Laura Harrington
Kindergarten Teacher. Literacy Fanatic. Lifelong Learner.
Future As A Learner
As adults, we consistently set goals for ourselves personally and professionally. Having a concrete, specific target to work towards is motivating and can be rewarding. One of my future ambitions is to teach my students how to set specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and timely goals or SMART goals. By setting goals, students take ownership of their learning and they can see how it is possible to accomplish what they set out to achieve. I want to work with my students to set goals as classroom community and individually. Students could set SMART goals towards reading levels or specific math skills or behavior. I believe this work will create a climate of self-efficacy in my classroom and will teach students the importance of this life long skill. This article provides clear steps on launching goal setting, understanding how this process looks in the classroom, and ways to support students in this process.
Setting goals will build students’ capacity to confront challenges and will allow students to take ownership of their learning. In addition to setting goals with my students, I also want to work on creating a classroom where students take on the responsibility for their own learning through the use of inquiry-based lessons. In his TED talk, Brad Chumrau, a fourth grade teacher, explains the benefits of inquiry-based learning and discusses how it allows students to be thinkers and to have relevant and enriching experiences that will stay with them for a life time. As I watched this video, I became compelled to embrace my students’ creativity and to provide them with engaging experiences. This case study at a school in Golden, CO helped me understand how as a teacher, I can guide my students’ inquiry and prepare them to lead their own inquiry. This article explains how to teach students how to question and how to let students drive their own inquiry. I want to build a culture of inquiry in my classroom and teach students to embrace problem solving and take the reins on their own learning.
While I have set clear goals for my future classroom, I also have set goals for myself as a future learner. I want to continue to develop my content knowledge and pedagogy and I hope to do this by taking classes towards a graduate certificate as a Reading Specialist at George Mason University. I enjoy the challenge of taking classes and feel as if this program would meet my needs. This certificate would teach me how to design literacy instruction and would prepare me to work with individuals of all ages, including adolescents and adults. I believe this program would strengthen my own practice as a literacy teacher and provide me with the necessary skills if I ever decided to become a literacy leader in a school. Additionally, I would be able to continue my own inquiry-based learning in this program.
Literacy Learner on the Move
As I reflect on my experience as a student in the Master’s of Education program, it has led to me examine and redefine my future ambitions. After two years as a graduate student, I have developed a wealth of knowledge and now the time has come to think about how I will apply what I have learned. From this experience, I have learned how valuable and motivating it is to set goals and work towards them. I believe that as a teacher, I can work on having my students develop this life long skill. Additionally, throughout this program, I have become interested in using inquiry-based learning in my classroom to engage students. My favorite experiences as a graduate student have been the ones where I had the opportunity to create my own inquiry question and I know this experience would be equally as powerful for my students. In the future, I hope to enhance my students’ learning through the use of inquiry-based activities as well as to teach students how to set goals to drive their own learning. Not only do I want to create a classroom where students learn through inquiry and set goals, my personal mission is to continue my own learning. As I consider my future, I want to continue to develop my content knowledge of reading interventions and assessments by challenging myself to take classes towards a graduate certificate as a Reading Specialist.
As I transition from student to graduate, I have reflected on the new ideas and knowledge I have gained. This experience as a student has motivated me to continue my own educational journey and has propelled me to think about future classes I would like to take. Additionally, the new ideas I have learned throughout my Master’s have led me to set goals for my future classroom.
Photo Credits:
http://www.educationworld.com/a_curr/profdev/images/goals_Secrets%20of%20Goal%20Setting.pdf
