It’s back to school for Winners Circle teachers and the lesson of the day is goal-setting! More than 250 teachers will take part in the goal setting review sessions that Winners Circle staff has begun hosting this week. “Obviously teachers already know how to write goals as part of their professional training,” says Goal Development Coordinator, Sue Lipsey. “Our trainings cover the standards Winners Circle requires.” These requirements include ensuring that the goal is appropriate for the student, that there is a means of measuring the goal, the goal is understandable for the student, parent and Goal Buddy and the goal is individualized based on student ability.
Trainings not only serve as a Winners Circle refresher course for classroom teachers, but have actually improved program effectiveness. “ Interestingly enough, the schools that have allotted the most time for Winners Circle training are the schools with the strongest goals for students, when considering both measurement and individualization,” says Lipsey.
In addition, the Winners Circle trainings provide another method of strengthening the relationships between Winners Circle program staff and classroom teachers, allowing the teachers an open forum to ask questions and discuss the program. “Training is also a communications method for the Winners Circle staff to announce updates and promote goal-setting as a means of teaching students the skill of self-management,” adds Lipsey.
New this year, each training session will be tailored to every individual school based on that school’s biggest need. “If a school has had a number of goals written without including measurements, the training might focus on writing strong measurements for goals,” Lipsey explains. Lipsey adds that this is crucial because of the connections between the skill of goal setting and academic success of students. According to The 2009 Gallup Student Poll, goal setting instills hope in students and as measured by Gallup, hope is a stronger indicator of academic success than traditional measures of standardized tests.
Winners Circle training sessions will continue through the week of August 15th. If you would like more information on the Winners Circle training schedule call 557-6380 or email slipsey@winners-circle.org
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