Stephen Covey and classroom goals

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Upper Elementary Teachers Chatboard

Stephen Covey and classroom goals

by carolyn

Feb 20, 2009

Can anybody tell me the specific goals you have set in the classroom? A la Covey, "be absolutely clear about your goals"...... What am I looking for the kids to accomplish this year? Should I think in terms of "this student will advance ___ reading levels this year" or "such and such percentage of my students will earn ___ on the State Math and Reading Tests? What are your thoughts?

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another Stephan Covey fan On 2/20/09, carolyn wrote: > Can anybody tell me the specific goals you have set in the > classroom? A la Covey, "be absolutely clear about your > goals"...... What am I looking for the kids to accomplish > this year? Should I think in terms of "this student will > advance ___ reading levels this year" or "such and such > percenta...See MoreOn 2/20/09, carolyn wrote: > Can anybody tell me the specific goals you have set in the > classroom? A la Covey, "be absolutely clear about your > goals"...... What am I looking for the kids to accomplish > this year? Should I think in terms of "this student will > advance ___ reading levels this year" or "such and such > percentage of my students will earn ___ on the State Math > and Reading Tests? What are your thoughts?

I love the simple wisdom of Stephen Covey. So many teachers come on this site and ask "What should I do" to which the only answer can be - what do you want to achieve??

What do you want to achieve? Really? The first thing I want to achieve in my classroom each year is safety - why do we assume this will simply happen? I tell the kids the first thing we're there to do each day is keep each other safe - no one comes to school to be unsafe. That covers all unsafe behaviors - we don't need to list them, the kids just need to be reminded sometimes as they're running down the hall that it isn't safe to do that... And it means Getting Along! We don't feel safe if someone's picking on us or making fun of us or excluding us. That are the two things I want from them - those are the two things that can make for a good school year and have kids wanting to come back to school the next day.

Next - can I instill in them - can they acquire confidence in themselves? Can they grow in their self-confidence? I want them to value themselves - and each other. I want them to come to better appreciate their abilites and the abilities of others.

Learning's a journey - my goal is that we have a safe journey together learning to become more confident and hopefully more compassionate people - and what we learn about math and reading and social studies is the icing on the cake but it's not the cake itself.

Begin with the end in mind- is raising reading levels really the end or is it helping them to become active learners who believe in themselves and invest themselves in being good citizens of the school community and even the world beyond?

I have very high standards for my kids in terms of how they treat each other - I expect them to meet those standards. And if they help me to create a safe school day for themselves and each other, they really do learn to become better readers too. We learn best when we feel best about ourselves.

Clearly I think too much emphasis is placed on the state tests - and that we freak the kids out about these tests because we let ourselves get all freaked about them. Does an entire school year really boil down to those tests? If it does, a robot could teach kids but a robot can't teach kids. It takes a teacher with humanity to show them what that is.

Good luck. Isn't Stephan Covey great?

Feb 20, 2009

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