals?

Jerry
Japan

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by M. SESHAGIRI on May 17, 2007 at 6:16am

Goals for students should be set in consultation with the students and their parents
with complete knowledge of their existing personal and professional goals.
Students should be given freedom to finally set their goals.
- Seshagiri

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by James Dykstra on May 17, 2007 at 3:05pm

That, of course, depends a lot on how old the students are.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Kelly Christopherson on May 17, 2007 at 8:53am

Jerry - after rereading this, I think that my original post may not get at what I want to discuss. To clarify the question, the example I was thinking of involves using particular technology without making sure that all the students can use the technology or wanting to have students do particular things, like doing homework, when we know that it will not happen because of their home environment. I have numerous examples of this taking place - whether it is an out of class project or just 20 minutes of math homework - the goal does not mesh with the life of the student, there is no support or the environment isn't there for doing the work. Do we, as educators, get caught up, sometimes too much, in our goals without taking into account how a student or group of students will meet them.

As for how I go about setting goals, I work with the people involved in the situation. So, for the staff, we discuss what are areas that we want to improve and what is mandated to us. We discuss ways to accomplish these goals, discuss what we need for resources and then various individuals take on particular tasks. We review twice a month at staff meetings where we are, what is going well and what might need to be revisited. As a family, we do a few large goals that are done every 4 months. Example, for the summer we have 4 goals that we want to accomplish. We discuss how we will meet these goals, what we all can do and a timeline. I also do this on my own. I set goals, learning, professional, spiritual, fitness and school related. I try to set 1 year long goal and then a few shorter goals. I track how I am doing and then, if needed, seek support if I find that I am not doing well in a particular area. So, I find that my fitness goal is not being met so I have enlisted the assistance of a partner who will work with me - we have similar goals - to assist me. I try to use this method for the different committees that I am part of and there is a need to identify goals. This has worked well, especially with the School Community Council, elected parents, in setting a few short term goals for the year and one long term goal. I have introduced students to this, having them identify academic goals and then seeing what they need to achieve these goals - the support they need, the resources, and the checks they will use to ensure they are on track.
That's my goal setting plan in a nutshell.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Mr. Parisi on May 30, 2007 at 8:45pm

It sounds like you care about your students to take into account their own agendas and level of support at home. Unfortunately, I believe most children will choose play over work and that probably goes for adults too. Students must learn that there are consequences for not completing assignments. For some students this will motivate them to turn in work. In my class children are afforded free snack time and they don't like losing it because they forgot or didn't want to do their homework. Also, students can lose recess too. These are strong motivators and the rate of children not completing their work is minimal. I don't know about the upper grades. I also think it's a wonderful idea to get children to set goals but these goals must be easily met so they will reach further on their next set of goals. It sounds like you're very pliable in your thinking.

• ▶ Reply