Goal! Helping Students Set and Reach Goals

Spring is here which means the energy level goes up and the focus level can go down if we aren't careful.

The easiest students to teach are those that want to learn.  One of the ways to foster the desire to learn is to have students set goals for themselves and plan out steps for reaching that goal.

My current 5th grade intervention group is working on adding and subtracting mixed numbers.   Well, that is what the intervention referral was for.  What became clear to me right away was that some students needed so much more.

Students come to me for intervention while their class is at Fitness, Art or the Computer Lab ("Specials").  Teacher typically refer kids to me for 1 to 3 weeks.  While my Kinders and first graders love coming and getting special attention, the upper grade kids are motivated to prove they know something and go back to Specials.  This motivation leads to kids begging me to take tests. 

I stand firm.  You can't take the test until you have met your goals.  This week, even though our goal is to add and subtract mixed numbers, some students had the goal of simplifying correctly while others had the goal of changing fractions to a common denominator.  I love having students enthusiastically prove they know something.

Today, I have a freebie to share with you that can help you help your students set and attain their goals.

This freebie has a few different versions and some tips on how to help your students exceed their own expectations.

Feel free to stop by my blog to read a bit more about it.

from 

Conference Forms & Letters Freebie

For many teachers, it is conference time again! But whether you have fall conferences, winter conferences, spring conferences, or all three, you want your conferences to be a success.

The first challenge of conferences is getting all of your parents "in the know" about the dates that conferences are taking place. Then, you have to try to fit everyone in to your scheduled time, which rarely happens, so you make adjustments to your availability based on your parent needs. When everything is finally scheduled, then you have to decide what you will communicate about each child so that you use the time wisely. Striking a proper balance can be incredibly important. No one wants to attend their child's conference and hear nothing but negativity, and yet parents also don't want to hear you say, "Johnny is doing really great. I really don't have anything to add. He should just keep doing what he's doing." Your conference needs to be about sharing areas of strength, areas of weakness, and suggestions for growth, no matter how well the child is achieving. It can all be a tad overwhelming, so a few years ago, I created a conference pack to help make conferences a bit easier. The response to this freebie has been overwhelmingly awesome, with over 30,000 downloads since it was posted in 2012. It seems this freebie has been a bit of a teacher lifesaver, so I wanted to be sure to share it with all of our Fifth Grade Freebies followers because I know we're all grateful when we can save a little time and energy, especially when conference time arrives. 

My freebie includes a form to share with parents and a few different letters to send home with parents as you are preparing for & scheduling conferences. I hope that you will find this freebie to be a wonderful time-save for your next conference session!

Click on the image below to grab my Conference Forms and Letters Freebie and please don't forget to leave a little freebie feedback!

from