To know how to teach students to set a smart goal….Read on this article….!
Personal goals are the most important thing for attaining success in any work. For instance, just challenging yourself to do more work is much too vague, as you have no way of tracking your progress, so no endpoint. Let us put it like this, if your goals aren’t quantifiable, achieving success is often challenging. Therefore, setting SMART goals are the solution, as you will break them down into five factors. The method and steps needed for teaching students how to set smart goals will be explained in this article.
How do you teach students to set a smart goal?
To Teach students to set a SMART goal is easy and an interacting thing to do. Smart goals can be small or big, short-term or long-term. An example of smart goals can be: “I will register for a course and finish it within one year and get the necessary degree or qualification to get a good job.” A sub-category of that long-term goal or a daily task to achieve that goal can be: “I will spend at least one hour each day studying my course.” Remember, Smart goals help you accomplish things you would love to create. Smart goals also give you the direction and focus to succeed in your life.
How can I teach my student how to set smart goals? You may be asking yourself that question, Smart goal is easy to set, all you need to do is follow the necessary steps in setting it. This can be done by analyzing and breaking down what a smart goal is, “SMART” in this context is an acronym, with attention to creating specific and realistic targets to achieve. Therefore every SMART goal should consist of 5 elements:
- Specific
The goal should have a transparent and highly-specific endpoint. If your goal is just too vague, it will not be SMART.
- Measurable.
Tracking your progress should be accurately done, so as to judge when a goal is going to be met.
- Attainable.
Setting a goal that is too ambitious will require a lot of effort and all you do is struggle to achieve it. This may sap your motivation, both now and in the future.
- Relevant.
The goal you choose should be related to your choice of study and also directly benefit you if need be.
- Time-Bound.
Finally, setting a timeframe for your goal helps quantify it and helps keep your specialization on track.
Importance of teaching students to set a smart goal
- Smart goals give life a sense of purpose — teaching students the importance of setting smart goals keeps them more in tune with the big picture of life, not just what is happening today. Let’s look at it like this, students that are taught the importance of smart goals in school have a higher percentage of becoming successful in life. This is because they have been trained into believing that having a goal gives you a sense of purpose and likewise a sense of achievement. Thus, they wouldn’t wake up every day to start smoking and drinking in other to while away time instead, they would have it at the back of their mind that they have a goal that I set and I am yet to achieve. Before you know it, they are already on the path to achieving those dreams they wrote down.
- Setting smart goals (personal or professional) is an excellent way to learn more about yourself — This will help the students find out what their top priorities are, how strategic they can be, and how to solve problems and overcome obstacles. In other words, you don’t know what you can do unless you take the first step. The first step is enlightening them, the Enlightenment brings results for both the student and the teachers.
- Goals keep you focused – Your focus is only directed to your goals, only decisions that matter to your personal development, your beliefs, and your values are what you will make. Setting a goal will be like placing a heavy load upon your head, all the things you think about is how to achieve that goal in other for the heavyweight placed upon you to be light.
- Apart from goals being an excellent way to learn who you are, goals help you to know if you are growing or not, no matter how you look at it, The goals of a student talk about who the student presently is, what are their thoughts like and it also speaks about how their future will be like or let me phrase it better, Will they add value to the nation or they will become a nuisance and create havoc to the country.
How can teachers help motivate unstable students to have goals?
Teachers play an important role in students’ life, It is only the teacher that knows the strong and weak points of their students. If a teacher works on the weak points of the student then the student can become stronger and more successful in their life, but if the teacher focuses only on the strong points of the student and ignored the weak points then it could be dangerous for the student. To breed a successful person, lots of good things are required. it is only one mistake that is required to tarnish that goal. Therefore, teachers are really important in helping both the stable and unstable students achieve their goals, the key to helping them is not to set big goals but rather small and realistic goals that can be achieved on a day-to-day basis.
The following small goals can help motivate students to set a bigger goal
- Daily exercise
Exercise has the ability to elevate our moods be it running, walking, or swimming as long as it is done daily it will help students think of setting a bigger task
- Meditation
Meditation is known for bringing peace to our body system and hence it relieves stress. Having a period that is specifically for personal meditation will help students analyze their goals
- Organize a healthy social group
Being a member of a healthy social circle will help a student have a sense of belongings and purpose. It will also improve how they set their goal if they do it with someone that understands them
Conclusion
Goals are mere thought if it is not written out, writing your goals on a plane sheet will help you determine if your goals are valid or not and it will also help you keep track of how fast you are going or if you are retrogressing. Using the SMART goals method will make your work easier and more concise.
