SMARTening up your targets

New Year’s Resolutions... those fantastic goals for the coming 12 months. We all set them: to lose weight, take up running, get a new qualification, travel more, join a gym, etc., etc... We force ourselves to enjoy these challenges for the first two weeks of January, start to slip in the middle of January, and the gyms are again empty by February. The diet clubs lose members, and we avoid going for a run in favor of watching TV.

These vague targets are soon forgotten, but with some tweaking you can transform vague targets into SMART targets making them useful, far easier to reach, and a great way to improve learning.

Let’s say you decide to Help your child with homework. What does this actually mean?

Specific

Helping with homework sounds great. But, is it sitting with a child each evening and gently guiding them? Or, buying them books to help them learn? Is a tutor a better plan? Are they struggling with a subject you know nothing about? Or, is time management an issue? Are they constantly losing worksheets?

Targets:

1. Help children become more organised.
2. Improve maths skills.
3. Reduce the amount of screen time.

Measurable

Help is a great word, but it needs to be defined further. This could mean a number of things. I could hand them a sheet of paper, so they don’t have to get up. I could read their work before submitting for a grade and offer feedback...  Make sure there is a way to measure when you’ve reached the specific goal.

Targets:

1. Watch a maximum of 2 hours TV per night.
2. Set a goal to achieve 80% on a Year 4 Maths test.
3. Create study area with folders for each subject.

Achievable

We’d love to be helping every night and achieve A's by the end of the year in all subjects. But, that just puts too much pressure on you and your child. You’re going to be helping them stay organised? Plan to work on this one or two nights a week when it doesn't clash with your work schedule. Plan to boost performance by two letter grades per year. (If children achieve more, that’s fantastic!) Avoid setting unobtainable goals.

Targets:

1. Review papers and organise them together two days a week.
2. Improve Maths grade from a D grade to a B grade.
3. Set aside homework time each evening.

Relevant

Do they actually need homework help, or is a different issue to blame? As a professional charged with the responsibility of helping struggling students, I normally sort out learners' problems in one move: limit screen time. Between social media, games consoles and their favourite programmes, often the issue with too much homework relates to an issue with too little free time.

Targets:

1. Reduce screen time.
2. Set aside a specific homework times for them to do homework.
3. Improve handwriting so students can read their own notes.

Timed

When are you going to start helping? How long is it expected to last? By when should grades improve? If you need to set aside daily homework time, are there other obligations to consider?

It seems like a small change, but rather than Help with Homework, your improved target could be...

1. Download a workbook and two textbooks to work through together for an hour each night to improve their D grade in math to a B grade by the end-of-year exam.
2. Reduce screen time outside of schoolwork to a maximum of two hours each weekday evening by removing their phone and tablet from the bedroom and turning off the television.
3. Set up a filing system to help organise class docs and plan for the week ahead on Tuesday and Friday evenings.

Can you see how the targets now are more specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and timed?

Try redefining one of your targets. I don’t need to be more organised. I need to timetable two hours per night, Sunday through Thursday, to mark student work and plan the next day’s lessons. How can you SMARTen up your targets?

_______________________

A very special thanks for this contribution goes to guest blogger,

Ruth McDonald, B.Sc., M.Sc., pgDTLLS.

Ruth is an educator with 
Sailing Through School.

Her role is to improve learning for children and adults outside the classroom.

Mississippi Initiative 42: Public School Funding is No Small Matter!

There are many opinions floating around regarding the best approach to funding public, K-12 education in Mississippi. 

Professional organizations, school district leaders, and parent organizations have made it quite difficult for us to remain in the dark about Initiative 42. Since Initiative 42 will be on the November 3rd ballot, we have less than a month to become informed about the legislation and spread the word. As a consequence, I'd like to share a few resources that explain several aspects of Mississippi Initiative 42. 

Jillian Smart, M.Ed., Author & Edupreneur

A big difference: Initiative Measure #42 vs Alternative Measure #42A
According to Ballotpedia, Initiative 42 "requires the state to provide for an 'adequate and efficient system of free public schools'" as outlined by a bill passed in 1997 known as Mississippi Adequate Education Program (MAEP). If you're like me, your first thought is: If we already have a law to address public school funding, why not enforce it? Why do I need to vote on November 3rd?

Here's what I found:

• Essentially, Initiative 42 gives Mississippi Chancery Courts the power to enforce an existing method for adequately and efficiently funding the free public school system. 
• Alternative 42A is an option proposed by the Mississippi legislature that seemingly offers no solution to the current crisis in public education funding. 

Image provided by #FedUpWith50th

What is MAEP?
As it is written, Section 201 allows the Mississippi legislature to prescribe limitations and conditions on how public schools are funded. Though MAEP "provides a formula designed to ensure an adequate education for every Mississippi child", former Gov. Ronnie Musgrove reports several districts in the state have been underfunded. Over a billion dollars have been withheld since 2010. 

The MAEP formula dictates adequate and efficient district funding based on average student attendance, base student cost, an at-risk component, local contribution, and other add-on programs (e.g., gifted education, special education, alternative education). It's not a one-size-fits-all approach, in that districts are guaranteed funding based on need.

What's best for Mississippi?
As November 3rd comes into focus, understanding the official ballot is essential. On the General Election ballot, voters will be faced with two choices.

1. Vote for approval of EITHER measure, or vote AGAINST BOTH measures.
2. Vote for Initiative 42 or Alternative 42A

If you support lining the pockets of lawyers and big law firms with funds intended to support K-12 learning, inaction is the best option. Those who vote "against both" measures on item one effectively vote to keep things as they are. 

Districts will have to pursue legal recourse to receive the funding needed to foster adequate and efficient learning environments for K-12 students. In the event that funds are awarded to districts, law firms will collect large portions of settlement funds as payment for litigation expertise.

If you support Initiative 42, vote for EITHER of the two measures on item one. The same is true if you support Alternative 42A. 

The next step involves voting for the amendment designed to enforce adequate and efficient public school funding as outlined by MAEP. The decision is yours.

Image from MS Secretary of State's Office on 09/29/15

Members of the JE Community have inquired about this topic. Many parents are aware of the public education funding options but aren't sure which option is best for children. Bureaucratic language can be confusing, so this is a modest attempt to keep it simple.