Academic Goals
It’s hard to believe that we are halfway through the schoolyear. Schools have sent out progress reports, but the pandemic has changed how many students, and hopefully parents, view grades. While assessing this semester, students describe living in an odd educational mix of schools moving back to traditional classroom standards while also being more aware of and responsive to everyone’s emotional needs. A high school senior whom I work described his first semester experience beautifully when he said that he expected to get very good grades but was no longer willing to twist himself inside out to guarantee that everything is perfect. The great redefine of rigor and workload seems to be trying to keep the challenge while recognizing individual needs for schoolwork/life balance. That might be the message that these mid-year reports express. In order for high achievers to be able to find this healthier approach to school success, they might want to consider what has changed since March 2019. As schools transferred from in-person to remote, to a combination of both, students began to become more aware of the need to plan, time-manage, and organize their own school success. They needed to become better self-monitors. For many, it was incredibly difficult to take on these responsibilities but as we have remained in various forms of alternative education, student have adapted and, in several cases, thrived.
As parents look at mid-year progress, it will be important to ask students to discuss their executive functions as a major contributor to their work habits and grades. Planning, organizing, and time-managing awareness have changed for most students. Prior to college, most students don’t have the executive functions to manage those tasks independently. In addition, many children do not develop good self-monitoring skills before late high school or college years. So, how have students survived this pandemic? They have learned these skills with adults helping them set up systems that work, through trial and error, by feeling safe to turn in work that might not be their usual standard and have teachers praise their effort, by becoming more comfortable with advocacy, and with being more willing to self-monitor. One student told me that they had, like so many of their peers, not bothered to study for tests at the start of distance learning because they could look up what they didn’t know without being caught. But that student continued, “then I realized that my A’s were not helping me learn anything and ultimately would backfire when I didn’t know any of the material.”
Now that we are most often back in schools, my clients regularly state that they don’t want to ever go back to remote learning for long periods of time. They like being in school despite it not being like it was pre-pandemic. They are fine with the structures of school, the shift being harder than many of us anticipated at the beginning of the year. They also seem to understand how they have grown since the start of all of this. It is that growth that we want to focus on as we evaluate midyear reports and set goals for second semester. When I asked the senior what his goals are for second semester, he said that he wants to be better with planning as he became lackadaisical after getting his college acceptance email, he wants to manage his work so that he has time to have dinner with his family or friends each night until he leaves for college, and he wants to find joy in his learning because he is very interested in the classes that he is taking. I loved his goals and don’t think that they would have been the same if it hadn’t been for the learning curve of the pandemic.
So, as you are discussing second semester goals with your children, ask them what their planning goal is, what their organization goal is, what their time-management goal is, and what they need to do to effectively self-monitor their work. Also remember to ask them what they can/will do to find joy in their learning. Some questions that you could ask include:
How do you plan for daily and long-term work? Do you believe that you have a good system that allows you the success you want?
If you don’t like your current planning system, what can you do to make it better? Do you need a planner? Do you need to meet with teachers? How can I help you purchase the tools that you need or schedule appointments that will help you be better planned?
Do you have the supplies and space that you need to complete homework? Have you organized your computer files so that you can quickly find information?
Do you have enough time to adequately complete homework? Are you involved in too many activities? If you can screen shift, do you need to add an app that will block your distractions?
Do you speak in class, take notes, and know where to find them when you are studying?
Do you want to make improvements to your mid-year report? If so, what is your plan for change?
If they can answer these questions well, the grades will follow.