Goal Setting in the Classroom Freebie

Just a quick post today to offer up a freebie based on one of my most popular posts from a little ways back...

During the 2013-2014 school-year I was fortunate enough to be a cooperating teacher for a student in a local university's certification and masters program. Because she was obtaining her masters at the same time she was getting certified to be a teacher, I had her with me in the classroom for pretty much the whole year.

I feel like this was such a gift for everyone involved. For her, she got more "hands-on" time than most student teachers do and was really able to grow and be confident because she was with the same students for a longer period of time. I was blessed with someone who I worked really well with, which really helped take a load off of me as far as teaching stress goes. And ultimately, the students benefited because they had two teachers with similar styles. Win-win-win!

As part of her experience, she had to do a case-study of sorts. She chose to do goal setting in the classroom for this. I cannot say enough what a huge impact it made on student performance and self-worth.

Each week, we helped students choose a goal to work on. At the beginning of the project, they needed a lot of guidance, but towards the end, they were choosing spot-on goals all by themselves.  A few goals students chose were:

-using capitals and ending marks
-completing morning work
-completing homework
-raising their hand in class more frequently
-raising their hand to be called on {as opposed to calling out}
-playing with different friends at recess {this applied perfectly to a student who wanted only to play with her friend who expressed interest in playing with other students}

There were many more, but those are a few I can remember at the moment.

Students chose their goals, worked on them during the week, and at the end of the week, they conferred with myself or my student teacher and we decided if they achieved their goal. Again, at first, everyone said they did {some were less concrete than others}, but over time students became more reflective and answered honestly.

Students who achieved their goals were given a certificate and also permitted to join in during Minute to Win It at the end of the week. We rarely had a student who didn't accomplish that week's goal.

Since that post, I've had a few readers of my blog request the goal-setting sheets and certificates. I made a few and have made them a freebie to encourage goal setting on your classroom, no matter the grade you teach.

Click here to grab the freebie.

You can also read more about how my student teacher did our goal setting program by clicking here.

I hope you will try goal setting in your classroom this year! If you do, how do you execute your goal setting program?

Halle

Five for Someday

So it’s been forever since I linked up for Doodle Bug’s Five for Friday because I just can’t seem to get it together on Fridays these days!  So why not Sunday?  Here we go…

This Five for Friday is dedicated mostly to my student teacher for two reasons:
1} She rocks!  It’s so awesome to see how naturally teaching comes to her.  She is patient, creative, and hard-working.
2}  I hardly get to do any teaching these days.  I’m gradually getting some time back as we get ready for her to bid adieu in May, but the majority of the day is still hers.

1. My student teacher was in charge of our latest bulletin board.  She decided to combine our current lesson on action verbs with spring.  I had the felt watering cans hanging out in my closet for years.  They made the perfect finishing touch! I think it turned out absolutely adorable!



2. Besides lesson planning, teaching, grading, and all that stuff that goes along with student teaching that you have to do without pay, my student teacher also has to do an additional project.  She gets to come up with her own idea, and she went with classroom goal setting.  Each child met with her and discussed a possible goal.  What we thought was pretty amazing was that many of them suggested a goal on their own that we were hoping to guide them towards.  Throughout the week she checked in with them to make sure they were focusing on their goal.  We also wrote them down and taped them to their desks.



3. At the end of the week students who achieved their goal got to play “Minute to Win It”.  Ohmyword, did they eat this up.  I loved her idea of a reward for a few reasons.  One, they had fun whether they won or lost because playing was their prize.  Two, students who did not achieve their goal still got to have fun by watching and cheering on their friends, but definitely became motivated to try harder next week. 

{Students who completed their goal met with our student teacher and got a certificate to take home}

Students had two choices for their game.  They could sort M&Ms based on color or wrap themselves in toilet paper like a mummy.  We played the “blue print” video like the show does to show them how to play.  We even had the minute timer from the show playing on our projector.  It was a lot of fun and INTENSE!!!!!  Every single student who participated completed their challenge within one minute, so we took their picture to add to the Minute to Win It Hall of Fame!

{Focus!}

This will be an activity I keep up with one way or another even after our student teacher leaves!

3. Amy Lemons did a post recently on listing poems. Read all about her idea here.  I basically ripped her off borrowed her idea and played a video on clouds and rain and we created some listing poems of our own.

First I explained what a listing poem was using my {FREE} Poetry Posters.

{Click the picture to grab them for free}

Then we watched the video and brainstormed facts and opinions we had about clouds and rain.  I randomly drew names and let students decide whether they wanted to create a cloud or rain listing poem.  The kiddos worked so hard and the end result was absolutely darling :)

{The last line on the bottom raindrop says “Rain is like a tune”…LOVE it!!!!}

4. Ok, finally something I can take FULL credit for!  We started our Earth Day lessons from the my mini-unit “Heal the World”.  We read through the mini interactive books and discussed some of the problems our planet is facing.  Tomorrow, we’ll use the center on our projector and make the craftivity to display in the hallway.

{Click here to check out this unit on TpT}

5. And since I was slightly tardy to this party, number 5 is actually something I did on Saturday!  We went to the Phillies game with our families to celebrate my husband’s uncle’s 60th birthday.  It was a coooooold night for April, but we had a fun time tailgating and watching the game eating.  Because my husband and I met through my brother, our families often spend holidays and birthdays together.  I love how well we all get along and I finally get the chance to feel what a bigger family feels like! Score!

{What you don’t see in this picture: the sweater and sweatshirt I have on under my North Face, 2 scarves, 2 pairs of socks, and Uggs}

That’s about it!  I hope everyone is enjoying their Sunday and has a great week! And thanks Doodle Bugs{as always} for such a fun linky!

~Halle