SMART Goal Setting

In order to help you complete your project we will begin to set and meet goals each week.  The goal setting process will occur every Tuesday for warm-up.  To help you learn to set and meet your individual goals, we are going to look at protocol for goal setting that professionals use. The idea is to set smart goals that you can accomplish. So why do we call them SMART goals? Take a minute right now and think about each letter in the word SMART: S-M-A-R-T. What word might each letter stand for that would help you set and meet goals? Try and figure out at least one and leave your inference as a comment.

SMART goal indicators

• S - Simple - keep your goals directly related to the task at hand. Use your backwards plans.
• M - Measurable - your goal should show growth with demonstrable evidence.
• A - Achievable - your goal should be something that you can accomplish with effort.
• R - Realistic - no amount of effort or hard work can overcome an unrealistic goal.
• T - Time Table - your goal should have a deadline.

Today we will set our first SMART goal together to help start our research into our project idea and develop a list of resources for our blog.

SMART Goal template

By next blank blankI will blank blank blankand I will know I achieved blank blank blankbecause blank blank.

Using the SMART goal template post your first SMART goal, which you will work on tomorrow in class to meet.

Backwards Planning

Creating an independent project for yourself is a big task and often the hardest part is getting started. It's easy to get overwhelmed by the whole idea of a project. In order to help ourselves get started we are going to do some backwards planning. What is backwards planning?

imagine it's early June and you have just shown your amazing project to your portfolio group. In your mind, try and imagine where you are in the school. Try and imagine what you have just shown, read, or presented to your audience. Try and imagine exactly how you presented your project. Close your eyes and visualize exactly what you are presenting to your audience

Now, you should have an idea of what your final project will look like. The question is 'how did you get all the way there from here?' Instead of starting with the first step, let's start with your end goal. For example, several students are interested in creating video documentaries.

Their final step might be:
"Show video on projector to portfolio group."

What steps would a student have to go through to create a film? Without worrying about the order of the steps, what are some steps this student might have to go through to reach their final goal? Take a minute and think about what you know about film or video and documentaries and add a comment with ONE step you think the student would have to take to create a video that would be shown at Town Hall on the big screen. Think about how videos and films are made. What would a student have to know and/or do to make a video?

After looking at some of the steps we think a student might have to take to create a video, start creating your own backwards plan. Today I would like you to

• Briefly introduce your project idea (one sentence)
  
• write down that final step of your project, whether it's debuting a video or an exhibition of art work, exactly how you want to present your project.
  
• Then brainstorm a list of steps in any order that you believe you will have to go through to complete your project.
  
• Start at the end and try to work backwards, but if a step pops into your head write down. Post your final step and all your ideas on your blog under the title "Backwards Plan Brainstorm".

When you are finished with your backwards plan, please send me an email with your blog address if you have not done so yet.

Introduction

Hi my name is Mr. Powhida....

Signing up for Blogger

If you have completed the project worksheet (see below) and have signed up for a Gmail address it is time to sign up for a blog at blogger.com. Signing for a blog is simple as long as you read the instructions and pay attention to the following suggestions:

• Your blog name should be related to the course or your project. Keep it simple by using your name and a simple description. ie Ariel's Comic Book Project. The blog name can be changed anytime.
  
• The blog URL or address is PERMANENT. It should be something short that you can tell other people like yaniqueproject.blogspot.com or dannymusic.blogspot.com. Your only get to name the first part - YOURADDRESS.blogspot.com
• Email me your blog address at mr.powhida@gmail.com Copy the blog address into the SUBJECT of the email when you are finished signing up. I will be adding it to the class blog links section.
  

Project Worksheet #1

Today you will take your first steps towards working digitally in this class. Many of you have email addresses that you use personally, but today you will sign up for an academic email through Google that you will use for class. Follow the procedure below to sign up for your gmail account. We will be using the gmail account for Blogger, Google docs, Picassa, and more. After you sign up for your Gmail, you need to complete the first project worksheet in Word and email me your responses as a word document attachment.

Steps:

1. Go to www.gmail.com
2. Sign up for the email and provide the required information only.
3. Choose an account name that involves only your name and up to two numbers. You may use your full name, your inititals, and periods and numbers in the account. For example my academic email is mr.powhida@gmail.com
4. When you have finished signing up for the email, your first task will be be to email me your responses to questions about your project idea. These are due by Thursday at the latest.
   
5. When you click on the link, which will take you to the project worksheet, copy and paste the questions into Word. Type your answers into the word file and save it as YOURNAME_1.doc and email me the file as an attachment. Please ask for help or a demo if you do not know how to attach a file.

independent Project Reflection

One of the final steps to completing Digital Portfolio is to write a reflection essay to accompany your independent project. In the essay you should reflect not only on the growth of your project but your own growth as a self-regulated learner. The reflection essay is also an opportunity for those of you who have struggled with the independent project to explain the difficulties and obstacles you have faced.

The reflection essay should cover the project rubric items in greater detail than your quick reflections your wrote down on paper the other day. Additionally, you want to make sure you reflect on your growth as an independent learner; setting goals, conducting research, interviewing people, gathering evidence, experimenting, creating, planning, and reflecting on your task. The reflection essay should cover the following points:

• Introduce and explain your project idea. What problem does the project address? What task, phenomena, stimulus, question, or discrepancy does your project attempt to solve? You should refer to and include any relavant planning information from your blog.
  
• Analyze your efforts to solve the problem, answer the question, or complete the task through your project. Describe what research, experimentation, and/or action you have taken to complete the project. What new knowledge did you acquire through the project? What if any new knowledge did you create through the project? What have been your strengths and weaknesses working on the project?
• Explain your personal and academic connections to the project. What attracted you to the problem, question, or idea for the project? Explain why the project is important to you and also why it is important to the community and/or the world? How could the project help others?
• Explain how your project synthesized your idea, planning, research, and actions into a new creative form. What ways did you create, image, or innovate to produce your project? Remember, synthesis is the form of thinking where you create your own solution to a problem. How did your imagination help you think flexibly or take a risk?
  
• Evaluate your overall commitment to the project. Predict whether your final project will meet all your goals and offer a solution to the problem you have addressed. This is an opportunity to appraise your performance honestly and address how your project could be improved, revised, or finished.
  

The length and depth of your reflection essay is dependent on how well developed your final project will be. If you feel that your project will be incomplete, the reflection essay should be longer and describe in-depth what your portfolio group will not be able to see on your blog and in the final project. At minimum, your reflection essay should be five paragraphs, 12pt times font, double spaced, and reference any sources with MLA style.

Habits of Mind

In February everyone will be participating in a Habits of Mind based portfolio presentation. Juniors will be presenting their portfolios and discussing their work based on Brooklyn Prep's Habits of Mind. Seniors will be sitting in on the conferences to offer their insight and feedback.

Many students have a hard time talking about their work in the context of the Habits of Mind. What exactly are habits of mind?

By definition, a problem is any stimulus, question, task, phenomenon, or discrepancy, the explanation for which is not immediately known. Thus, we are interested in focusing on student performance under those challenging conditions that demand strategic reasoning, insightfulness, perseverance, creativity, and craftsmanship to resolve a complex problem. Not only are we interested in how many answers students know, but also in knowing how to behave when they DON'T know. Habits of Mind are performed in response to those questions and problems the answers to which are NOT immediately known. We are interested in observing how students produce knowledge rather than how they merely reproduce knowledge. The critical attribute of intelligent human beings is not only having information, but also knowing how to act on it. - Arthur L. Costa, Ed. D. and Bena Kallick, Ph.D.

Think back to yesterday's rubric for your project. The first HOM was Perspective and stated "Student has posed a question and offered a possible solution in the form of a creative project."
Many of you are unable to think about your project in the form of a question, but it really just a problem for which the explanation is not immediately known. Think about your project and try to explain it as one of the following tasks. First, we will have to define what these categories are.

• stimulus
• question
• task
• phenomenon
• discrepancy

Now that we have defined these categories, go ahead and leave a comment describing which category your project falls under and why. Please use the rest of your class time to continue solving your problem, answering your question, completing your task, or understanding a phenomenon...