Tuesday, September 2, 2014

Reflective Teaching: Blogging Challenge: Day 1, Goals

Reflective Teaching

Day 1: Write your goals for the school year. Be as specific or abstract as you’d like to be!
-------
In general, I hate goals. I know I shouldn't... I'm a teacher. We're supposed to LOVE goals. Daily goals, weekly goals, semester goals, SMART goals... My biggest problem with goals is that I tend to think of them like New Year's Resolutions...and I'm not good at keeping those, either.

I start off really well with my plan, but somewhere along the way I lose my focus, whether it's because my goal/resolution is too ambitious--and thus I get discouraged because I can't reach it--or because my goal/resolution is too vague--and thus I get bogged down in all the details of even trying to figure out my goal.

But the goal of this challenge is to make me into a more reflective teacher... so I need to abandon my dislike of goals and make a plan for the year.

Goal 1: Set some goals. Realistic goals. Goals I could potentially complete.

Goal 2: Write the goals down somewhere I will see them daily.

Goal 3: Keep the end in mind: too often I get bogged down in the minutia of the goal in a vain attempt to make it look as though I love details.

Goal 4: Be willing to try again. I've had bad experiences with goal-setting, so I tend not to set goals in order to make it more about my choice than my abilities.


Oh my goodness. I just realized that I'm like my students who choose not to do the assignment rather than "prove" to themselves that they can't do it. They'd rather be labeled as lazy than stupid.


So... Goal 5: Stop being the lazy student. Be willing to be thought of as stupid if I don't succeed at my goal. And then... do Goal 4. Again.

No comments:

Post a Comment