Achievements can be unique and personal. It depends how the person views achievement. For me, achievement is my ability to obtain my own goals and the goals that others have set for me. I try to set goals that are within my own reach. I try not to set goals that are too easy, because I want to be challenged. One of my achievements was graduating from college. It took me 8-9 years to obtain my bachelors degree in Biology, but I feel proud that I have earned that degree. The reason it took me so long was because I had to work while going to school. Another achievement that I have kept so far is living in the same house for more than 4 years. In the last 35 years I have lived in at least 17 different houses/apartments. So far I have been in the same house for 8 years and I hope to live in this house for many more years to come. A goal that I have for myself is being a teacher. It has and will continue to be hard work to obtain this goal. Once I am a teacher I know I will continue to set goals for myself so that I can continue to grow and help my students. Another goal that I have is to travel. Traveling will take time and as I am able to save the money I will do it. I want to travel to the states that I have not been to and I want to show my boys different parts of the US. This country has some real beauty and history to it. There are several countries that I want to see (Ireland, Bulgaria, Greece, etc.). I was lucky that I had internal motivation. It made it easier for me to set goals and strive to be better.
As a teacher, I will set goals for my students to strive to achieve and I will encourage my students to set their own goals. Their goals could be as simple as matching the goals that I set for them or they can go beyond my expectations. They may have a goal to be on time to my class or to beat their last test score.
One of the goals that I will have for my students is to complete all of the assignments that I have assigned. Another goal that I will have for my students is to pass the tests. The goal that I will have for myself is to hand back all work back within a 1 week period. Every student should be able to set their own goals. I am hoping they all will be willing to try to meet the goals that I set for them. If they are unable to meet the goals that I set for them, I hope they feel comfortable to come to me to talk about why and try to figure out a way for them to meet my goals or their goals.
I do realize that not every student is going to meet the goals that I have set in my classroom. All of my students are not going to be internally motivated. It is my job to help them set goals and find out what is going to make them motivated to learn. By keeping an open line of communication, having a positive attitude, and being honest with my students, hopefully this will be enough to have most of my students feel comfortable to talk to me. By the time they leave my class most of my students will have achieved something.
Interesting that you note that you can feel a sense of achievement regardless of whether you set the goal yourself or if someone sets the goal for you. Is there a different experience in either case, or is it basically the same? Emotionally, are there different connections? What are the implications for us as teachers working with our students? Achievements can be so simple as staying put! They can be complex as well...
ReplyDeleteThe feeling of achievement for myself is greater than for someone else.It is when I don't achieve my goals were the feelings are equally as strong. I hate disappointing people and I so when i do I am mentally hard on myself. I am my worst critic.
ReplyDeleteAs a teacher, I will have to remember that my students may not want to follow the path that I have lined up. I need to be able to connect with my students to make sure that I don't push too hard when I set my goals for them. I need to be sensitive to the students that are on an IEP & 504, they may need extra help to reach some of the goals. For my TAG students, they will have their own set of goals just for them. I am not able to tell you any specific goals yet, due to I am not teaching & I don't know my students yet. The only thing that I can tell you is that every student has the potential to learn Science.