In 2019, I discovered the power of taking a small, imperfect step. Knowing that perfectionism can halt my progress, I have stopped pushing for right and started encouraging myself to try for enough.

It’s a tricky prospect at home, where I know my four year old is watching my every move and taking in the lessons I may not have intended to teach him. At school, it’s a whole different challenge, knowing that every move is being evaluated by state tests, formal observations, walk throughs, etc.

My trick? Stop caring about everything all at once.

When I worry about every little thing, I begin to flail. I’m not thriving… I’m barely surviving. The truth of the matter is, I could always be a better teacher. There is always more to learn, and there are always ways to grow. My students deserve the best, and I feel I must give it to them. When I hear myself going to this place, I have to hit the pause button.

It’s all true, but it’s not helpful or productive. My students learn from seeing me handle my failures well. They discover that the process of learning is not filled with endless successes, but actually begins with a series of failures and challenges that eventually lead us to that beautiful light of understanding and mastery.

Choose a focus

I once worked in a school where we were to choose one area to focus on for the year. As a new teacher to the district, I was exempt from the expectation for the first full year. My priority was to find my footing. What a gift!

I spent the year learning best practices in social emotional learning, discovered new techniques to try in all subject areas, and unearthed the power of backwards planning. Other teachers were experts in various subject areas, because they had spent years focusing on an area of interest. They taught short classes after school to share what they had learned with anyone who was interested. I learned more in one year than I had in four years of college. It was an incredible experience.

As we know, not all schools and teachers have this luxury. A few years later, my family moved to a different part of the country, and I found myself overwhelmed by the teaching requirements. Thankfully, I returned to what I had learned about focusing on one thing, and I decided to spend a year learning about guided reading. My students scores soared, nothing suffered as it would if I had tried to do all the things, and the next year, I focused on guided math with equal success.

Decide on what you don’t do

This was so hard for me, but it was also essential. I decided that I don’t do over the top classroom decor. It works for some people (and if that’s you – rock on!), but for me, it’s a huge stressor that ends up distracting from my instruction. If I have great volunteers who have wonderful art skills, I’ll do a classroom transformation that relates to something I’m teaching. If not, I just don’t do it. My classroom is still neat, organized, and inviting. It’s also generally decorated with things the students have created. For me, this just works better (and saves tons of time).

I also don’t stay late more than one afternoon a week once the school year has started. Planning and grading still make their way home at times, but limiting my extra hours keeps me focused, balanced and sane.

The 2020 Challenge

So here’s my challenge for you: Choose 1 thing to focus on for the rest of 2020. If you’re a data person like I am, you might choose something based on your students needs. Maybe you’d rather choose something you’re interested in or something you’d like to work on. It doesn’t matter, as long as it’s one super focused thing (so guided reading as opposed to reading instruction). Then, let everything else be the best it can be without going crazy and keep your focus on improving that one area. I can’t wait to hear how it goes!

Happy New Year!

January is a great time to revisit goals we set in September or to start the process for the first time. Typically, I’ll show students my actual goals and progress monitoring. I take out my personal planner and my goal-setting sheets, so they can see my process and decide what might work for them.

This is particularly helpful, because I often set multiple personal and professional goals throughout the year. I use different tracking systems and strategies to achieve each goal, so they can see a variety of tools. If this doesn’t work for you or you don’t feel comfortable sharing yours (or you don’t use a system – some people are more successful without one!), I’ve included some images of mine that you’re welcome to use with your students.

Student Goal Setting

Depending on the group of students, I’ve done this really simply using printer paper and colored pencils or crayons or with a handout or other scaffolding tools. In either case, the quality of my modeling has a direct impact on the quality of goals my students set.

Here are a few things that work for me:

Be Specific

The more specific a goal is, the more likely we are to achieve it and typically, the more thoughtful and purposeful it is. For example, in order to become a better reader, we have to consider what makes a good reader. What do good readers do regularly? What might be missing from your reading life that will help you become a better reader?

So be a better reader is one option, but a better goal would be practice reading regularly.

Make it Actionable

This is one of the keys to goal-setting success. We improve if our goals include things we can actually do. For students, making it really concrete is also helpful. So, rather than trying for a goal of improving my reading level, I’d focus on the actions I can take.

We might improve the goal above to say read for 20 minutes each day

Plan for Success

This was a turning point for me as an adult – when I knew what success looked like, I was able to reach my goals much more effectively! I’m always mindful of including this point in my mini lesson, so students are able to picture what succeeding will look like. This will be easier with some goals than others.

Perhaps a student ultimately wants to have all their fast facts memorized. Success might look like completing a particular assessment in a given period of time. With reading, it can be trickier, especially for those of us who are less inclined to focus on student reading levels. I’ve had students set the goal of reading a particularly challenging text. Several years ago, Harry Potter was a popular goal in my classroom. In order to do it, they knew they needed to flex their reading muscles regularly and build really strong decoding and comprehension skills.

With our reading example, we might modify the goal to be read just right books for 20 minutes each day so I can eventually read Harry Potter.e

Monitor Progress

I often show students a few examples of my own progress monitoring: my Goodreads page is a great example for students who like to use technology to track their progress, though I always remind them to talk with their parents before using any digital tools.

I also share my water intake tracker. My goal is to drink 8 glasses of water a day (obviously still a work in progress!). I point out that I haven’t reached my goal yet. If the class is ready, we might talk about evaluating whether our goal is achievable or if it needs to be broken into smaller steps, as I did with my 5K.

Professional goals are also helpful to share. When I was in the classroom, I would often share exactly what I was working on with the students. They were always eager to keep me accountable! This was particularly helpful if it was something I could track publicly. One year, I worked on wait time and kept a tally on the board each time I remembered to use it.

My 2020 writing goal would be a great one to share with students: I plan to publish 24 posts in 2020. This came about as I was seeking ways to pay it forward and share what I’ve learned with others, as well as continue writing regularly (an essential component of a writing teacher’s life). Google sheets is already working beautifully as a progress monitoring tool!

Know Yourself

I always point out that everyone is different, and every goal is different. Some people feel success when they are tracking a particular goal. Others feel that certain goals shouldn’t be monitored because it can steal the joy.

I ask that students try monitoring their progress with whatever goal they set and be mindful of how the process works for them. This is an important opportunity to learn something important about themselves, and it will serve them well to experiment and determine what process makes them most successful.

Share Your Goals

We typically write our goals, then share them with an accountability partner or post them in the classroom. If we’re displaying them, I always warn students ahead of time, so they can pick a goal they’re willing to share.

Reflect

Reflection is an essential component of this process. Some people are firm believers in setting goals with a time limit and checking back at the end of that time. I absolutely see the value in this, but it just hasn’t worked for me in elementary school. I find it’s often too long a period of time for students, and I tend to forget about the goals if we’re not checking in on them more regularly.

My students and I reflect on our goals as part of our weekly routines. Each Friday, we wipe down our desks and check in with our accountability partners before packing up. We’ll celebrate anyone who has achieved a goal or a milestone toward a goal, and sometimes have a class meeting where people can ask for advice from others. Some students choose to leave themselves a sticky note to remind them of their plans for next week or a quick word of encouragement to find Monday morning.

Do you set goals with your students? I’d love to know your process. Feel free to share in the comments or share your goal setting pictures and tips over on Instagram.

Being the kind of teacher who loves analyzing student data and reflecting on my own practice, I find that goal and intention setting can be really productive and meaningful for me. So here’s a little look into my process and a peek at what I’ve learned this year:

A few clear goals and an intention work well for me.

I am a HUGE fan of Happier (Gretchen Rubin & Elizabeth Craft) and Happier in Hollywood (Liz Craft & Sarah Fain), and I loved setting 18 goals in 2018 and 19 goals in 2019.

However, at the end of 2018, I realized I had no idea what goals I had set at the beginning (despite my beautiful graphic)… I just knew I hadn’t reached my 18 goals! In 2019, I listed my 19 goals somewhere… and started actively working on the only 2 goals I still remember: complete a 5K and read 50 books. And I achieved both!

Inspired by Liz and Sarah, I also set an intention for 2019: Discovering Joy. I realized that I had spent so much time focusing on achieving professional goals and dealing with challenges that I had forgotten to do the things that bring me joy. And after having a little one, I found that outside of being a mom (which I absolutely love), I didn’t actually know what brought me joy anymore. I have learned so very much about myself this year, and I am not surprised to tell you that the journey has also made me a better mom.

Using my daily planner for goal setting and tracking my goals makes a huge difference!

I discovered a love of planners in 2018 and found that Passion Planner is by far my favorite, with Happy Planner being a decent second place at a lower price point (if you get all the coupons etc). Each week this year, I would write my goals, reflect on my progress, and plan out my activities for the week.

Because I wrote Run a 5 K by the end of the year in my planner so often, it became a focus for me. My running was planned out in advance, so I didn’t have to waste time and energy making decisions – I just did it. Decision fatigue is a very real thing, and removing that element and a huge impact on my willingness to get out there and run.

I also tracked my reading habits on Goodreads and loved seeing the number increase with each completed book. My abandoned books rate was significantly higher than I would have expected, and I found some new authors I really enjoyed! This has seriously improved my reading life!

Small steps can lead to big things

Gretchen Rubin says: Don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good. This saying has been a game changer for me as a recovering perfectionist. It’s fine to take a small, imperfect step in the right direction. It’s the first few steps that are often the hardest!

Running a 5K has been a lifelong goal of mine for so long that it became to seem inconceivable that I’d actually complete it. I decided this was an excellent, low-stakes way to test out Gretchen’s theory and made this a 2 year goal. That’s basically unheard of for me, since I am generally a let’s just get this done kind of girl.

Breaking this into a 2 year task brought me so much more joy than it would have if I had just pushed through it. In 2019, I planned to simply complete one with some combination of running and walking. My sister, who is an exercise science professional, recommended None to Run, and I found huge success following the program. Although I took several breaks throughout the year, I never felt that typical obsessive pressure to complete the task. Moving my body brought me joy, so I just happily continued on in whatever way worked best at the time.

I now recite Gretchen’s phrase to myself regularly, and it has made all the difference.

I am me

For me, water is better than coffee, napping can mess with my insomnia, and prayer/meditation have significantly improved my life. This isn’t true for everyone, and plenty of people swear by a quick power nap. Many other things that work for others just don’t work for me. That’s ok! Sometimes it’s just as helpful to know what doesn’t work for you (going to bed too early) as it is to know what does (tracking my water in my planner).

Gratitude is a powerful tool

By setting the intention to discover joy this year, I have rediscovered the power of gratitude and found that singing along to the radio, playing tag, and reading books can be just as important and purposeful as crossing that essential task off my to do list. While a daily gratitude journal, photo log, reflection, or other tool may be helpful, I’ve found expressing my gratitude in the moment is key. Whether it’s to thank those responsible for creating the moment or saying a silent prayer, it’s been awesome to see that each time I say thank you, I discover there’s more to be grateful for.

Thanks so much for reading along, chatting with me on Instagram, and checking out my TPT store. I am so grateful for each and every one of you!