• Business and Finance
• Family
• Computers and Internet
• Auto and Trucks
• Education
• Health
• Hobbies
• Home Improvement
• Legal
• Marketing

• Home
• Arthur's Articles Home
• Browse Categories
• Browse Authors
• Submit an Article
• Search for Articles

Home » Education Articles » New Years Goal Setting And Math Add Up To Higher Grades For Students

New Year's Goal Setting and Math Add Up to Higher Grades for Students!

Super Me!

Teaching math is one of the greatest ways to instill valuable goal-setting skills while ensuring academic success. Math provides the perfect opportunity for goal-setting lessons: its aims are realistic, obtainable, measurable and can be broken down into smaller goals or tasks. Developing goal-setting skills will help students learn how to manage their time, make better decisions and take ownership of their own academic progress.

Unfortunately, most students never learn goal-setting techniques until after they have left school. But this need not be the case. Young children can start off by setting small goals to learn simple math facts, just as they learned their ABCs. For many students, their first daunting academic goal might be memorizing the times tables. Older students can set goals to improve their grades, learn new concepts or even go back to strengthen mental math skills.

You want your child's first serious goal-setting experience to be a successful one. Understanding the factors that contribute to goal achievement will help you ensure that success.

Well Defined Goals + Action Plan + Motivation + Commitment + Effort = SUCCESS

A well-defined goal is realistic, obtainable and has a time target for completion. You begin by specifying exactly what the goal is. For example, I want to memorize the times tables from 0-12 by the end of the month. If your goal is something broader, such as I'm going to get one grade higher on my next report card in March, you will need to break it down into smaller goals for each individual test and assignment.

The action plan is the steps you will take to achieve your goal. These are actions that you can control. For example, I'm going to practice math facts 15 minutes a day with Dad, or I'm going to complete the workbook from my multiplication program or I'm going to sing along to my times tables songs in the car every day.

Motivation comes from within. It stems from your beliefs, values and desires - what is important to you. If you really believe that a goal is important, you are going to work hard to attain it. Here is where the problem most often lies: math just doesn't seem that important to most children. A parent or teacher needs to demonstrate that learning math is truly useful to them. Often we need to lend a hand by offering an external motivator - some sort of incentive. What would we do without stickers and certificates? But though acknowledgement is nice, over time they must learn to be self-motivated as well.

Another key component of motivation is believing in yourself. Have you every noticed that people who are successful continue to be successful? They believe they CAN DO IT - that nothing is impossible. Conversely, once you get down on yourself it's hard to get back on track. I see this all the time with children learning math. "I'm no good at math; I'll never be able to get it." This is when a teacher or parent can help reverse the downward spiral. You need to be there to encourage them, provide support, help them break down the goal into manageable tasks that they CAN achieve. "Look, you've learned the three times tables already. Boy, that was quick! Hey, the sixes are just double that - do you want to try a couple?"

Commitment comes from being motivated and knowing exactly what you need to accomplish. For many children the most important factor for success is their commitment to learning. They need to take ownership of the goal - it just does not work as well if Mom says they have to. "It may be Mom's goal for me to get an A in math, but it's not mine!" said one child I met. I soon discovered that this girl loved music. We talked about how math is part of music, and how many musicians are mathematical. We talked about fractions and rhythm, pitch and the frequency of notes. We even played Pi on the piano. Math suddenly became a little more relevant to her own interests. The internal motivation this provided, combined with the external motivation of getting to go to a movie after studying a certain amount, allowed her to make a real effort with math.

Effort is the time and work you commit to your goal. Make sure your child has the time and tools to do the tasks outlined in the action plan. Designate a quiet workplace with minimal distractions. These days, we tend to overbook our children with so many activities that there is little room in their busy lives to fit in a new priority. Re-evaluate those priorities. The other thing to think about is gently reducing time spent on unproductive activities such as television, virtual pets and video games. I say gently - because you do not want a sudden removal to seem like a punishment. If you have not yet set house rules for these things, you may need to gradually implement them. Make them part of a family meeting, unrelated to the goal-setting process.

Here are some tips to ensure that your children will achieve their math goals:

1. Teach them that math is important. Try as much as possible to relate it to their life. Find creative ways to instill an interest in math (music, books, crafts, online resources).

2. Tell your children about goals you have set and met. Remember, you are their first and foremost role model.

3. Find out what they need to accomplish in school. What is the curriculum requirement for the year? How is it taught? How will your child be assessed?

4. Write out the goals together. Start with broader, long-term goals and work towards short-term, specific goals.

5. Make sure that the short-term goal is not too difficult to achieve and is at an appropriate level for their ability. Remember, you want them to succeed.

6. Set a deadline. A goal without a deadline is not a goal - it's a dream. Write it down and post it where you can all see it frequently. Read it each night and again in the morning.

7. Brainstorm together ways to achieve the goal. What steps will they take? Are they going to follow a book, work with a tutor or complete an online tutorial? Are there other skills they can learn that will help them achieve their goal? Perhaps they need to learn memorization techniques? Make this list very detailed. Turn it into an action plan with a timeline. Schedule these tasks into their daily routine.

8. Avoid drill-and-kill! Try to find creative ways to practice math (music, card games, dice games, crafts). Involve your child as much as possible in creating math activities and games.

9. Instill ownership of the goal. This is done by getting children involved from the start - writing out the goal, listing their action steps, planning their schedule, setting a deadline. You can even have them sign a contract! Draw up a checklist that they can check off themselves. Ensure further commitment by having them call up three people and tell them what their goal is.

10. Set up a good learning environment, so that the time and effort spent is focused, quality time. Remove distractions that can impede progress.

11. Supply an incentive for completing the goal (for example, to surprise Grandpa, a special dinner, a celebration cake, a certificate).

12. Get the whole family involved! Each child can have a different goal. Mom and Dad can pick something to learn as well.

13. Be flexible in adapting your children's goals to their progress. If something isn't working, re-evaluate your strategy. Was the goal too difficult? Have external influences hindered progress? How can they get back on track?

14. Make the first math challenge rewarding, to encourage further goal-setting activities. Praise your children and celebrate their achievements. Show your enthusiasm and willingness to work together to achieve their math goal. Cheer them on! This is how they will develop lifelong learning skills. You want them continue a successful pattern of setting and achieving goals.

15. Here's my most important tip... Make it fun, and they will learn! Math truly can be fun. At home you have a chance to share through puzzles and games the logic and beauty of mathematics.

Take some MATHemACTION this New Year by helping your child set a math goal. You will find working with your children on this to be a wonderful opportunity to spend time together and assess their number sense. As a parent, you have the chance to discover more about your child's learning style and to help make learning enjoyable. Visit our website for more ideas on goal setting and exciting ways to inspire math. Join our Math Facts Challenge to commit to your goal.

And here is another random article you might be interested in...

Hiring Your First Business Personal Assistant: Some Guidelines for Successful Hiring

Hiring the first personal business assistant is an exciting time for new business owners. It means that the business is doing well enough that the business owner can no longer keep up effectively with the demands of the new business. Sales are exploding, and time becomes of the utmost importance. Scheduling of business chores and personal chores can become very demanding and complex. This is the time new business owners often find themselves considering a personal business assistant.

A personal business assistant differs from a clerical worker or secretary, as the duties are more diverse for a personal assistant. A personal assistant will do whatever is needed to make the business run smoothly and will do whatever is necessary to make the business owner's life run smoothly also. Although a personal assistant usually also performs clerical and secretarial duties, a personal assistant is more a "jack of all trades" than any other type of employee and the duties may include personal chores done on behalf of the employer.

The choice of a personal assistant therefore should be given the utmost of consideration. Here is a list of possible qualities to look for when choosing a personal assistant:

1. Flexibility of Schedule: the hours a personal assistant works can be very varied, depending upon the needs of the business owner. These hours can include some nights and weekends when social activities and business meetings may occur.
2. Flexibility of Personality: a good personal assistant needs a flexible, easy going personality, as the demands of the job can be quite stressful, as well as diverse.
3. Ability to Multi-Task: since the tasks are diverse, multi-tasking abilities are an absolute necessity.
4. Ability to Bond and Work Well with Others: the personal assistant will be exposed to everyone involved in many ways within the business, as well as the business owner and clients. An ability to establish relationships easily with others is mandatory.
5. Ability to Learn Quickly and Effectively: a personal assistant will need to come into a business and learn every duty quite quickly and effectively. There may be a large learning curve, depending upon the business and the needs of the business owner.
6. Knowledge of Office Procedures and Other Procedures Associated with the Business: without some prior knowledge of office procedures and routine procedures that are unique to the business hiring the assistant, problems usually occur.
7. A Good Work History: having a personal assistant that reports to work sporadically or is frequently late, with many absences, will only cause frustration overall for the business owner and create more work, not diminish the workload.
8. The Ability to Use Judgment and Work with Little Supervision: a good personal assistant will need to be self-motivated, making many of their own judgment calls concerning the business.
9. Leadership Qualities: there will be duties required and chores given the personal assistant which will require taking charge of others at times, and accomplishing goals.
10. Organizational Skills: with the amount of chores and diversity of chores required of a personal assistant, a good one will have high end organizational skills, will be able to prioritize effectively, and will not suffer from "analysis paralysis", but will be able to make decisions quickly and efficiently.
11. Self Confidence: a good personal assistant will need to be aware of their own needs and the needs of others, and will have to stand by decisions without backing down, therefore confidence in themselves and their decisions is necessary.
12. Customer Service Skills: many of the chores that a personal assistant performs will bring the assistant into direct contact with clients, therefore great customer service skills are also mandatory.

A business owner seeking to hire a personal assistant should look for the qualities above and also use their own intuition about an individual applying for this position. The business owner should also seek to hire someone whose personality and goals meshes with their own, as the personal assistant and the business owner will spend many hours each day together, and will need to be of the "same mind" about major issues.

It is also important when hiring a personal assistant to determine how much the business can afford to pay a personal assistant, and also to be realistic about the costs of a "quality personal assistant". Many personal assistants will work for reasonable rates, depending upon the country in which the business owner and assistant reside. This usually doesn't translate into "minimum wage requirements", however, as the diversity of the job itself would require a higher pay scale in order to attract more talented applicants for the position. A good rule of thumb, is to pay as "high as possible" while still staying within the budget of the business.

After all, in a situation such as the search for a qualified, reliable, energetic personal assistant, "cheap is not always better".