Introducing ... SMART Goals!

This week we introduced SMART Goals. Heard of them? There's some disagreement online in the world of business productivity as to what exactly some of the letters stand for, but for our purposes, SMART Goals are:

SPECIFIC

MEASURABLE

ACHIEVABLE

RELEVANT

TIME-BOUND (and reasonably TOUGH)

We have been kicking off our morning Core Skills time by practicing setting some SMART goals for the morning. This is a brand new skill, and I'm encouraged by how quickly they're picking it up. I worried a bit that they might set the bar quite low for themselves in order to easily achieve their goals. But this morning, they were setting some fairly ambitious goals for themselves in math, handwriting, and reading!

How do we make our goals SMART? Well, one child came to me with her list. Item #1: Do Khan. OK, so that's a start. She's not just going to "do math." She's going to do Khan, and she's going to do it this morning (time-bound). By chatting a bit, we were able to tighten it: Based on what she did the previous day, she decided that "Mastering two new skills on Khan Academy" would be in her Challenge Zone. It's specific. It's measurable: she and I can both see by the end of the morning that she has mastered two new skills. It's achievable (she did it yesterday, to her great surprise. It's relevant, because finishing Khan Academy 3rd Grade Math will earn her a math badge, which is part of her academic journey for the year. And it's time-bound (do it before lunchtime!) and tough (this child isn't naturally inclined toward math). 

I encourage you to look for examples of SMART goals in your own life and in the lives of others whom you know or hear about, and share them with your kids. This morning in our launch, I shared this famous example of a SMART goal with them: President John F. Kennedy's proclamation about going to the moon.

At the end of Core Skills time, we had a little huddle where everyone had a chance to weigh in on whether they achieved their three goals, whether the "successful" ones had reached high enough, and what those who "fell short" thought they might do differently tomorrow (with some suggestions from their classmates).

My hope and prayer is that we build a culture that encourages everyone to do their best work but also provides a safe place to learn from apparent disappointment. Please pray for us as we seek to engage them at a heart level. Thank you!