Goal Setting

This year our school as a whole is focusing on goal setting. We were asked to create walls outside our room with students goals. As they achieve a goal, we add a new goal to the wall. For third grade, we decided on a gumball machine. Students will write their names on gumballs to add to the machine. I was also thinking stars and a "Shooting for the Stars" theme. Nothing is official yet.

During our first week of school, I hit hard on goal setting. I explained to students what a goal is and created an anchor chart listing how we choose goals. We looked at short term and long term goals. I read Louise the Big Cheese and the Back-to-School Smarty-Pants to my students. We talked about how Louise's goal was to get straight A's and how important it is to not give up on your goal. We also talked about the difference between academic and personal goals. I shared some goals of my own with my students.

After discussing goal setting and reading the book, each student created a circle map and wrote their goals in the circle map. I had students narrow them down to the three most important goals. They took these three goals and wrote them down on a special paper titled "My Goals for This School Year." I copied it on color paper to make it stand out. These goals will be placed on the wall outside our room and will be revisited as the school year goes on. You can find the paper here: My Goals For This School Year. I am not sure how to add the PDF in picture format for you to see. I still have a lot to learn.

I am hoping to get my board up and going so my students can add their goals. Have a great week!!

September Currently

I love this time of year! The months of September through December have got to be my favorite. I can't wait for the temperature to drop. It is still over 90 degrees here. I am linking up with Farley for this month's Currently!! 

My hubby is upstairs giving my little one a bath and then nap time for her. My older girls are playing. It is nice when they are all getting along. I am loving that there was no school today. I needed desperately to catch up on my sleep and I did. Well as much as I can for having a

 2 1/2 year old. She decided to sleep all night. Triumph!

Yesterday while my little one was napping I did my lesson plans for the week after this week. Our grade level splits the planning. I am responsible for Word Study and Reading. I also do my reading group plans. For the next few weeks there will be no groups since I am teaching my students how Daily 5 works and I am assessing. I am super excited that I am a week ahead!!!! Hubby suggested always staying a week ahead and that is a super idea. You can see that this was one of my goals.

My sister watches my little one every day while I am at work. She loves my sister but the weirdest thing has been happening. Every morning I bring her she starts crying the minute we turn into the development. She cries "I don't want to go." My sister has to take her from me because she is in tears, just hysterical. She is always fine 5 minutes later and when I pick her up she is all smiles. I am not sure what is going on but it breaks my heart. This is why I am hoping for a peaceful morning tomorrow. Even yesterday she kept saying "we're not turning" and ''we're not going to Heidi's." This might be a long year!

We got DirectTV a month ago and I have learned how to use the DVR. We recorded a bunch of movies that we still need to watch. I am thinking I better get on it.

My first goal is to run 3 miles. I have done it before using Couch To 5K. I even did the Color Run and another run where I ran the whole 3 miles. That was quite awhile ago though. I started Couch To 5K again and am on Week 7. I ran for 20 minutes on my treadmill twice now. It is still too hot for me to run outside. I signed up for the Color Me Rad run in October and I have to be ready for it. My second goal is to stay a week ahead in planning. I covered this already. My third goal is to not go in to school on the weekends.  I am hoping that if I can stick to the second goal, than the third goal should be manageable. We will see what happens.

Have a great rest of the day and week!!