SMART goals and the GROW model

This week, we are required to take a moment to think of an area or skill, relating to our professional lives, that we are:
1. Doing well with (and would still like to improve), and
2. Would like to improve.

Although some quite antiquated statistics are quoted by Ali Boehm at The Massage Business Mama, it now turns out to be a fictitious example. I guess to prove a point with a blatant bluff, relying on the fact that most readers won’t double-check the sources?

The reports were said to have found that:
• 84% of the graduates [at Harvard University, in 1979] had no specific goals.
• 13% had goals but had not taken the time to write down said goals.
• 3% had taken the time to sit down and write out their goals and a plan to accomplish them.

When re-interviewed a decade later, the results were no surprise:
• The 13% who had goals, were earning on average twice as much as the 84% who had no specific goals.
• The 3% with clear, written goals were earning on average ten times as much as the rest of their classmates.

The decisive question asked of the students listening to the presentation: “Do you think that maybe being a part of the 3% that take time to write out goals might set you apart from your competitors in business? Not to mention the effects it could have in your personal life…”

Sounds good! But… the figures and the studies are “fake news” – and so old they are not even “news”. I was intrigued that 1979 was a very old study to use as an example. Supposedly, that 1979 Harvard University study interviewed new MBA (Master of Business Administration) graduates about the setting of career goals, and again exactly ten years later, to compare the results. Blogger Sid Savara has determined that, prior to this, the same statistics and findings had been attributed to an even more ancient (1953) Yale University goal-setting study. Neither of these goal studies actually occurred.

Savara sums up thusly: “The moral of the story: Don’t believe everything you read online. Nonetheless, the initial advice I put forth is still sound – write down your goals!

So, now to print out a template for my Strength-based and Deficit-based SMART Goal Components, and fill it out… I shall return.

LATER:

Mmmmm. I am definitely not enjoying tackling these goals on my own. I find goal-setting to be very challenging. In education circles, I have been involved in formulating SMART goals for primary schools and while serving on various professional committees, but most times we have brainstormed and discussed our goals in small groups, and then larger groups, until consensus is reached, with all stakeholders having a chance to contribute.

My Strength-based SMART Goal must be Strategic, Measurable, Attainable, Results-based/Research-based and Time-bound. The obvious one is to complete my current course, which will involve a Remedial Clinic next term (condensed to respond to lost time over the current pandemic situation) with the prescribed number of massage sessions, with a passing grade and satisfactory supervisor feedback, by the end of September 2020.

My Deficit-based SMART Goal must also be Strategic, Measurable, Attainable, Results-based/Research-based and Time-bound. Through the readings I have done this week (discussion and links in my next blog entry), it seems inevitable that my goal needs to be extended beyond my customary brisk daily walk. I will compile a plan of essential strengthening and stretching exercises, complete them every day, in two 15-minute sessions (which is almost 30 minutes more stretching than I currently do), mark each session on a calendar, completed at the end of June 2020. (This will allow for a reevaluation and another plan put into place for the end of September 2020.)

I now come to the GROW Model.

1. Choose your GOAL!
• Select one of the goals you set earlier using the SMART criteria to work on in this exercise. What is your chosen goal?

It seems obvious that a plan for regular strengthening and stretching exercises is what I need to put into place, not that it thrills me. I know that physical exercise (except walking) is something that I have always avoided.

2. Is your goal REALISTIC?
• Explore this question further. Why have you not already reached your goal?

Regular physical exercise comes with plenty of baggage from my childhood and teenage years. My Dad was a first-grade cricketer and talented in several sports, so I often felt I was a disappointment to him. PE was one of my least desirable activities in teaching, too. I often escaped it as a teacher-librarian, but not always. It’s really just not me. But I can see that regular strengthening and stretching exercises will be a preemptive insurance against injuries, and a way to keep my new career active and less difficult.

• What has been stopping you from reaching it?

Lack of discipline, forgetfulness in performing tasks I do not find enjoyable, procrastination, other priorities have been more urgent…

• Where are you now in relation to the goal?

After some research and reading this week, I have certainly found some compelling arguments for getting my act together.

• Do you think the goal is achievable for you?

Yes, but it will be interesting to see if I end up enjoying following a routine. Last time I felt longterm benefits and self-satisfaction from regular exercise would have been… 1972. (I must tell that story some day. It’s hilarious.)

• Do you know anyone who has already achieved a goal similar to yours? What can you learn from them?

Mmmmm. No one coming from my particular anti-sport stance. I shall have to think about this question.

• What have you already tried and what could you do better?

Over recent years, I have managed to keep to a fairly strict routine for daily physical exercise in the form of brisk walking. It needs to be extended to include complementary strengthening and stretching. The old reliable diet plans are not working the way they did in the 90s, though, and I get quite discouraged, having already given up many “sometime foods”.

3. What are your OPTIONS?
• What could be your first step towards fulfilling your goal?

I need to research and create a list of appropriate strengthening and stretching, and do them twice a day. My lecturer has been adding videos of such exercises to the Endeavour College Facebook page.

• What do you think would happen if you took this step?

My body would start to feel positive benefits. And that would be motivating to continue.

• Are there any obstacles to you taking this step?

Procrastination.

• Are there also other options for moving forward?

Now that pandemic lockdown restrictions are being lifted, I could could contact a friend who does running as a series pastime for some encouraging and mentoring.

• How would these make you feel?

I would hope for a bit of an endorphin rush as the calendar days get checked off, or when boasting to my runner friend about my progress?

• Which of the options that you have explored do you feel ready to put into action?

My lecturer has uploaded two stretching videos so far. I have watched them, but only followed one of them a few times.

4. What is your WAY FORWARD?
• Now that you have gone through your options you can set up your “game plan” which will act as a framework to implementation. It can be as simple as – Step 1… Step 2… Step 3…, etc. (Be sure to review regularly to keep on track and make adjustments as needed.)

Gosh, no excuses now, huh?

As mentioned above, some links to my lecturer’s first batch of stretching and strengthening video clips from Endeavour College of Natural Health’s Facebook page:

• “Desk exercises with Anthony Turri” video is HERE.

• “Bad posture busting exercises for the upper body with Anthony Turri” video is HERE.

Made environments – information

This term, Stage 3 students will be completing a collaboratively-taught unit of work in science on Made environments – information, with particular emphasis on early and modern communication devices, types of codes, digital citizenship and eSafety. This week, the students completed a pre-test survey sheet from the SLIM toolkit (Guided Inquiry) to provide some baseline data, both qualitative and quantitative. We also revisited the Orbit interface of our OLIVER library system to familiarise the students with its capabilities.

We aim to communicate our cumulative findings as entries on a blog, which can be shared with each class and beyond the school.

Coincidentally, today is International Safer Internet Day 2018. “Celebrated globally in 130 countries, Safer Internet Day is coordinated by the joint Insafe/INHOPE network, with the support of the European Commission, and national Safer Internet Centres across Europe.” This year’s SID theme is “Create, connect and share respect: A better internet starts with you”.


1.1 – Stone Age to Modern Age – evolution of communication


What is communication


16 famous logos with a hidden meaning (that we never even noticed)

Addressing English outcomes in library lessons

Today, I want to explore with my teacher colleagues the upcoming National Simultaneous Storytime picture book for 2018, Hickory dickory dash by Tony Wilson & Laura Wood, and how it fits into our existing K-2 literacy cycle, and how it can address English outcomes for Stage 2 and Stage 3 students (see Objective C).

English K-10 syllabus outcome (From NSW Education Standards Authority, NESA):


English Objective C
English Objective C

We will also briefly discuss:

* aspects of Guided Inquiry activities for Stage 2 and Stage 3, team-taught, library lessons this year (Note: units use the KLA’s own syllabus outcomes plus related English outcomes)

* revisit the concept of pre-, mid- and post- surveys for students (from the SLIM toolkit) to collect both qualitative and quantitative data (action research)

* some possible strategies for improving student attitudes and successes with longer form fiction, such as novels (see Objective D).

English K-10 syllabus outcome (From NSW Education Standards Authority, NESA):


English Objective D
English Objective D

OASIS searching:



Searching the library catalogue in Oliver


Students searching with the Orbit interface in Oliver

QR codes and MANTLE conference

Workshop 1:

QR codes – those now-ubiquitous, distinctive, square barcodes – are on advertising posters, business cards and websites. For last year’s MANTLE conference, I made use of a QR code phone app, I-nigma, from iTunes. Apart from a few tests, I haven’t really done very much with this aspect of technology. But the possibilities may be endless!

I have created QR codes for the websites I am referencing in my MANTLE talks this week. For example:

QRCodeBooked Inn blog

Blue

GoldQuest

QRCode
GoldQuest blog

Blue

Penrith PS Library wiki

QRCode
Penrith PS Library wiki

Blue

Penrth PS rappers and bloggers

QRCode
Penrith PS rappers & bloggers

Blue

PhotoPeach

QRCode
My PhotoPeach profile page

Blue

QRCode
PMBW TL professional learning group

QRCode
QR codes Kaywa generator

QRCode
NSW DEC CLIC raps and book raps

Blue

Endangered animals

QRCode
Stage 3’s Endangered animals: beyond the rainforest

Blue

Workshop 2: This workshop will look at how to make book trailers and their use in engaging students in literacy and reading activities. Applications used to make trailers will be looked at and discussed, also how they can be used as a resource in a school library and in classrooms and how they can help promote literacy and reading. Ways to engage students in these resources to augment their learning experiences will be modeled and discussed.

* Brainstorming (using Circle Time) – consider audience, theme, length, 30 images
* Storyboarding (using a book rap template) – small groups
* Will you use photos (“Creative Commons”), drawings, cutouts, puppets, toys, claymation, or actors in dress-up box clothing?
* Upload – to Photo Peach or other Web 2.0 facility – Flickr slideshow, PowerPoint/Keynote, podcast/Youtube, IWB Notebook software?
* Edit, adjust timing to the selected music
* Share with wider community – monitor incoming public comments regularly, or close them off.

* Rap resources (NSW DEC) for making digital stories and book trailers

* Bear and Chook PowerPoints

* Flickr slideshow repositories – and with captions added or Explore Creative Commons

* Commercial book trailers on Youtube, eg:


In the lion book trailerJames Foley

* This year’s CBCA Book Week theme is: “Read across the universe”. A starting point?

Further reading (articles by Ian McLean):

* ‘iInquire… iLearn… iCreate… iShare: Stage 1 students create digital stories’ in Scan 30(2) May 2011, pp 4-5.
Stage 1 students narrate how they inquire, learn, create and share with ICT and Web 2.0 to produce online Photo Peach slideshows at Penrith Public School. View the article online HERE.

* ‘Have blog, will storyboard!’ in info@aslansw Issue #2, May 2010, pp 5-8.
Stage 2 students at Penrith Public School created storyboards and PowerPoint digital stories as resources to support Early Stage 1 and Stage 1 students working on the Bear and Chook books rap, which ran during the subsequent term.

* ‘Circle time: maximising opportunities for talking and listening at Penrith Public School’ in Scan 26(4) November 2007, pp 4-7.
Circle Time is a structured framework for social and emotional learning which promotes a positive class ethos. Moving from class teacher back into the school library, I incorporated Circle Time and information skills into a range of collaborative literacy and ICT activities, including book raps.

UPDATE to Workshop 2:
During the above presentation, members of the audience suggested a few possible captions, in keeping with Book Week’s “Read Across the Universe” theme, and my intention was to get the Stage 3 students, back at school, to complete the brainstorming of the rest of the captions during Book Week. As the events of that week overwhelmed us, I filed away the groups’ A3 planning sheets, but dug them out again this week – and was thrilled with their results. A reminder to those on iPads: the latest version of Flash is required, so you’ll need to use a regular computer to see Photo Peach slideshows.

As promised, here is the finished slideshow:


Read across the universe by 5/6E

and an additional set of bookish/SF images that got the students’ conversations going:


Book Week 2013

By the way, we found “Robot jokes” during a Google search:
boyslife.org/about-scouts/merit-badge-resources/robotics/19223/robot-jokes/

and we were surprised to find that there are interactive “Yoda speech generator” sites (it started out as a joke that there might be one – and there were several!), such as:
www.yodaspeak.co.uk/

More puppets! It’s an obsession!

Puppets 1

Bargain basement animal puppets at $3 each from The Reject Shop, Penrith Plaza. Not sure why the Dalmatian has a yellow nose. I originally rejected these four puppets as my least favourites, but at just $3 each they made a hard bargain to pass up.

Puppets 2

More cute animal puppets, this time from the online Sunshine Markets, Queensland. The parcel arrived today! These were an irresistible Internet find: crocodile, leopard and (what the online catalogue called) “the Big Good Wolf”. Really? With those eyes?

Guided Inquiry – ongoing thoughts

On nswtl listserv this week, some teacher librarians raised the question of “Creative Commons” sections of photo gallery sites, such as Flickr and Google Images, and how they are usually blocked to our students by the DEC firewall because there’s simply no way to police the images and ensure that students won’t be exposed to unsavoury images during a lesson. I’d already been milling some ideas in my head and thought I’d transfer them to here as well.

It’s important to keep child protection in mind with ICT. Parents will not tolerate students discovering inappropriate digital images during lesson time, and an open search through Creative Commons may well bring that situation to a head. And too often. My interpretation of “responsible downloading” of images in the K-6 environment is: I use Flickr and Google Image sites with K-6 students to model the search on the IWB, or to a small group clustered around a monitor screen, and we search under my teacher-level username and password. Preferably, I test the searches beforehand.

Even then, I once had a class of Stage 1s discover, during an innocent (and pre-tested) image search on “cats”, an unexpected photograph of a startled cat pencil-sharper, with a pencil in its bottom. It caused great hilarity on the day, but it was a reminder that even a well-rehearsed search can go wrong – because new images are added to Flickr and Google Images every minute of the day. And my search-gone-wrong could have been so much worse.

Guided Inquiry (ie. Ross J Todd & Carol Kuhlthau) would say that any assignment which leaves students no option but to breach copyright is a poorly developed assignment in the first place. Not too much deep knowledge will be evident in a student’s supposedly-original production that features only cut ‘n’ paste text from websites and/or stolen, uncredited images from Google. The situation really isn’t that different since hideous “projects on cardboard” were invented way back in the 60s? (Earlier?) In those days, students used to cut images out of the school’s encyclopedias – and then photocopiers were invented and suddenly students were able to colour over b/w images they stole and somehow make it all better.

If the research question is designed correctly, it can’t be answered by stock text and images. The researched material also needs to be marked and approved by the teacher before final products are created, by which time any plagiarism opportunities should have been eliminated or made redundant (or avoided in the first place).

The students who tend to use the Internet responsibly aren’t likely to plagiarise unless their assignments stymie them into doing so. I’m deep into Guided Inquiry with Stages 2 and 3 at the moment and, as their storyboards and oral presentations take shape, there won’t be anyone feeling the need to steal other people’s information. If anyone does decide they need a particular existing image, then we’ll do a modelled search and find the right one in Creative Commons – under my username and password.

It’s hard going, but it’s working! Guided Inquiry Endangered animals (Stage 3 science & technology).

iInquire… iLearn… iCreate… iShare

#242

A good news story in an attempt to counterbalance all the negative dragon-lady news articles (Sydney Morning Herald; The Age) today:

In the current “Scan”:
“iInquire… iLearn… iCreate… iShare: Stage 1 students create digital stories” in Scan 30(2) May 2011, pp 4-5.
Stage 1 students narrate how they inquire, learn, create and share with ICT and Web 2.0 to produce online Photo Peach slideshows at Penrith Public School.

Many thanks to “Scan” editor Cath Keane. It looks great! Our students are going to be thrilled! And I look terrible in a twin-set & pearls anyway.

UPDATE: This afternoon, I returned to the library briefly after a staff meeting – and there was an urgent email telling me that ABC 702 radio commentator, Richard Glover, was seeking listeners to phone in and explain why they broke a stereotype. This segment was in response to the aforementioned newspaper articles about angry dragon-lady librarians in horn-rimmed glasses, cardigans, pearls and hair in buns. The suggestion was that I ring in myself, to explain that I broke that stereotype. I was sure I’d missed my chance, due to the meeting, but I did ring in and was put to air a few minutes later.

The call ended rather abruptly – no goodbye and thanks – so they must have only been after very brief sound bytes, like the ones I heard them playing while I was awaiting my turn. I wasn’t sure if they were wanted me for something meatier. I only hope I made some sense; it was all so fast. 15 seconds of fame, if that.

The new era of “sound byte” reporting, solidly with us these past few years, is certainly one of our biggest hurdles in getting a complex message (such as the points raised by the recent Parliamentary Enquiry) across – in any media.

Cool Creative Commons!

I’m really getting the hang of converting students’ collaborative Keynote presentations into video podcasts – and I’m *really* loving adding “Creative Commons” music as soundtracks!

I started to investigate “Creative Commons” sites last year, and found a few pieces of music that would have worked (the Stage 2 students wanted copyright free music that you could cha cha or belly dance to, and we did find one example of each!) but it all seemed too tricky last year, so our PowerPoints stayed mute. However, the ccmixter.org website is well laid out and it is quite simple to search for “Creative Commons” music by theme, musician or style. (I’ve found “scary”, “happy” and “circus” style pieces via the search engine – but beware of possible unsavoury lyrics. Stick with instrumentals only, unless you’ve previewed all the songs you will “listen to” with students). The site tells you the exact wording to place in the credits of the video podcast, movie or whatever media. After you’ve uploaded the podcast, you can relay the URL to ccmixter.org and they’ll add the online link to their searchable database.

So, just in time for Book Week, you might like to use my students’ “Mr Chicken” book trailer, and/or our “Across the Story Bridge” video podcast, and/or a revamped (from two Flickr slideshows) “Bear & Chook Adventures”. Click HERE!

Penrith PS podcasts

According to feedback, these video podcasts may require installing the latest version of Quicktime or, at least, clicking that you agree to MIME being associated with Quicktime on your computer. I’ve had the video podcasts working on Mac and PC, and they look really great on an interactive whiteboard (IWB). One teacher colleague had an earlier version of Quicktime on her IWB to enable her to run Kid Pix, and the podcasts did refuse to run on her machine.

Meanwhile, Happy Book Week!