As teachers head back to school for another year, most have developed goals for the coming school year. Virtually every expert champions the importance of establishing clear, specific goals if you want to be successful. In my experience, goals are necessary but not sufficient to create an inspiring classroom.

Sure, goals are essential. Teachers need to know where they want to go in order to select the best strategies to get there. And goals work just fine when you are operating in isolation. For example, if I decide I need to lose weight, setting a goal of dropping five pounds helps me stay focused, eat well, exercise, and get where I want to be. The same applies if my goal is to secure my credentials to be a building level administrator. I can now search for accredited graduate programs and take steps to achieve what I want.

Goals are significantly more complicated, however, when other people are involved – and teaching certainly involves working with others. Just because a teacher has a nicely articulated set of goals for the coming school year doesn’t mean she can easily turn them into reality. In all likelihood, she has 20-30 students in her classroom and there’s no reason to believe they have the same goals for the time that they will be together. Establishing your goal is a good starting point, but it’s not enough when success ultimately depends upon a group working collaboratively.

What does this mean for the classroom teacher who wants to have a great school year? As soon as the school year begins, establish a shared vision of success with your students. When everyone is motivated to achieve the same thing, success is attainable. When you don’t take the time to establish a shared vision with your students, they might be motivated to achieve a very different set of goals from yours and you’ll be in for one contentious school year.

Let me describe the process so you can use it immediately.

Building a Shared Vision of an Inspiring Classroom: The Process

1.Begin by asking your students if they want to have a successful school year.
2. Define “successful” by explaining you want the classroom to be a productive, enjoyable environment. Ask them if they want that as well.
3. Once the students affirm that they define success as you do – productive and enjoyable – say something like this: “Since we want the same thing, we have a shared vision for this class and should have a stupendous year. We just need to get more specific.”
4.Divide the class into groups of four or five students each. Give each group a piece of chart paper and some markers.
5.Draw a circle on the board at the front of the room. Tell the class, “This circle represents what we want – an inspiring classroom where we can enjoy ourselves and be productive. In this circle, we are going to identify those things that we should do and qualities we should display that will help create the class we want.” Depending upon the age and ability of your students, you might want to provide some examples like “being prepared for class” and “respect.” Give the students about ten minutes to work in their groups. Note: Don’t give too many examples. The success of this activity requires that students be active participants in what you create.
6. Have each group share what they put in their “inspiring classroom” circle. Expect a lot of repetition. Those items that are noted by some groups but not others need to be considered by the whole class. If the class decides to include the item, add it to your composite circle. Leave out those items that are not endorsed by the whole class.
7. If you have too many items or some are redundant (i.e. “be on time” and “be prompt”), combine and cluster items.
8. Return to the board and draw a rectangle at the base of the circle. Say, “We have done a great job identifying the values and the behaviors to create a productive, enjoyable class. Now it’s time to look at some things that can get in our way. Think of things that will make it difficult for us to have the classroom we want. Things like ‘making fun of others’ or ‘cheating.’ In your groups, draw a rectangle and identify things to avoid.” Give the student five to ten minutes to do this.
9. Follow the same procedure you used for the inspiring classroom circle and create a composite list of behaviors to avoid.
10. End by saying, “I will get this typed and copied for us to look at as a group tomorrow.”

Follow-Up

The next day, distribute a printed “inspiring classroom” chart to each student and say, “I have compiled everything we agreed to yesterday. Let’s take a few minutes to review what we created.” Quickly review everything you have in both the circle and rectangle. “If we do the things in the circle and avoid things in the rectangle, will we have the kind of classroom we want: one where we can be productive and enjoy ourselves?” Once the students agree that this is what they want and their inspiring classroom chart offers them a blueprint for success, end the discussion by saying, “OK. We know what we want. We know what we need to do. Let’s do it and have a great year.”
• Note: Your use of language is important. I often use words and phrases like, “enjoy ourselves and be productive,” “the kind of classroom we want,” etc. Even though it’s repetitious, it’s helpful for students to connect “success” with “being productive” and pairing “being productive” with “enjoying ourselves.” By repeatedly talking about “the kind of classroom we want,” you are tapping into the internal motivation of your students. We are all internally motivated by what we want. The artful use of language can help students stay conscious about what it is that they want when they are in your classroom.

Refer to your inspiring classroom chart on a regular basis. Have students keep their copy of the chart in their binder. Enlarge the chart and post it in a prominent place in the classroom so it’s something they see every day when they enter the room. Rather than wait until you have major problems, as soon as you notice students engaging in unwanted behaviors, have them look at their charts to remind themselves of what they really want in your class. This will help them stay appropriately focused and prevent minor problems from becoming major distractions.

Conclusion

Do yourself a favor this school year. Don’t just set goals for yourself. Take the next step. Build a shared vision with your students of an inspiring classroom, one characterized by enjoyment and productivity. It takes very little time and this collaborative process will pay dividends throughout the year. Best wishes for a successful school year!

By Bob Sullo. Bob Sullo has been an English teacher, school psychologist, school adjustment counselor, and school administrator. Now he is a full time consultant. Bob has written several books about internal control and motivation including, The Inspiring Teacher, Activating the Desire to Learn and The Motivated Student. You can read Bob’s full bio here. Learn more about Bob and his work by visiting his website, internalmotivation.net.

Contact Bob directly by completing the below contact form. You can comment on this article by completing the comment box below the contact form. [contact-form]

[asa]1416604235[/asa][asa]1416608109[/asa]

Traditional schooling is based on an educational paradigm that has been around since the turn of the century. During the Industrial Revolution, the purpose of education was to prepare people for jobs on assembly lines. And so the organized classroom evolved, where students sat and received their training from a skilled teacher.

Passive Learning

Such traditional education is rooted in the stimulus-response method of behavioral psychology. The leader, or teacher, presents the stimulus–a fact perhaps–and then assesses the students to see if they have learned the appropriate information.

• Teacher presenting stimulus: “Whales have blow holes.”
• Teacher providing guidance: “They get their oxygen through these blow holes.”
• Teacher soliciting response: “Do whales breathe through their nose?”
• If a student replies yes, the teacher presents the stimulus again: “No, they do not. Instead of having noses, they have blow holes to take in oxygen.”
• If a student replies no, the teacher moves on: “Yes that is correct, instead of having a nose, they breathe in through their blow hole. Now let’s explore…”

In this scenario, the student is a passive participant in the process. The information learned is impersonal. Clearly, the teacher is in control of the learning process; his or her interests dictate what and how fast the students learn. The teacher keeps the classroom well organized so it can accommodate large amounts of children, and all the students receive identical training.

Today’s workforce has to meet much different challenges than 100 years ago. Technology has taken over assembly line tasks, and active workers need to adapt, react well to change, and think independently. The Japanese have taught us that our workers need to place a new emphasis on teamwork. In order to meet these new challenges, we need to adopt a new educational paradigm.

Active Learning

The new paradigm for active education puts the learner in control of the learning process. Students can pursue topics that interest them. The process of learning becomes as important as the result. The goal of active learning is to give students the ability to explore whales on their own, not to simply spoonfeed them specific facts about whales.

• Teacher: “Let’s all look at this picture of a whale. Do you see any differences between the whale and the people?”
• Student 1: “The whale has that funny looking hole on the top of its head.”
• Student 2: “The whale has no arms or legs.”
• Student 3: “The whale has a huge mouth.”
• Teacher: “That’s great. Now what I would like each of you to do is explore why those differences exist. We have lots of books on whales, some videotapes, and the phone number for a whale expert at the museum. If you get stuck, I’ll help steer you in the right direction. At the end of the week, you will each present what you learned to your classmates. Feel free to work together.”

The students are now in charge of their learning. They can each explore the topic that most interests them, customizing their educational experience. They can actively pursue information and learn independent thinking skills. The teacher no longer needs to be a subject expert–an impossible task in this age of so much information. Instead, the teacher now oversees the learning process.

Learning Alternatives

There are an infinite number of other ways students can learn about whales. It is the instructor’s responsibility to shape the specific learning environment. Just as an architect creates a living habitat for homeowners, instructional designers create effective learning environments. And just as you would select an architect to design your house, so should you select an instructional designer who matches the type of educational style you prefer.