Episode 708: Ready, Set...Goal! The Motivational Merit of Student Goal-Setting

Ashley Mengwasser:

In life, there's where we are and where we want to be. Noting that chasm and training to jump it, this is goal-setting. In Georgia classrooms, setting individualized milestones puts students at the starting gate of their own learning. With attainable benchmarks in place, once that bell rings, it's off to the races. Next, hear from an educator/equestrian how goal-setting is the skill motivating students to saddle up and ride off into the sunset on their personalized learning journey.

Educators, thank you for joining us on the platform for Georgia's teachers. This is Classroom Conversations. Our teacher talk series features educators who are reaching students in innovative and useful ways. We can thank the Georgia Department of Education, GaDOE, and Georgia Public Broadcasting, GPB, for this best-in-show series. I'm Ashley Mengwasser, your host.

During season seven, we've been hoofing it across the landscape of personalized learning. Georgia defines personalized learning as an instructional approach that uses student voice to enact an individual path and pace through a collection of competencies. And, as Georgia DOE states, "Personalized learning is not a fad, technology initiative, or a passing trend. It is the future of learning." That's my “mane” point. Goal-setting is a personalized learning core competency where students determine their unique learning goals and work to achieve them. And, it's worth noting how goal-setting practice for the classroom has a natural way of translating into goal-setting for life.

How can teachers and instructional coaches approach personalized learning goal-setting in a way that students can run with? Here to “mull” it over is Megan Mull. Megan is newly part of the Early Intervention Program at Oak Grove Elementary's STEAM Academy in Acworth, part of Cherokee County Schools. Before joining The Grove, she was a champion of student goal-setting as a math instructional coach at Lockheed Elementary in Marietta City Schools District. And five years ago, importantly, Megan was the 2020 to 2021 teacher of the year at Marietta Center for Advanced Academics, a unique elementary magnet school with an accelerated STEM-focused curriculum.

Welcome, Megan. How are you?

Megan Mull:

I'm good. Thank you for having me here today.

Ashley Mengwasser:

Are you excited about your new EIP role in Cherokee County?

Megan Mull:

I am. It's always exciting to start not just a new district, but in a new school, and to make connections with new teachers, new leaders, new communities, and families.

Ashley Mengwasser:

Talk about what your role will be in the EIP department.

Megan Mull:

In the EIP department, I will be working with RTI, which is Response to Intervention, and helping students who need some interventions, whether that's with behavior, reading, or math. RTI, Response to Intervention, is an intervention program where a need is seen for, it could be behavior or ELA or math, so it's very laser-focused. Whereas MTSS, which is Multi-tiered Support System, is whole child. Yes, they might have a need in math, but why? It'll dig a little deeper and look hand-in-hand at their reading scores, their behavior, their emotional development, and just look at the child as a whole picture versus that laser focus.

Ashley Mengwasser:

Your name is so similar to the actress Megan Mullally. Have you heard this before from Will & Grace?

Megan Mull:

No, never.

Ashley Mengwasser:

Did you ever watch Will & Grace?

Megan Mull:

A few times here and there. Just one-offs.

Ashley Mengwasser:

She is a comedic genius. When I saw your name, I said, "Megan Mullally. I haven't thought of her in forever." It's basically Megan Mull plus an ally is how you spell her name. We all have to go home and watch Will & Grace tonight in your honor.

Megan Mull:

We do.

Ashley Mengwasser:

You've pretty much spent your non-educational life horsin’ around, which is a compliment and I admire it. You didn't always want to be an educator, but you had really a livelihood around horses. Tell me that story from when you were young interacting with these beautiful creatures.

Megan Mull:

Sure. I grew up riding and competing. I traveled around the southeast mostly showing primarily in high school, a little bit in college. Early in my college career, I wanted to major in animal science, specifically equine. Then I switched to beef production and management and realized this is a great opportunity in life, but I need something that's going to offer maybe a little bit more money, a little bit more benefits. I was giving horseback riding lessons at the time to children, and I absolutely loved it. I loved watching kids make progress. I loved watching them accomplish things that they never thought they'd be able to do. It was so rewarding and satisfying that I decided to become a teacher.

Ashley Mengwasser:

You went into education after that?

Megan Mull:

I did.

Ashley Mengwasser:

Were you able to use those skills training kids to ride in the classroom? What was similar about that transition?

Megan Mull:

Absolutely. I mean, using your power and your influence to help students believe in themselves is huge. It doesn't matter if it's riding a horse, it doesn't matter if it's solving a math problem, or reading, you have to be that child's champion and that's anywhere. That skill carried over from teaching them horseback riding lessons to teaching them math and how to read.

Ashley Mengwasser:

Incredible. Let's hold our horses here because I'm curious about these beautiful equine creatures. What horseback riding discipline did you practice? Is that what it's called, the discipline of riding?

Megan Mull:

Yes, it is. I did a little bit of everything, everything from English to Western. I showed Arabians mostly.

Ashley Mengwasser:

Wow.

Megan Mull:

Yes. I did a little bit of jumping when I was younger, and did some reining. Had an opportunity to ride in college as an equitation rider. Didn't pan out for numerous reasons and that's okay, but it was a great accomplishment to have that offer.

Ashley Mengwasser:

Explain the style of dressage. It's always so beautiful to watch, but I don't think I understand what's happening.

Megan Mull:

People in the horse world refer to it as dancing with horses. If you can imagine that, a trained eye would understand the movement of the horses and the riders. I will be honest, I don't know all of it myself, but it's the same as if we were to go watch a dance recital. We appreciate what's happening, but we don't always understand what's going into it.

Ashley Mengwasser:

Like ballet for horses.

Megan Mull:

Absolutely.

Ashley Mengwasser:

Yeah. I would be lost too, but it would look beautiful. Is there a way to tell if a horse likes you? I've always wondered this.

Megan Mull:

Sure. Just like dogs and cats, horses show affection towards people. Some of the signs are they'll come up to you. If they're out in the pasture and you walk up, they'll walk up to you and you're not going out to them. They'll neigh when they're excited to see you. Horses have very expressive eyes. A lot of people don't know that.

Ashley Mengwasser:

No, I've never noticed that.

Megan Mull:

Yeah. The bright eye, they'll look happy, they'll look alert. A lot of times, they'll kind of nuzzle you with their nose. Just in their overall actions, you can tell.

Ashley Mengwasser:

When they approach you for affection, it's safe?

Megan Mull:

Absolutely. If their ears are pricked forward, it's a good sign.

Ashley Mengwasser:

Forward, okay.

Megan Mull:

Forward, absolutely.

Ashley Mengwasser:

What are some other facts about horses you can teach us?

Megan Mull:

Horses are very good at reading people's moods and emotions, and they will mimic them.

Ashley Mengwasser:

What?

Megan Mull:

If you are high-strung and wound up, they're going to feed off of that energy and do this exact same thing as you. That skill for me carried over into the classroom because when I had a horse that was scary or spooky, and I needed to be calm and keep my emotions under control to help that horse, that carries over to the classroom because children are just like horses. They pick up on those feelings and those emotions.

Ashley Mengwasser:

I'm feeling a horse retreat burgeoning for our educators so that they can go, learn some of these skills, and apply them to the classroom as well. But you don't just work with horses. You're a mother of two humans and hens. Talk about your humans first, then we'll go to the hens.

Megan Mull:

I have two children: a four-year-old boy and a two-year-old girl. They are both just wonderful outdoor-loving children. In fact, that's how we have hens is because my son was very excited when I hatched out chickens with my students at school. I brought home the chicks for a few days before they went off to live at a family farm. I heard for an entire year, "Mama, I need chickens. I need chickens." I need, not want. I need. That was an everyday comment for just about a year, so we ended up with chickens in our backyard.

Ashley Mengwasser:

Look at that. Why do you think your kids benefit from being raised alongside chicks? What skills are they learning?

Megan Mull:

They have learned empathy and respect for life. They have watched them hatch. They have unfortunately watched chickens be killed by hawks and predators, but it is the circle of life. I am a firm believer that earlier kids are exposed to that, the better they are to handle the real world. Responsibility, of course. Then it gets them outside. My kids don't watch a whole lot of TV. They're always outside chasing chickens, playing with chickens, riding their bikes, playing in the yard. It's just a good life skill.

Ashley Mengwasser:

There's plenty to do.

Megan Mull:

So much to do.

Ashley Mengwasser:

Based on what's here before you, Megan, you're either going to egg our studio or you're going to offer up some eggs. Are these from your hens?

Megan Mull:

They are. This is a dozen eggs from-

Ashley Mengwasser:

Show us. Hold it up. I would like to see.

Megan Mull:

All right. These are eggs from our hens that were collected in the last couple of days.

Ashley Mengwasser:

How cool.

Megan Mull:

Yeah, my son has a little egg stamper that says "Hank's Hens," so he helped me stamp all of them. You can see that there are a variety of colors and sizes. We have one little hen that just started laying eggs, so her eggs are a little tinier. Then, of course, the more mature hens have larger eggs.

Ashley Mengwasser:

Is your son's name Hank?

Megan Mull:

It is.

Ashley Mengwasser:

Okay. Please, give our regards to Hank for the eggs. I noticed there are white and brown eggs in there. I learned years ago working on a script that brown hens lay brown eggs and white hens lay white eggs. Is that true?

Megan Mull:

Sometimes, yes. The chicken's earlobe color also helps you determine the color of the egg. Then there's also just the breed. Different breeds lay different color eggs. We have some brown egg layers and we have some white egg layers.

Ashley Mengwasser:

Chickens have earlobes?

Megan Mull:

Yes. Our chickens with red earlobes are the ones who lay the brown eggs. Our hen with the white earlobes lays the white eggs.

Ashley Mengwasser:

I could talk to you about this all day. This is deeply fascinating, but we'll move from chickens to eagles. How about it?

Megan Mull:

All right.

Ashley Mengwasser:

Before the Grove, where you're now an eagle, you worked at Lockheed Elementary as an instructional math coach where you practiced WIGS, which you told me is Wildly Important Goal-Setting. I also believe in wigs of all varieties as a side note. But explain WIGS and how you work to set a math goal for each grade level that year.

Megan Mull:

The school is a Leader In Me school. The second year of being a Leader in Me school involved WIGS and teachers starting to set goals with students, academic goals specifically. That can be an overwhelming task for a teacher. If you're told, "Hey, I need you to start setting goals with students and help them get there," that's very, very broad.

To help with that, the math administrator and I went through, we looked at every grade level K-5, and thought about, "What is the big rock for that grade level that we want students to be able to do when they leave?"

Ashley Mengwasser:

The big rock?

Megan Mull:

The big rock, taking it right out of Leader in Me, the big rock. We set that big goal for each grade level, and then that was the long-term goal. That's what we wanted students to accomplish by the end of the year, by May. It was August, beginning of September.

We challenged teachers to think this is where you want your students to be. What are you going to do to get them there? Helping them think about…if the goal is to know all their multiplication facts by the end of the year, let's start with students will learn their zeros, ones, and twos. Then when they master that, where are you going to go next? Just helping them break that down and find resources that they could use in their classroom and students could use at home to help reach those goals.

Ashley Mengwasser:

I should mention that goal-setting is a key part of personalized learning. If we look at PLE standard 4, which is called Growth and Mastery Mindset, standard 4 asks educators to identify causes of learner struggles, prescribe solutions and co-plan with learners to set short and longer-term goals for growth. Why is goal-setting so critical to personalized learning progress?

Megan Mull:

Absolutely. As you mentioned before, goal-setting is a life skill. We all have to have that skill in life. Starting that journey in elementary school with students is only going to set them up for success when they hit middle, high school, and college, even then, of course, down the road in their own career. We have to teach students how to set goals and help them identify weaknesses. Not be put off by those weaknesses, but instead say, "What are you going to do about it?"

Students struggle sometimes when they're faced with a challenge. There's a lot of things in life that come quickly and easily, right? Food is quick. You go through a drive-through. Internet is fast. Everything is fast. When students are posed with something that takes a little bit longer or is a struggle for them, they sometimes shut down. It's our job as educators to show them how to navigate those challenges, how to push through, and how to set those goals. It helps them learn how to advocate for their own needs and education as they get older, especially in middle and high school where you have a teacher that has many students compared to elementary where a teacher only has 20 to 30. Helping them set those goals and understand themselves as a person and as a student is huge.

Ashley Mengwasser:

I bet a huge amount of motivation comes from this process because then they see that they have power and they have agency. Learner agency is another big piece of personalized learning. How do you approach goal-setting with young students? What is the way into this?

Megan Mull:

It's funny because teachers always say, "Oh, they're in kindergarten. They don't need to set goals. They don't understand." I'm like, "Well, if they're potty-trained, then they've already had a goal in life."

Ashley Mengwasser:

Good point.

Megan Mull:

That's a big goal. Parents set goals for kids. The problem and the breakdown with a lot of it is educators and parents have goals for children and students, but we don't always communicate them. We don't always say, "Hey, this is what I want you to be able to do. This is what I want you to learn." We have to have that open line of communication. Sitting down with a five-year-old and saying, "Hey, this is what we want to do. You're going to learn to count to 20, but we're going to first start with counting to 5. Let's practice counting to five." You have to make it a big deal. You have to make it fun for those young learners. If it's not fun and they're not getting that praise out of it, they're going to shut down. They're going to stop.

Ashley Mengwasser:

You want them to feel excitement when they reach the milestone so they're motivated to tackle the next milestone.

Megan Mull:

Absolutely. How you motivate a five-year-old versus a twelve-year-old is going to look very different.

Ashley Mengwasser:

What determines the timeframe for a goal, or is that individualized as well?

Megan Mull:

Usually, your short-term goals are like your checkpoints along the way for your long-term goal. Of course, that can look different, but, I mean, there's a balance, right? If you're setting a short-term goal and a student can accomplish it in a matter of hours or a few days, that really wasn't ever a goal. That was just something that they had to learn. As they work towards their goals, they might realize that some of their short-term goals take a little longer than others, and that's okay. I think a lot of it just depends on the student. Some students pick up on reading faster. Some students pick up on math faster. To always put a timeframe on something and say that a goal has to be two weeks or it has to be two months is not always accurate, in my opinion.

Ashley Mengwasser:

It's not always attainable.

Megan Mull:

It's not.

Ashley Mengwasser:

You can't have rigid timelines, but do you think it helps the student to have something to aim for like, "This month, we're working on X?”

Megan Mull:

Absolutely. If a student's not making progress in X amount of time, take a step back and look at, is what we're doing working? What should we do differently?

Ashley Mengwasser:

And how can we adjust?

Megan Mull:

Absolutely.

Ashley Mengwasser:

Were teachers already practicing steady goal-setting with their students, or was there something challenging about this bite-sized approach to student goal-setting for educators?

Megan Mull:

Majority of the teachers were not practicing goal-setting, and I don't think it was because they didn't want to, but they didn't know how. I think having the administrators and instructional coaches set those long-term goals for them and say, "Hey, this is where we want your students to be. Now pick a small handful and focus on that," gave them some structure and some guidance on where to go with this.

Ashley Mengwasser:

Talk about your bite-sized approach for teachers. You are taking it chunk by chunk maybe if the goal is counting to a hundred. How do educators feel about learning to chunk the goals, and what is your recommendation for approaching it in a bite-sized manner?

Megan Mull:

The teachers found it a lot more manageable knowing that it was bite-sized and we weren't asking them to summit the mountain all at once. We were saying, "Just make it to mile marker one. Make it to mile marker two," and taking it step by step, mile by mile, until they've reached the overall goal. There was a little bit of challenge of them thinking, "Well, how do I bite-size this?" After a little bit of PL and showing them some resources of things that they could use, both in the classroom and at home, it became much more attainable for teachers and they're like, "Oh, now I'm getting this."

Ashley Mengwasser:

Now I get it.

Megan Mull:

My big thing is whenever you start something new, start small, start simple. If you start small and simple, you're more than likely going to stick with it and you're going to continue forward. If they can pick students that they were confident and comfortable in working with, it also makes a difference.

Ashley Mengwasser:

And, for the benefit of the students, one thing you told me is that students really like transparency. If their teacher is clear, if they're setting these goals together and the student has ownership on achieving them, you said they start to view their teacher like their fighter, their warrior, their champion. What does that do to the student-teacher relationship?

Megan Mull:

Oh, it absolutely strengthens it. Every student wants to know that the teacher is on his or her side. If they're sitting down, having these honest conversations about, "Hey, your strengths are this, but we need to focus on this area a little bit more," chances are the student already knows that. The teacher's not telling him or her anything new. It's just now in the open, and shows that teacher cares and wants to make a difference in that child's learning

Ashley Mengwasser:

Goals are transparent, goals are prioritized, they are celebrated, like you said, that eventually blossoms into truly a life skill. Where do the big goals come from that we then go and make bite-sized? Where can teachers pull the big goals? Where are they looking for that?

Megan Mull:

We pulled ours straight out of the standards and thinking about those big skills of not only what is it that they need for that grade level, but what is going to help them be the most successful the following school year. For example, we looked at in fourth grade, our big goal was that students could multiply two-by-one-digit numbers and two-by-two-digit, because that would set them up for success when they got to fifth grade. If you can catch some of those students up on those critical skills earlier on, then it's only going to help them in the long run.

Ashley Mengwasser:

Which is so on theme for goal-setting, right? Because you're looking at the future. If you're looking ahead to what they're going to be expected to do when they level up a grade or they matriculate, everybody's being set up for success.

Megan Mull:

Correct.

Ashley Mengwasser:

Support systems are important in this goal-setting work, not just the educator, but maybe involvement of the parentals. How do we get parents to buy into goal-setting as a practice?

Megan Mull:

Yeah, parent buy-in is huge, right? It's also great for the student to see that the teacher and parents are working together for the child, and that they're not against one another. The way that our school did that is we held a parent event where they got to come in, meet with the teacher, and learn about their child's goal. The teacher gave them a make-and-take to take home to practice that skill at home that they could do nightly. It might've been even a math game that they could play together.

We made parents feel special by giving them what we called a golden ticket. We had our October Falls Halls is what we called them where the kids would come and trick-or-treat in the school, classroom to classroom. We knew that those parents already had taxi rides set up or had already set aside the car, taken off work to come to that event in the evening. These parents were given a golden ticket and they got to get into the school a little bit earlier. Then their kids got to go trick-or-treating first. We piggybacked off of an event that parents were already planning on coming to, and we knew that their child would want to come that night also.

Ashley Mengwasser:

With the golden ticket.

Megan Mull:

With the golden ticket.

Ashley Mengwasser:

That's awesome. What do parents say about how their child is changing as a result of goal-setting? I imagine that they'd be hearing more random goals being spoken about the household or in the child's personal life as well probably.

Megan Mull:

Absolutely. A lot of the parents would say like, "Oh, I heard they met their goal." The child comes home all excited, and they have that paper that they're waving, showing...

Ashley Mengwasser:

Proof.

Megan Mull:

... "I got proof, I did it. My teachers signed off and here's the new one."

When the goal would change, usually a set of directions would go home to the parent on how they could alter the game or the activity a little bit to meet the new goal. Parents enjoyed that communication, knowing what their child was learning, and knowing just exactly what they needed to be working on with their child at home. That's something parents always say is, "Well, how can I help so-and-so at home?" A lot of times, teachers are a little lost for words because there's many things running through their minds and they're kind of put on the spot. Whereas if they already have something in place with that parent, they can say, "Well, keep working on this with them."

Ashley Mengwasser:

Right. I love what you said earlier about mile markers, mile marker 1, mile marker 50, along the way because we're also teaching students not that there's a destination that you arrive at if you reach one goal, but you're going to reach a leg and then there's a new goal. Learning builds on itself. You talked about that hit of enthusiasm, excitement, and praise when we're celebrating a win, we're reaching a small victory, it aids in motivation and it propels them forward toward reaching those core standards that we're looking at in a larger goals.

How did goal-setting affect the school? Did the school get involved in any goals? I know we've got educators involved, parents involved. Did administrators support students along their goals? Did students get to post in the hallways some of the goals that they had met? How did this goal-setting mantra take over a school campus?

Megan Mull:

In every hallway, we had a tree painted. It was part of the Leader in Me. As students met their goal, they got to put their little jet airplane up there to show that they mastered that goal for the year. Of course, it was the grade-level goal. If they got their jet up there, then that meant they met their goals throughout the entire year. It was just a great way for them to show off like, "Yes, I did it. My name is up there. I'm flying high." We did it for reading and for math, so there were two different colors so you could know if it was reading or math that they met, or both.

There was just a lot of common language. I think is what strengthened that amongst teachers is talking about how to set goals. That'll carry over into next year. Now, the goal-setting as a whole factored into the school CCRPI plan and data, and so looking at moving X number of students to raise scores. Students were selected very carefully for this last year to help with that CCRPI data and progress them forward to help the whole school.

Ashley Mengwasser:

I love this visual signifier in the hallways of, "Look, I achieved my goal," which promotes a lot of student pride. You're dealing with the very young ones, the youngest of the learners in the elementary environment. Academic goals is one thing, but I imagine that this could rub off in some positive behavioral goal-setting for students. Is behaviors part of the goal-setting that you've done?

Megan Mull:

It was not a direct part of our WIGS. Our WIGS focus was on academic goals, but behavior goals are still important and are very different than academic goals because, a lot of times, those are much shorter. You're looking for students to meet behavior goals that might be for a class segment. During math, they acted in this way, and during science. Or it might be by the half a day, morning versus afternoon. Then with some of the older students, it might be for the whole day and then the week. Those are going to be much more short term in-the-moment goals, if you would, whereas the academic goals are going to be stretched out usually across two weeks or multiple months.

Ashley Mengwasser:

Why do you feel like there is a need for behavioral goals?

Megan Mull:

We've seen a huge uptick in behaviors since COVID. You have these young children coming to you who stayed home, never went to preschool, never went to pre-K, were home with older siblings while their parents worked all day. There's a lot of students who are coming to us who just don't know how to behave, especially out in public. It's our job to help teach them how to behave.

Ashley Mengwasser:

Be exemplars, just with their academic goals.

Megan Mull:

Absolutely.

Ashley Mengwasser:

Then what is your recommendation for educators if they are seeing some behaviors that are interfering with the learning? Is it implement behavior-related goals as needed? What do you recommend?

Megan Mull:

My first recommendation would always be to talk to your MTSS facilitator or RTI coordinator, get some ideas from them, and start the student on some kind of behavior goals/intervention as quickly as you can. Because, of course, the longer those behaviors carry out, the bigger impact it's going to have on their academics.

Ashley Mengwasser:

Talk about the transformations you're seeing in the student, in the teacher because of the personalized learning journey that really starts with goal-setting.

Megan Mull:

I think it gives teachers direction. You're given standards at the beginning of the year and you're like, "This is where you need to be by the end of the year." That's overwhelming and that's a lot. But not every student is ready for those standards and can attain those standards at that moment. I think that personalized goal-setting gave them a chance to sort of breathe and be like, "Okay, it's all right for me to take a step back, meet the student where they're at, help them fill those gaps, and ultimately meet that goal."

Then on the other hand, I think for students, it felt like they were seen, they were heard. "I know I'm not doing this. I know I'm not there yet. I just need a little extra love, a little extra attention, a little extra support, and I can get there." That makes a huge difference for students. If they can learn how to do that earlier on, hopefully, as a district, as a school, we can lower dropout rates when kids get to high school and raise attendance. I mean, kids are more likely to come to school if they're feeling confident in what they're doing. All of a sudden, that stomach ache is not a big problem anymore, right? They're going to push through. They're going to be there. Parents are more likely to send them every day too because a child's excited. They want to go.

Not even that academic component of it, but that emotional component of education, that sometimes is overlooked from teachers just because there is so much other stuff on their plate. But we got to make students feel confident in learning, excited to learn, and want to learn, and we do that by helping them build that confidence and meet them where they're at.

Ashley Mengwasser:

Well said. Being seen is such a key need for a student because they look up to their teachers, they respect their teachers, especially when they're so young in elementary school. That's another trusted adult in their life. If their teacher sees them and is proud of them, that's just boosting the motivation factor.

Megan Mull:

Absolutely, yes.

Ashley Mengwasser:

How about leaving us with a few of your favorite goal-setting techniques that can help set teachers up for success as they begin goal-setting with personalized learning?

Megan Mull:

Sure. My two biggest pieces are start small. You don't have to take on all grade levels. You don't have to take on all students at one time. Pick what your focus is, stick with it, and give it time. You can't just pick something, be like, "Oh, it's not working," and change it. Give it some time, but start small. Start with two students. Start with two students who need the same goal.

That also ties into keep it simple. Your focus is going to be on reading. Pick three students who need similar skills for reading, and work with those three. It helps you build confidence in goal-setting and your ability to help students, and that's ultimately what teachers have to be. They have to be strong at it too, not just the students.

Ashley Mengwasser:

Straight from the horse's mouth. Thanks, Megan Mull. You have made goal-setting sound so simple -- I know that was one of your words -- but also intentional. No stampede necessary. No teacher is going to get plowed over by their students. Best of luck this year at The Grove as an eagle.

Megan Mull:

Thank you.

Ashley Mengwasser:

Do you actually know there's a John Denver song—we were talking about music earlier—called Eagles & Horses. Have you heard about it?

Megan Mull:

No, but I'm going to have to go listen to it now.

Ashley Mengwasser:

Yeah, it feels like this is the time in your life. It's very on-brand for you.

Megan Mull:

Yes, sure is.

Ashley Mengwasser:

Thank you for being here, Megan.

Megan Mull:

Thank you.

Ashley Mengwasser:

Our educators listening, practicing goal-setting with students works motivational wonders. Propelled by their goals, student ownership swells and the PL becomes self-directed. You're a great teacher. You truly only have to lead them to water. With goal-setting, they'll drink, like Megan said. Hope you return next week for a new episode with, sadly, fewer horse puns, but more fabulous strategies for personalized learning. I'm your host, Ashley Mengwasser, galloping away. Goodbye for now.

The personalized learning series of classroom conversations is funded by the GRE4T Initiative. In the fall of 2020, the Georgia Department of Education made a commitment to student-centered approaches through Georgia's Restart, Embrace, Engage, Expand, and Enhance Learning with Technology Initiative.