School Year Review

Does your school year end soon? With summer near, lots of kids are thinking about summer vacation, camp or just relaxing.

This is also a great time to think about your school year.

School review

Reviewing the last year can be fun. You can remember your favorite moments and be proud of all you accomplished.

Thinking about these things can also help you set some goals for the summer and for the school year to come.

Dreaming about your future and setting goals help you understand time in different ways. You learn to:

• manage your time (getting homework and chores done, getting to school on time), and

• think about your lifetime (what you’d like to do, and the kind of person you’d like to be).

Setting goals also teaches you to work with others and to take a large task and break it into smaller steps.

Dreams and goals

A dreamis something that you hope or wish for — maybe something that seems out of reach.

A goal is something you hope to achieve. You might start with a dream and turn it into a goal by deciding on specific steps to reach it. A goal may be more practical, or sensible, than a dream, but both are important.

Looking back and ahead

Try this exercise at home or in your classroom. Take a sheet of paper. Draw a line down the middle. On the left side, write What

I’ve Achieved. On the right side, write What I Want to Achieve.

What I’ve Achieved

In this column, try to: • identify your favorite project from the year; • remember the funniest moment; • recall books you read and enjoyed; • name something you did that you’re proud of; • decide what subject you improved most in; • decide what your favorite subject was.

What I Want to Achieve

In this column, think about your goals for the short term, or not too far in the future. What would you like to do this summer? Can you help your family plan a vacation? Can you finish a project that you’ve been working on?

What about in school? What do you hope to learn next year?

photo courtesy Pasco County Schools