Word Goals-Thinking About Our Actions

Welcome Back Everyone!
Hopefully you have had a restful and relaxing summer and maybe even a new experience or five! 

Little Miss is all set to join my class, but we'll give her a few years until she hits 4th grade! 

For those of you new to the intermediate grades this school year, this blog was created as a collaborative tool for tier 4 in the Wausau School District. I am excited to once again share ideas, projects, and resources as the school year progresses. Please add your ideas, thoughts, projects, and pieces you have found helpful in context with featured topics in the comments below!

Summer Experience...

If you were to choose one word to focus on being "more of and better at" this school year, what would it be? Perseverance? Flexibility? Generosity? Whenever I have traveled abroad, I realize how much I take for granted and after my summer travel experience my focus words this year will be thankful/grateful. In this post I am sharing an idea I read/tried last year and  how I will start this September by having students choose a word to focus on throughout the year.  

My hubby and I decided to do a very different vacation tour for our 35th anniversary in July- we went to the equator in the country of Ecuador. This was a small tour group led by a friend of ours who has spent a lot of time there and gives these tours each summer. Ecuador is a very poor country but the scenery is gorgeous, the indigenous people were fun to interact with, and the food was delicious! They are in the same time zone as we are and their currency is the American dollar. And no, it wasn't hot because we were in high altitudes of 9,300 ft in the Andes Mountains. Here are just a few highlights...

Ecuadorian Dancers perform in the old town 
part of the capital city of Quito.

Incredible selection of all kinds
of fruits, some of which I've never seen before.

On the Equator...north and south hemispheres.

Looking into a volcanic crater near the
capital city of Quito, Ecuador.

Banos, Ecuador is known for its thermal baths with natural hot springs that are full of minerals and are said to have healing properties. There are four pools ranging from cold to super hot.

Otavala, Ecuador holds a large Marketplace each Saturday. Lots of wonderful spicy smells at this table! The Marketplace sells alpaca wool jackets, scarves, and blankets, panama hats, and many other hand crafted items. I came back with lots of fun pieces!

This "busy" pole was a common site;
many others were far busier!

An alpaca and its owner.

We toured this two year old's family rose farm.
Bouquets can be purchased in Ecuador for a few dollars.

We found the native Ecuadorians to be very friendly.

The "Notre Dame" of South America in Quito. We had to climb some steep ladders to get up to this point in one of the towers.

Pailon Del Diablo. 

This was the most incredible water fall I have ever seen! So much of staying "safe" from drop-offs without rails along with other safety issues are left up to the common sense of people. However, I never saw any car seats during the trip and many children as well as adults could freely ride in the backs of pick-up trucks (like some of us did as kids back in the '70's), larger trucks, or in their vehicles while they are being towed. I realized quickly there are so many other aspects of our daily lives in the U.S. that I am thankful for as well! And I am excited and thankful to share these cultural experiences with students as the school year begins!

Here is the Word Goal idea to get your school year off to a great start!

Happy New Year in September...

Every school year as soon as we come back from Winter Break, I usually have students think about what type of New Year's resolutions they would like to make. It's a great writing activity because students have to think of the details of how they are going to accomplish the goal and why they want to work on it. After we finish this task it ends up in their writing folder to be pulled out again during parent conferences. Most parents comment on how the goals of keeping a room clean or getting along better with a sibling certainly weren't happening any more (if they ever were).

Keeping the New (School) Year Resolution fresh all year....

It always bothered me that like so many adults, student resolutions are quickly set aside and the "same old" becomes easy to fall back into. So last January when I came across the idea of making a word goal, I decided to test it out. Each student chose a word from a list or thought of one of their own...such as thoughtful, helpful, appreciative, tenacious, considerate, flexible, etc. There were also some "do's and don'ts" to think about when choosing the word. They were asked to pick a word that they were not already awesome at doing and not to base their word on what others were doing.

Word Goal: Flexibility

Word Goal: Clean

Word Goal: Confidence

Next, they wrote why they chose the word along with three action steps to get them started on their word goal journey. On the back side they created a poster of the word. In order to keep this word in the forefront of their minds, once a week during one of our class meetings, each student revisited the word by re-sharing it along with some action they had done during the past week to move their goal forward.

It was pretty amazing in that students had to be thoughtful in thinking about the word goal for the rest of the week and throughout the remaining part of the year. Their shared action each week was mindful. The hope is that students develop their trait enough over the course of the year to continue them automatically. I also hope that by hearing each others goals each week similar actions were inspired.

Students worked on their word goals all year.

As I start this new school year, I am going to move the January resolutions to September and begin the year with our word goals. I intend to have students keep working on these goals the entire year. Happy New (School) Year...What is your word?

Here is the link to the original word goal idea:
Word Goal