What will we do to be successful this year?

 One of the back to school activities we have completed is to reflect on our learning and what we need to do in order to be successful.

We discussed what our hopes and goals for the year. It was interesting to hear many of the different goals that students had, often reflecting the uniqueness of each child and what they felt they could achieve.

Many students talked about excelling in sports or being academic, which are definitely worthy goals. The ones that were really special were the students who wanted to just improve in an area they felt was something of a weakness. An example was one girl just wanted to be better at soccer.

It was interesting to ask the following questions of the students:

• What will your teacher need to do to help you this year?
• What will you do in order to be successful?
• What should kids do in this class to make the class run as smooth as possible? 
• What do you hope to learn this year?

 The responses were varied, but in reflecting on these questions it allows students to consider what they will achieve this year. I especially like the first one as it gave a real clue as to what we teachers need to help students. The most resounding comment came through was to explain things so that they could understand their work better!

My goal, of course this year... to find ways that will explain things better so that everyone understands!

What are your goals this year? What do you hope to achieve?