I spend about a week every September to teach my students LIFE SKILLS and GOAL setting!
I strongly believe that, our gift is to teach our children how to take more responsibility for their education.It is essential that we give them the tools they need to succeed today, tomorrow and for the rest of their lives!How can we get kids to “own” their education?
If we show them how to set and acheive goals and how to use these principles in the classroom ,we will give them important life skills tools that they will use for a lifetime!
I teach my 6th graders the life skills below and then, a discussion follows….
1.No vision= no direction. I have them write down what they want to accomplish during the school year. I ask them to start their sentences with ” I want to…” or ” I will…”. I sometimes, have the kids write a letter to themselves about what they think they will be doing during the school year, what their expectations are, who their closest friends would be, how I can best help them during the year, etc…Later, I ask them to put all these letters in a TIME CAPSULE which is actually a Pringles can, and reopen it in June…one week before school closes and talk about how many of our goals have been accomplished ! We also talk about why, we have failed to accomplish the rest of them.
2.Don’t find a fault=Find a solution!
3.Show them how these 6 words can hold them back from being successful:no, can’t, won’t, never, maybe, if.
4.Coach the students that: to Earn more they will have to Learn more, Think more, and Do more!
5.Stress the ” I’ll make it happen” words: yes, I can, I will.
6.Demonstrate to them the power of eliminating Excuses!
7.Show them tangibles examples of how to set and acheive goals.Give them examples for how to use Goal setting in the classroom.
8.Help them to develop a habit to ask themselves each day:” Did I give my best effort to today’s activities”?
9.Demonstrate the importance of helping others.
10.FOCUS: Vision+Goals+Attitude+Action
It’s simply unbelievable, how my students appreciate this kind of teaching! They feel grateful and I know, because of the letters they write me from time to time…we have a letters box in the classroom which I am writing to you about, in a future post!
ELT inspired 