Making goals

So I came back from the New Year's break wanting to have the kids make resolutions. But then I decided that instead of resolutions I would have the students make goals. Resolutions are broken all the time. So we read about making goals and I had students focus on making S.M.A.R.T. goals. S.M.A.R.T. being specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and timebound.

I had students make lifetime, 25 years, 5 years, 1 year, 6 months, 1 month, and daily goals in 6 different areas. The areas are family and home, spiritual and ethical, social and cultural, financial and career, physical and health, and mental and educational. I told students that they had to have 3 copies. One for me, one that they keep with themselves, and one that they physically posted up on my back wall. I feel that the physical act of posting up their goals will give them more pride and ownership of the goals. When it came time for the goals to be due I got one student turn it in on time. Now 3 weeks later I am still getting some laggers. I realized after doing the assignment that it brought up some powerfully strong emotions with some of my students. Students were forced to confront their lives and oftentimes look at all the obstacles that are in the way of their success. After reading through some of the goals it became very easy to see that many students are lost. It's not that I was expecting kids to know exactly what they wanted in their lives. God knows that when i was their age I had no clue. But I was hoping that the assignment would force them to think about their lives. And for many it seemed that it was the first time that they did really think about it. I wanted them to understand that if they have goals then they need a plan to get them to their goals.

I also tied in metacognitive exercises with the assignment as a way for students to understand metacognition and apply it to their lives. It's not just enough to think about things. They have to evaluate how things are going with their plans and make changes as needed.