It's Okay to be a Goal Digger!

Reach for Student Greatness with Goals

Go beyond bare minimum of standardized testing goals. What do you believe about your students’ capabilities and your own capabilities? Can your students do more than pass a classroom test or state exam?

The Science I Explored

1.The part of your brain that creates emotion (your amygdala) evaluates the degree to which the goal is important to you. 2. The part of your brain that does problem solving (your frontal lobe) defines the specifics of what the goal entails. 3. The amygdala and frontal lobe work together to keep you focused on, and moving toward, situations and behaviors that lead to the achievement of that goal, while simultaneously causing you to ignore and avoid situations and behaviors that don’t. While that process sounds as straightforward as a computer program, what’s actually happening is much more complex. Because your brain has something called neuroplasticity, goal setting literally changes the structure of your brain so that it’s optimized to achieve that goal.20

20 Geoffrey James, “What Goal-Setting Does to Your Brain and Why It’s Spectacularly Effective,” Inc., Accessed December 20, 2020, https://www.inc.com/geoffrey-james/what-goal-setting-does-to-your-brain-why-itsspectacularly-effective.html

The Book :)

A Situation

The educator is aware that every student may have a different goal. Some students understand topics easily but lose exam points with carelessness. Other students are great with major ideas but are easily distracted and cannot complete tasks. Some students move slower in understanding an idea and may give up if the class seems to be moving on. The educator even notes that they also have teacher goals for their students. As a teacher, they are interested in each student making great progress; even entering national competitions and publishing their works. Beyond passing tests, they also want to instill big ideas into their students, like work ethic and knowing how to learn.

Student Goal Achieving Method

We are talking about how the brain will use the idea of an important goal to achieve the actual important goal. These goals should go beyond a single topic and be applied to learning in general. If a student continues to give up in math or science, they do not need a separate math goal or science goal. The student needs a way to push past the feeling of giving up. The educator can set up a goal system for everyone. Start with defining a goal. If a student has trouble coming up with a goal, have a mini “question asking” session with them to flush it out.

Ask questions like:

• “In what areas do you want to improve?” • “What do you think is happening?” • “What do you do when you feel confused or get frustrated?” The educator is guiding a student to see where progress halts. Once students have a goal in mind, continue with a main question at the top of the paper that includes the goal. For example, • “How do I stay focused for longer periods of time?” • “How do I keep noticing details while I work?” • “How do I keep going even if I feel like giving up on my work?” (We should note that taking a break and returning to the assignment in a few minutes is helpful for the brain.)

And for the educator:

• “How do I let students feel a great sense of progress?” • “How do I create an environment that instills ideas about learning how to learn as well as work ethic values?”

After the question is generated, allow the student to write their own ideas for answers. The student can write a list or paragraph style but let them begin with tapping into their own inner guidance.

For homework (for you or the student), the next step would be to research the science related to the question (aka problem). Finding out more about the science of focusing, or the science of making progress, or noticing details, or work ethic gives further insight into what is happening in the brain and the action that is needed to accomplish the goal the students have chosen for themselves. Information will be found—some rejected and some resonating. Each student will decide what they are willing to do.

Goals change, so revisit this method monthly or periodically as you see fit. Show your students how to celebrate small wins.

Now, feel your confidence rise and enter that national competition with your students. Say it with me: “I am helping my students reach personal learning goals.”

Quotes

All who have accomplished great things have had a great aim, have fixed their gaze on a goal which was high, one which sometimes seemed impossible. —Orison Swett Marden

Our goals can only be reached through a vehicle of a plan, in which we must fervently believe, and upon which we must vigorously act. There is no other route to success. —Pablo Picasso