January is a great time for setting goals! It’s the start of a new year, and that’s a great time to turn over a new leaf, have a clean slate, review your successes and struggles. No matter where you’re at on your journey, it’s time for some reflection! And here on the Buncee Blog, that means looking at ways to Buncify your Goal Setting, Resolutions, or just reflection!
Looking back, looking forward
Reflection is a tried and true method to start setting goals. When students learn to tally up what went right for them in the past (and what didn’t!), they develop their ability to plan to do better in the future.
Smart Resolutions
One of the biggest problems with setting resolutions is that they’re often too vague. It doesn’t matter if your goal is, “I’m going to do better in math,” or, “I’m gonna get in shape!” and that’s all, you don’t have enough. Use the SMART acronym to help you and your students set a New Year’s resolution that you can achieve!
Start off with Gratitude!
Whether you’re setting yourself to turn things around, or to beat the next challenge, taking a moment for gratitude is a fantastic practice. Focusing on the high points in our lives lends us a lot of perspective that helps us to stay positive and focused as we prep to move forward. Additionally, as we look at the people who’ve done right by us, we can often find examples worth emulating in our own lives.
Three Things, One Thing
One thing to remember, especially with students who need a bit of a self esteem boost, is that when we set too many goals, it’s easy to feel defeated. By posting three good things about yourself with each goal, you’re telling yourself a better story. This story is possible, and it’s the story of is worth the effort!
5 Ways I Can Be Better
You could have you students do these for all of the roles that they play in their lives – student, daughter/son, brother/sister, friend, citizen, gymnast, soccer player. This works for anything, and it’s a good tool for the kid who can’t get past a resolution like, “I want to get better grades.” “Oh, well then, you should do a “5 ways that I could be a better student in 2018” Buncee!
One of the things I like about these activities is that when you share them out with students, they have so much choice about how they’re going to set their goals for the New Year. You can take a poll, and use our new sharing feature to send the right tool to each student. You could also put it entirely in your students’ hands by posting them all to a Buncee Board. Then students have the power to choose the perfect tool for them.
No matter which option you or your students choose, and no matter what goals they choose to work on, doing some New Year’s goal setting in Buncee will make sure that they – and you – have what you need to help make 2018 a successful year!
Sean Farnum is a teacher, troublemaker, the host of the #2PencilChat, and the producer of The #BestClass Podcast. He is an Education Associate at Buncee and runs the Buncee Ambassador Program. He thinks you’re pretty great.
