Organize and Prioritize

• Students should spend time thinking about their goals.Jupiterimages/Goodshoot/Getty Images
  
  Spend some time discussing goals with your students. Share with them your personal experience and how you achieved a goal. Have them brainstorm the things that are important to them to achieve this school year or semester. Once they have a list of goals, talk to them about prioritizing . Having too many goals can be overwhelming, so it is helpful for students to choose what is most important to them. Discuss with students, either as a class, or, if possible, on a one-to-one basis, their motivations for achieving their goals. Help them to split each goal into small, manageable steps. Discussing this in groups is beneficial as students learn from each other.
  
  

Make a Map

• Once students have decided on their goals, have them design a map as a way of displaying those goals so that the student has a constant reminder of what he is trying to achieve. The map should include a photo of the student and a representation of the steps he will need to make to get to his goal. These steps will be stages on a journey across the map. The student could include dangerous places such as a wide river or a mountain range for the steps that he thinks he will find difficult. As the student moves through the steps of his journey, he moves his picture along the map as a reminder of how well he is progressing.
  
  

Interviews

• Once students have decided on their goals, have them interview each other. Each student has a turn at being interviewed and interviewing. This gives students a chance to justify their choices, examine their motivations and hear others' ideas. It also makes all students aware of others' goals. Have a student interview you in front of the class so that you can share your goals and let students see goal setting as an ongoing process throughout life. This creates an atmopshere of striving to succeed in the classroom.
  
  

Class Goals

• Class goals inspire everyone to achieve.Jupiterimages/Photos.com/Getty Images
  
  Don't limit your students' goal setting to individual aspirations. Have goals that the whole class want to achieve together. This is a good activity to start off a school year or semester as it helps the class to develop a feeling of belonging of being a part of a community in your classroom. Put students into groups and have them discuss what they think are important goals for the class to achieve. Each group feeds back and goals are decided. Then, allocate each group a goal and have them work out the steps needed for this to be achieved. Put the class goals on display so that all class members are reminded of what they are endeavoring to achieve.