Tuesday, July 09, 2013

Simple, but Meaningful: School Year Goals

What are your reasonable, doable, engaging school year goals?  In what ways are you going to focus your goals so that the goals are "loose-tight," "tight" so that they meet national, state, and local standards, and "loose" so they meet students' needs, interests and passions?

The simpler the goals, the better.

The simpler the goals, the more time there will be for student response and service.

Hence, simple goals:
  • Students will increase their ability to read with fluency, comprehension, and engagement.
  • Students will increase their ability to write with fluency, craft, voice, purpose, and engagement.
  • Students will increase their mathematical knowledge, skills, concept, and engagement.
  • Students will develop the 4 c's, communication, critical thinking skills, creativity, collaboration, through interdisciplinary project/problem base learning and learning community engagement.  
The family goal will be to support learners with a 45-minute home study plan each school night including 15 minutes of writing, 15 minutes of online math practice, and 15 minutes of reading each night.

The collegial goal will be to choose one or two main learning goals, and work together to research, plan, implement, assess and revise those goals in an effort to teach children well.

The path to reaching these goals will include the following:
  • A "servant leadership" mindset that puts students and their families center stage in all classroom efforts.
  • Starting the year with a "learning to learn" unit of study that provides students with the mindset, tools, and pathways for optimal learning.
  • A predictable, student-friendly, blended learning routine and schedule.
  • A "home away from home" classroom learning environment.
Each unit that supports the goals above will be reviewed and revised by embedding standards, measurements, and relevant, meaningful, multi-modal learning experiences.