Setting Goals for the Rest of the Year

When faculty, students, and administration return from the break, a  perfect opportunity presents itself for reflection and goal setting. This process is instrumental in building self-reflective processes and skills, which are crucial for lifelong learning. Continual growth requires a working knowledge of goals and progress towards them. In an encouraging environment, teacher and learner can appreciate how far they have come and set their sights on where they still want to go.

One way students in the middle school will accomplish this reflection is through mini-conferences. Students are already practiced at reviewing rubrics to get an idea of their aim, planning and working towards this goal while using guidelines to direct them, and aligning their assessment of their work with the expectations. Therefore, using tools to frame one-on-one conferences with advisors is a natural step to take during the winter term. They may be asked to:

• Look for themes that emerge while reviewing their progress reports
• Evaluate the Habits of Mind they want to address this term
• Complete an executive functioning skills questionnaire

In addition to practicing a valued skill, this time for reflection sends the message that we all have gifts, and we all have something to work towards. It does not have to be an uncomfortable, awkward conversation; in fact, it is an organic part of the learning process. Discovering what makes us unique makes us more authentically ourselves, a better version of ourselves.