I had the opportunity to present to educators and university students attending an event organized by LEND (Lingua e Nuova Didattica) held at the University of Catania Palazzo delle Scienze. This seminar was held both in person and online and was titled titled “I have a Dream” and focused on how to structure your vision/dream, goal setting and drafting an action plan to support those goals.

The event started by quoting the United States American activist Martin Luther King Jr. “I have a Dream”. This was also an opportunity for the participants to think about, write down and discuss what their dreams or aspirations they may have in their life.

This led into participants creating a Goal Wheel and participants were instructed to choose 8 goals they would like to achieve, write them down and then rate each goal according to their importance around the wheel.

After, the participants discussed their goals, they were introduced to Simon Sinek’s Golden circle. If you have some time, you should watch him talk about it in this VIDEO.

Simon asks you to start with “WHY”. If you want to dig deeper into this topic, you can read watch the video from the link above or visit my previous Blog written for DIADACTA 2023.

Participants were then presented with how to create a vision board and were told to choose just one goal to focus while at this event. They then had to think about, Why they want to reach this goal and what this goal means to them to achieve.

To help with this process they were presented with SMART and discussed the criteria from the name listed below. This also included the steps to ensure you are setting your goals in a more effective way: 

  • Specific: Describing your goal in as few words as possible.
  • Measurable: Ensure to narrow down the details and ask the questions who/what/where/how/When.
  • Attainable: What other resources do you need to successfully achieve your goal?
  • Realistic: Make your goal relevant and list the reasons why you want to achieve your goal.
  • Time: Finally, try to meet and set benchmarks and deadlines.

A good example given to the participants, the first goal was not detailed enough and too vague.

“I want to lose weight. I’m going to walk enough to burn a lot of calories.”

The next one does a better job at providing details and gives benchmarks to meet.

“From now on I want to lose 5 kg. I will walk 70,000 steps to burn 1,250 calories every week.”

If you would like to learn more about goal setting and how you can use this both for you and your students in your classroom or maybe you just want to be informed about what I am doing. Please, Sign up for my newsletter. 

If you haven’t heard yet, there is a creative approach to coaching your students through a team-oriented classroom. You can visit the SPIRE model website. It is a model I created and an innovative approach to help you transition to a coaching and team-oriented classroom. This event will be filled with activities and approaches to effectively do this.