The New Year is upon us. One more year down and another year to go. It seems like we blink and the year has come and gone. As I reflect upon this past year, the successes, challenges, and failures, I always come to realize that sometimes we are exactly where we are meant to be, even if we don’t realize it at the time. But how many times have you created a New Year’s goal or resolution and dropped it within the first month or two? Why is that? The intentions are there and are good. We start off feeling super motivated and excited about the possibilities and opportunities to come, but somehow with the shorter, cold days here on the east coast in January, there are excuses to let those goals fall by the wayside. Those hopes and dreams are short-lived for many, including me. So how do we help students hold on to their hopes and dreams in the New Year and strive to reach their goals with full steam ahead?
Revisiting and reflecting on previously made goals is an eye-opener for students. Each year as we head back to school, we plan our hopes and dreams for the school year. As I get to know my students’ strengths and weaknesses, I guide them through the setting SMART goals process. If you haven’t read my post, Setting SMART Students Goals, you could read it here. As we adjust to one another and settle in, the New Year approaches before we know it. After the hustle and bustle of the holiday season and its excitement, we join together after the New Year to revisit and reflect upon the goals that we made. We ask ourselves if we have reached our goal and if not, why? Do we need to adjust the steps in our action plan? What are our hopes and dreams for the New Year? Lots to think about, right? Well, it just so happens that many students forget about their goals, while some may have met them and are ready to move forward with new ones.
It’s important to talk about the new year as being a blank slate or an open book ready for new opportunities, possibilities, challenges, and yes… failures. Without challenges and failures, learning can’t take place. For it is those things that help us strive to reach our hopes and dreams (see my Learning From Failure project here.) This mindset must be taught and practiced by helping students build confidence as they face challenges. We all have the power to write our own stories by the choices we make. Making good choices for ourselves helps us to write the story we want for ourselves.
There’s no perfect time than the New Year to talk about how it provides another chance to get it right or to achieve something that has never been achieved before. It’s pretty exciting! Have students think about something they couldn’t do yet or thought they’d never achieve at the beginning of last year but have achieved it at some point in the year. Share and celebrate these successes and use this as motivation to get them thinking about what they hope to achieve in the upcoming new year.
Remind students that achieving hopes and dreams takes work, consistency, and dedication. And what the new year brings determines the action steps they take plus hard work to see progress, growth, and success in reaching their goals. It’s definitely not easy but what has come easily to those that have reached success?
So start the year off right with thinking about, writing about, and sharing hopes and dreams for the New Year. Teaching, modeling, planning, setting, and sticking with goals throughout the year helps students reach more goals and build confidence. Perhaps we won’t see as many goals by the wayside and will have more to celebrate at the end of another year.
To support your students with goal setting, grab setting SMART student goal resources here. To make a stunning New Year’s display, get a New Year’s banner, hopes & dreams writing template, and the quote posters you see in this post here. I added a SMART goals planning sheet and a link for digital use. And here’s a New Year One Word activity to inspire your students to set a one-word goal for the New Year. This resource now includes a link to a digital version. So many great activities to get started with!
Happy New Year!
May your year be filled with blessings, achievements, successes, and more chapters to your beautiful story!
What are your hopes and dreams for the New Year?
Related Posts:
Cultivating Mindfulness: Teaching Children To Learn From Failure
Follow me to be notified when new resources are uploaded to the Shop and join the email list to receive the latest and greatest updates, posts, and freebies!
If you like it then, pin it!
Christine Weis is a passionate educator, classroom management coach, wife, and mom of two busy boys. She enjoys teaching, writing, and creating resources for teachers.
Yes! Yes! Yes! You are developing a growth mindset in your students! The ability to make changes, work through difficulties, set goals, and adjust are important skills that your students will use throughout their lives. And, giving them the opportunity to reflect on how much they’ve grown helps build confidence and competence. Your students are blessed to have you as a teacher!
YES!!! I’m all about developing my own growth mindset as a professional educator, as well as the growth mindset of my students. Thank you for your thoughtful comment! I appreciate your kind words! Thanks for reading!
Christine at For The Love of Teachers
As a homeschooling parent, this post really appealed to me. I have been talking with my daughter about the importance of reflection and taking advantage of opportunities to begin anew. Thank you for this thoughtful article.
Oh good, I’m glad! Reflection is so important to teach young learners, along with growth mindset. It is something that needs a lot of guidance and practice. Thanks for reading!
Christine at For The Love of Teachers
I don’t know why, but I’ve never really been on board with the whole “new year, new start” idea. Maybe because I’ve seen people use it as an excuse to wait until the new year to make a change or new committment, or the idea that anytime is a good time to start over. But I do love the points you made about setting smart goals. Your students will definitely learn valuable lessons from that!
I hear ya! Some years I haven’t either and I drop some goals within the first few months of the year. But other goals I actually do see out until I reach them. I think it’s important to teach today’s students to set and strive for goals more than ever. These days we have so many things at our fingertips and at our convenience almost instantly. Good old fashioned hard work sometimes gets lost because so many students “expect.” Sometimes we fail because we are not setting, planning and seeing through with the action plan to reach our goals. Thank you so much for reading and for leaving a thoughtful comment.
Christine at For The Love of Teachers
As I read this I couldn’t help but think that for the last year or so my life has been kind of goal-less. I’m getting married in about a week and my life has revolved so much around that that nothing else seems important. So in a way, I’m kind of excited to move forward after the wedding and really think about the things I want in my life professionally and personally.
That is so common! Sometimes things or events in our life take over and get in the way of our goals BUT planning a wedding is so exciting and does need a lot of attention. Congratulations and best wishes! You and your hubby will soon set goals as a couple and as a family. Be sure to set goals for yourself too! 🙂
Thank you for reading!
Christine at For The Love of Teachers
Love this. Yes the New Year is full of new opportunities.
xoxo Christie
It sure is and that’s exciting! New opportunities and new possibilities!!! Best wishes in the New year! Thanks for reading!
Christine at For The Love of Teachers
This is really thoughtful and so important to keep the momentum going.
Thanks Blu! Thank you for reading!
Christine at For The Love of Teachers
This is so helpful for anyone to reflect on goals and look at the new year as a blank slate. Love how you are preparing to help them start off on the right foot. This was a great post! Thank you!
Thank you Erin! I appreciate your feedback and comment! 🙂
Christine at For The Love of Teachers
It’s a brilliant idea to get children to consider their goals for the new year AND to think about all the achievements they had during the previous year 🙂
Thanks Gaby! It’s so important to reflect and celebrate what we have achieved, especially when we thought it wasn’t going to happen. Thank you for reading!
Christine at For The Love of Teachers
I love new years because it means new beginning. I love your post. Thanks for sharing.
A new beginning for sure! That’s a pretty good feeling! Thanks for reading!
Christine at For The Love of Teachers
Keeping kids focused over break is key. Making good goals could help that scenario
I agree! Thanks for reading! 🙂
Christine at For The Love of Teachers
I like to treat mondays like New Years. Every week is the chance to start a new and find vigor. New years more than ever is really inspiring to pull yourself together.
What a great idea to treat Mondays like New Years. That’s a terrific outlook each week. I think I’ll try that! Thank you for sharing!
Christine at For The Love of Teachers
Yes! and Yes! It is so important to help young children learn to set goals for themselves, both academic and personal! Hopefully by doing so they will continue to have high expectations of themselves as a adults too. Celebrating your goals met is also important, and I think the writing template and the banner you created will be a perfect way to help little learners find value in the process. The SMART goal method is powerful! Thank you for sharing this! <3
Thank you so much Lori! Your feedback is so valuable and important to me. I think goal setting is so important and sometimes forgotten so it’s important to guide students along the way, especially at the beginning of the new year! Thanks for reading! Best wishes in the New Year!
Christine at For The Love of Teachers
I love the message that a new year (or a new month, a new week, a new day and even a new hour!!) can bring about change for better. There is no age limit to setting goals and teaching all the tools necessary to achieve them. I think the whole reflectional piece is important for students as it holds them accountable. I love your blog posts- I am a huge fan of your writing and content! Wonderful product and activity for students of any age!
Thank so much Megan! I value your insight and opinion. You always give such good feedback with your thoughtful comments. I agree that every moment and with every choice can bring about change and goal setting is certainly for anyone of all ages. It can be challenging to follow through with goals, which is why I think it’s so important to support students with this. Thank you for being a fan of my writing and content. That means the world to me! I appreciate collaborating with you. Your resources are amazing!! 🙂
Christine at For The Love of Teachers