Middle School Life
Welcome to Middle School Life, where innovation meets education! Join us as we explore the latest trends, share inspiring ideas, and discuss strategies to create an enriching middle school experience for all.
In each episode, your hosts, Assistant Principal Victoria Hammond and middle school teacher Dr. Jennifer Erdmann, will bring their wealth of knowledge and passion for education to the forefront.
Middle School Life
Guiding Students to Academic Triumphs Through Strategic Planning
Unlock the transformative power of goal setting with us as we explore not just the "how," but the remarkable "why" behind setting targets for middle school students. We'll take you on a journey through the art of achieving, revealing how realistic goals can supercharge motivation and academic prowess. We uncover how students can pinpoint meaningful objectives, with a cheerleading squad made up of school leaders, faculty, and parents. It's not just talk; we bring you stories of empowerment and success that redefine what it means to reach for the stars.
Ever feel like you're studying hard but not smart? Let's change that narrative. In this episode, we lay out the missing link in many students' toolkits—effective study skills. Coupled with goal setting, we see students' grades and confidence soar across various subjects. But it's not a solo mission. The shift from just following orders to taking ownership of their learning paths is crucial, and we celebrate the initial victories that promise to fuel our students' future endeavors.
As we close, remember: a goal without a plan is just a wish. We share a snippet from our own life, using the CLEAR framework to craft goals that stick. It's about consistent practice, touching every corner of a student's life, preparing them for the world beyond the classroom. Your stories and feedback are the heartbeat of our community, so let's continue the conversation on social media. And get ready for our next episode, where we'll debunk educational myths, reinforcing our passion for nurturing minds and making a difference. Join us, and let's build a legacy of growth together.
Welcome listeners to episode eight of middle school life, the podcast. Today's episode is going to dive into the transformative influence that goal setting can have on the lives of middle school students and adults. Join us as we explore real life stories, backed by research, illustrating the impact of setting and achieving goals on motivation, academic success and the development of crucial life skills. Get ready for an inspiring journey into the world of middle schoolers, unlocking their potential through the art of goal setting.
Speaker 2:I actually was excited about this episode, and now you've got some stuff you want to talk about with the students and I've got some stuff I want to talk about for teachers or other adults on campus.
Speaker 1:I'm really excited about it, especially thinking of you know it's January and we're all starting the new years and I know, as some of us get older, sometimes the new year's resolutions are like look, we already know that's.
Speaker 1:That might not be the best way to start, but if you really look at research because, as I was researching for not only this podcast, but we really were focused on student goal setting at the end of last year at our school looking at the impact that it can have on students and adult success and achievement and the probability that they're going to complete tasks and set, set realistic goals and actually go through with things they want to do has been completely transformative when I'm looking at the students and I'm going to discuss that in a moment.
Speaker 1:But the other part is is how transformative it's been for me setting small, short-term goals for myself, because sometimes I just have a lot of ideas and I want to do it all, but when I set the goal and I have it be measurable and specific and I time it and I'm like, oh, this is what I'm going to do these things, it's so much easier to attain and I feel a greater feeling of success and I imagine that that's the same feeling we're empowering our students with when we, when we equip them with this tool of goal setting Right.
Speaker 2:And I'm not sure that middle schoolers have had that much experience in that. I know my primary focus is sixth grade. This year is it's primarily sixth grade, so I I don't know if they've had that much experience in their elementary years of of setting a goal that they can achieve. And I'll add some of my own perceptions or perspectives that I saw this year in December when we did our testing. For those of you who aren't in Florida, we have what's called fast testing and our students take it three times a year in the fall, right before winter break, and again they'll take it in May.
Speaker 1:So when we're looking at that data and we're looking at those raw scores, that's what that state is assessing and the fast DLA and the fast math tests are one of those components that we look at. When we're looking at graduation components and we're looking at, we're looking at, we're more looking at placing students for accelerated courses versus, you know, regular courses, anything like that. So when I start talking about how our students set goals and how we talk about those scores because a lot of the feedback I was getting when I was talking to our teacher leadership team and our teachers and even some of our students, was they didn't really understand the students particularly they were the teachers were sharing what it meant that they had a 125 or a 226 or a 300. Like they don't know what that means. And if, if you just say, hey, you're a one, you're a two, you're a three, hey, I don't like labeling kids on those things, but labels which I do not like.
Speaker 1:Correct, but they need to know. What does that mean? Right? What do I need to do to get where I need to be?
Speaker 1:Because if they don't even know, how can they possibly fix it, or how could they possibly can't fix a problem if you don't know how to fix, correct and a lot of the times I feel like now, with this, the, the technology at our fingertips, we have the capabilities to share this data with students so much faster. Because previously in Florida it used to be you take the F cat test, you bubble in the answers. The schools get that data in June or July and then make decisions based off of it. The students don't have any any indication whatsoever what their score is, because by time you get to the next year, I don't remember what was on that test Right. So, now that we have this at our fingertips, how are we going to leverage it to unlock their greatest potentials?
Speaker 2:Yep, exactly, exactly, and it's obviously we don't like all the standardized tests that they have to take, but this is this is one that does allow for growth over time through the year which I do love. And it's realistic in real time. And when I did my own data chats with the kids then it did make an impact.
Speaker 1:We intentionally did a lot of work around student goal setting, where we started with our school leadership team, then we shared it out with the faculty. We got feedback from both of them, meaning we gathered staff feedback. Then we sent a letter home and sent it to our school messenger so that parents could learn a little bit more about the importance of student goal setting and what it was, and then we told them that we were going to do it with the students. So not only did we end up doing goal setting at school, we had the majority of stakeholders involved in the process leading up to it and there was a lot of information going out. And I think that that is one of the things that has made it so successful thus far. And I think one of the most impactful things is when you're you're when you're talking to your teachers and you're talking to your leaders and you're building this goal setting is. You know, we root it in the Y, but the big part of why I think even the first session has been so successful and I'm going to talk a little bit about that qualitative and quantitative data in just a moment is because everybody was involved in the process and it wasn't just hey, do this. Or else it was a hey, now we're gonna do that goal setting we've been talking about since last March. The teachers felt like they were very much a part of that process, I feel like, and therefore, when I was walking around just kind of like, looking in classrooms as they were doing that goal setting, the teachers were telling the students about the goal setting, before they even started writing anything down or putting it on the form online, that we collected it two different ways so that we could track the data over time.
Speaker 1:When we were looking at it, the teachers weren't just like guys, do this goal setting, we have to do it. They were, hey, we're gonna do some goal setting around math, pm one, and what you were looking for for PM two. They explained the scale. They talked about how everybody's in a different place and it's okay that you're in a different place and you saw the students looking at their scores and then their students looking at where is that on the chart? Because we have the chart on every single paper. It's color coded and they got to see where they were.
Speaker 1:And then the teachers talked about hey, this is a reasonable amount of growth. Like you don't wanna say, hey, I'm a level one, but I'm gonna be a level five, like they talked more about realistic goal setting and how these tests are what you should know by the end of this grade level. So it's okay if you're not proficient yet, but what is that number that you're looking to grow towards? And when we have students looking at that data, looking at their own data, and taking that extreme ownership over their work, while being led by their teacher who's teaching them that work, that's really powerful and that is them going oh, I'm not just taking a test, because I have to take this test, which?
Speaker 2:is how they've always taken a test. It is like yeah.
Speaker 1:No, it's like you come in here, you do not talk during this test. Do the best you can Like. This is very important. This is how we're gonna place you for tests, but not the where am I and where am I supposed to be, cause not only is this gonna help them see where they're at and then have goals of where they want to be, it's also gonna show them where is that proficiency level, where is that above proficiency level. And another important part is saying, hey, if you're already at a five, it's okay to say, hey, I want to maintain this score and I'm gonna maintain this score by doing this or I'm going to try to get one or two points more.
Speaker 1:And in teaching them that some people's growth is gonna look different, because we're all different and not any of us is built the same way, and the way my teachers did that was so. They did it better than I could have done it. When I went in classrooms and I saw them doing it like as administration, we made a little video that they showed the class beforehand so that it could support them in that work, so they didn't have to do that heavy lift, like it wasn't a requirement for them to deliver it the way they did, but I feel like the art of it and when I looked and I did, I went into three or four different classrooms math and DLA watching them work with those kids and answer their questions and set that roadmap for success is one of the reasons I feel like the goal setting is gonna make an even bigger impact on our campus, because it's all in setting up systems and then having that delivery and having your staff feel like they were part of that decision-making process and then having your kids feel like, oh my gosh, like my teacher really explained this well, I know what I'm doing now and I can set this realistic goal and now I believe I can achieve it. And one of our big things this year is believe, and we want the teachers to believe in the work and we want the students to believe in the work and we really want the students to know that we believe in them. And I feel like the way it all has happened has been really amazing.
Speaker 1:So we got to kind of review the data, because they did this they went in and they set their goals, their measurable goals, and then they told us how they were gonna meet that goal and this was without a lot of prompting. We wanted them to write I'm gonna beat this goal by and we did give some choices, but we also had a line where they could write their own goal. And when I looked through and this was done in sixth, seventh, eighth grade, math, sixth, seventh, eighth grade, english and when we looked at the data sixth, seventh, eighth grade all every single one of them had the exact same number. One thing they were gonna do to obtain their goal. Every single data point came up. Biggest word in the word cloud studying.
Speaker 2:Studying yeah.
Speaker 1:So they have been taught or they know that if they study they will do better. Do you wanna know one of the number one things? When I was talking to students about this Cause, I thought it was very interesting data. I'm like you know what? Okay, that makes sense. We'll talk to a sixth, seventh and eighth grader hey, how do you study? Now one kid answered it really well. He said well, you know I I think it would help if I study. And I said oh, what are you studying? He goes well, if this is what I should know by the end of seventh grade, then what I should be doing is studying all throughout. Every time I have a quiz, every time I have a unit test, every time I have that is to look back in my notes, reflect on my notes and maybe even rewrite or summarize some of them, and I think that might help me. But the majority of students I asked were like I'm not really sure how to study.
Speaker 2:Right they. They don't know how to study. That's not a skill.
Speaker 1:And so this huge aha moment, when we were looking over this data in our leadership team we had I had this amazing teacher I'm not going to name drop because I don't know if they want me to she went well. How are we going to teach these kids how to study? How are we going to bridge that gap? Because I guarantee you that these kids have heard their whole lives from their parents, from their teachers you need to study, you need to study, you need to study. How do I study?
Speaker 1:And I think that having a study skills whether we're showing videos, whether we create something, whether we create a student committee that comes together and works with teachers and they collaborate and they come up with hey, here's some really great study tips If we provide those kids with those skills, then they're going to be more successful. So they're telling us what they want. They're telling us what they need to be more successful. So how are we going to help bridge that gap?
Speaker 1:And I thought that work was also very powerful, because not only are kids now feeling comfortable with their goal setting, they understand oh, I have to be proficient, this is what I need, and they're setting those goals. And now, when they're taking the test. They're not just saying, oh, I need to take this test. They're like, all right, I'm going to try really hard because I only need two points. I only need five points to make it to the next level. They're also giving us information and thinking about themselves how am I going to do that? And I thought that is some of the greatest work that has come out of this so far. And I was just looking yesterday, so I don't have any of the exact numbers, but I was looking at Okay, well, what did our growth look like from PM one to PM two? And when I compared it to last year's, from PM one to PM two, I'm seeing four, five, six percent more growth across grade levels, across math and ELA, when you compare our growth to last year.
Speaker 2:That's huge Actually.
Speaker 1:Four, five, six percent, yeah, and it does.
Speaker 2:I bet it does come down to the goals.
Speaker 1:I truly, if you, if you look at, we don't have a lot of teacher turnover. There's not a lot of other things that would maybe make such a huge impact. We do have some really great collaborative structures that are going on in the classrooms, but the one thing that I think could create that large of an increase, specifically student goal setting. Now, I'm just to keep imagining pairing that With giving them some study skills. Even talk we there was talk about at our last leadership meeting doing that on some of our early release days, when you have that extra long period, that would be a great place to have some study skills and have the teachers work with them on. You know what are some of those things and I just really think that the work has proven how powerful goal setting can be. Yeah, I agree. Um, and just listening to that that's.
Speaker 2:You guys did a great job.
Speaker 1:And when you think about middle schools, and where they're at and their growth and development and how they're trying to get that. You know they're trying to get that level and they're trying to grow into their own, but they're still very much being told what to do, what to do, what to do. When we can shift that mindset from you do this because you're told to do it and this is a compliance piece and you change it into hey, you were this closer, this is what you did, score, and here's how you can achieve that next level and you really shift that compliance to self ownership and that compliance to you. It makes such a difference.
Speaker 2:And I think we've taken all that, you know, that accountability piece. We've taken that away from the kids and put it frankly, strictly on the teachers in a lot of ways to where we're not holding those kids accountable for these scores. But I think showing them their score and having them come up with their own created sustainable goals and achievable goals, I should say that does give them that accountability piece that I think they're missing 100% you know I do think that we've talked about that a lot.
Speaker 2:A lot of my colleagues and I talk about well, where's the student accountability piece?
Speaker 1:And there's still a lot of work that we can grow upon.
Speaker 2:Of course.
Speaker 1:We're not perfect, but I do think we're at a good starting place and I feel like one of the biggest barriers and the biggest things to kind of bridge when moving forward is the students did the goal setting. Now it's really going to be great to share with them some of those quick wins. When we go into that PM two goal setting and they're like, hey, where were you at PM one, where were you at PM two? I'm really think the majority of our students are going to see some growth and then, okay, where do we want to go for PM three? And so it's almost like now they get to see it in action, because at PM one you're kind of setting it from you know. Well, I don't really know when. This is the first time I'm doing goal setting and it more of being okay, this is the first time we're doing it, so it's a little bit uncomfortable and I'm kind of unsure about it and I feel like there's going to be a shift from oh, I've done this goal setting and I know what I need to do, and now I can kind of look at it from wow, look, I did, I did grow or I did see some success and I can do it. And I feel like you're going to see that in a lot of kids, or if you see some kids who maybe, oh, I maintained, or oh, I really still need to work on this, it's going to really solidify to them like where they're at and where they're going.
Speaker 1:And when I was looking at research, um, lock and lathe them is there's some of the big names out there for goal setting and they said, basically there's these five principles around goal setting. That really makes them um, improves the chance for success. And so the first thing is clarity. They have to be clear goals, they have to be challenging. So setting a goal that you know you can reach like, let's say, for example, I say you know what, I'm not going to eat tacos for two days that's pretty achievable goal.
Speaker 1:But is it a challenge? In order for you to really want to complete that goal? There has to be a challenge in it. And then you have to have commitment, feedback and task completion. And I think that, moving into PM two goal setting, we're going to see that that quick win, because, oh, look, I can get feedback. Now, as the teacher is, I'm walking around and talking to the kids and I can get feedback from them and we can grow and learn from there. So a lot of the time, schools have primary focuses each school year and when you shift from like one one focus to the next, keeping the good work going and that's one thing that I really have just been thinking about lately is there's a lot of good work that's been done, but how do we keep that momentum and how do we keep it going into the next year, so that it wasn't just oh, we did goal setting once?
Speaker 2:Right, well, that's how that we live in that world. Yeah, honestly, in education you live every year. When you go to your pre, you know your pre planning week. What's the new initiative this year? And it needs to be the same year in, year out, because that's the only way you build a collaborative culture.
Speaker 1:Consistency is how you build growth as well.
Speaker 2:We've all experienced that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 2:And I think if you can do that with goals, that's so powerful it really can be a powerful. It truly changed the game.
Speaker 1:It truly can and it can start somewhere where okay, right now we're setting fast goals but like seeing how impactful the work is. How are we going to relate that back to behaviors and attendance and other parts of students lives, so where we can help build and bridge more gaps?
Speaker 2:I was just thinking that before you said that, I was thinking that exact same thing that these are also transcendent to life's goals. You know you can move this into their lives and you're just not teaching. You're not teaching test strategies and test taking skills, which is what we've spent too many years focusing on Absolutely Just showing them that these are skills for anything they do in their life yeah, college or military trade trades, whatever that, those will go with them, those goal setting skills.
Speaker 1:Absolutely.
Speaker 2:So, but I also think that we did talk about teacher goals or adult goals. Really, I don't want to just say teachers, this can go for anybody but I don't want to talk about smart goals, because I thought I think we've talked about smart goals so much. I personally am not a smart goal type of person, I do different but I did find one that somewhat mimics smart goals and it actually you could even use this for kids too. But and it's called a clear framework, clear C L E A R, which stands for collaborative, limited, emotional, appreciable and refinement. So if I'm putting a personal spin on this, like if I'm going to give a personal example, so one of my and this is real, but one of my personal goals as a professional is I do believe teachers should always have like some sort of professional goal. Right, you should. Not only do I have it in my deliberate practice for observations and things like that, but I have my own separate professional goal that I want to achieve, and I think that's what keeps, keeps your brain moving forward and it gives a purpose to what you do every day. But anyway, so my, my goal is I want to be better at public speaking. I'm terrible, I don't like it. I've been asked to do it said no. I've been asked to give to present some of my research at conferences, and I'm like no, thank you. So I've decided that public speaking, or speaking in front of a staff, is going to be one of my goals.
Speaker 2:So, if I'm applying this clear framework Collaborative, see right. It says you need to involve colleagues, administrators and even students in goal-setting discussions. Okay, but on, if I'm taking this on my level, I know people at my school that are phenomenal public speakers. They can get up and talk all day. Those are the people I need to seek. That's the first part of what I need to do is I need to go collaborate with the ones that are great at this. Okay, I'm limited. I need to set a realistic and manageable number of goals. It's only I only want one goal and I want right now.
Speaker 2:Yeah that's my main one to work on public speaking. So I'm going to set that and I'm going to prioritize that in all the steps that I need To do that. So I need to go talk to the people. I need to say, okay, well, yes, I can talk in my PLCs. Yes, I can talk on the podcast. Yes, I can talk on the team, but can I give up and give a presentation in front of a hundred people? No, so I need to figure out baby steps to get there. You know how am I going to get there? So that's what I'm thinking of. There's an emotional component. You need to connect these goals to a sense of purpose and passion on teaching. This would be a huge growth opportunity.
Speaker 1:Absolutely, if I can do that appreciable.
Speaker 2:This is where you break down the larger goals into smaller appreciable tasks or milestone. Because I can talk in front of a hundred kids, I can talk, right, I can talk on this because nobody can see me, but I'm totally envious of the fact that you can get up in front of people and you always have had that talent. And Then the last one the part of clear is Refinable. You have to be open to adjusting those goals based on evolving needs, feedback or changes in the educational landscape. So, basically, how I see that is are you reflecting on that?
Speaker 1:you know.
Speaker 2:So if I were to give a presentation in front of the staff and the people that I've gone to that are really great about it, that are kind of guiding me about this, I need to reflect on that feedback that they give and Adjust goals if I need to. So I like the clear framework. That was just like kind of a personal, personal example, real example, but personal example.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I like that a lot better than smart.
Speaker 2:I mean smart goals are great feels over you.
Speaker 1:It's like anytime anything is overused. I instantly don't want to do it.
Speaker 2:We tried to roll out smart goals to our kids, probably four or five years ago at least, and it just was. It was over their heads and just didn't work. But I think I like the clear goals. If smart works for you, do smart.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but.
Speaker 2:I do think that, as professionals, it's important that you also have you have those professional goals.
Speaker 1:Absolutely. I think that's part of part of who we are and maintaining growth, and also maintaining that you know Whatever is next or not. Maintaining really building what's next, setting goals for what what's next, not just being like, oh, I'm just gonna be here and I could stay here and I've been living here forever, like what, like you always have to be pursuing something.
Speaker 2:I feel like you always. That's who I am.
Speaker 1:Maybe I'm speaking too broadly for everyone. Maybe some people are okay with that, but I always like what's next, what's next, what's next, what's next, what's next, and so I feel like that student goal setting piece is extremely important. But, as teachers and educators, for us to be the best version of ourselves for our students, we have to keep the passion alive and we have to keep going for our goals so that they can see that goals are worth Going for. Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 2:Oh, that's a good point. You know that, especially if you're discussing your own goals with the kids. Yeah, you know they're like oh, they're doing goal setting.
Speaker 1:Where models right, where role models? Whether you want to be a role model or not, like those kids are looking you so I could even tell the kids Well, this is what I'm working on absolutely working on so if we love that transparency yeah you know, because that's my next thing, but anyway.
Speaker 2:So there's this book that I just recently picked up called getting things done the art of stress-free productivity. That's something beautiful. David Allen. Anyway, one of the parts that I liked in here is when you're thinking of your goals, you have to ask yourself three questions, and One of the questions is what are the longer-term goals and objectives in my organization and what projects do I need to have in place related to them to fulfill my responsibilities?
Speaker 1:oh.
Speaker 2:So, even if your school or the district has goals, what can you do To help achieve those goals, because it is part of your responsibility as a member of that organization? That's how I interpret that question. The second question is what longer-term goals and objectives have I set for myself, and what projects do I need to have in place to make them happen?
Speaker 1:These are beautiful questions.
Speaker 2:And then the last one is what other significant things are happening that could affect my options about what I'm doing. So those are just some things that I had.
Speaker 1:I really like that and the thought of stress-free productivity is the most beautiful thing, like I definitely would like to borrow that book after you, because a lot of the time it's really reframing your thinking.
Speaker 2:And I bet what like in my head.
Speaker 1:I'm like I bet what that's book about that's what that's about.
Speaker 2:We all have stress, we all have things to deal with, but it's how you handle and manage that.
Speaker 1:And perceive it, and how much you let slight things influence and impact your mood, which is a lot like when we talk about growth versus fixed mindset. So I will say that, and as we wrap up today's episode, I hope everyone is feeling inspired and equipped with some valuable insights into the power of goal setting. We are so glad that each one of our listeners is part of this incredible journey and we can't wait to get more of you involved, and so we really, really would love for you guys to give us some feedback on what you want to hear next. So please make sure you follow us on social media, at Middle School Life, the podcast, on Facebook, on Instagram, coming to you soon, on TikTok, next episode coming up educational myths.
Speaker 2:Looking forward to that one. Thank you again so much for listening to us. We so appreciate your time. But until next time, keep learning, keep growing and keep making a difference in the lives of your students.
