Course Contract Review

1. What are you doing well? I am completing all my assignments on time. I have made great use of forming study groups, and my group studied over 6 hours for the test together. My brain hurts after every school day, in a growing good way. I think I'm getting smarter in the proximity of becoming a teacher, and I think I'm becoming the student that I talked about in my course contract - the student that uses class work and assignments to their advantage. I believe the information I'm learning can be useful in the future, and if I doubt the relevance of it, then I squeeze it into a method it could be useful in the future. I am getting 7 or 8 hours of sleep every night, which is great. All my class binders are very organized.
2. What are you not doing well? I am not doing the reading as well as I had originally planned to do. I didn't do as well on the exam as I would've liked to because I studied in a more rote memorization type of style rather than an applicable style. I wasn't familiar with the differences between similar concepts. I am struggling with my physical goals, and I am very tired because I'm not working out at all some weeks. I love to cook, but I haven't had time, so eating Wendy's too much is starting to take a heavy toll on my health.
3. Are you making sufficient progress on your goals? I believe my "perception of my role as a student" is definitely progressing towards a much more positive and intrinsic view. My goal to read the book is coming along, but it isn't in the time frame that would be ideal. I've never been much of a reader, so I've made grandiose improvements compared to before, but I still have need for growth in that goal. As for coming out with pieces of work that I am really proud of, I have some ideas for classroom lesson plans and activities that I'm excited about. I plan to start making a journal of all these ideas that are fleeting now, but if I had a place to keep them, I might put them to use. So many people in the cohort have great lesson and activity ideas, so I'm going to make use of these personal resources.
4. List specific things you need to change in order to meet your goals. I need to change my eating and exercising habits. I need to improve my motivation to read (my low test score may help encourage that). I need to be prompt to all my classes; I've been late a few times. I need to study for the tests in a more 'applicable' style.
5. How is your motivation? My motivation is increasing as my role as a student is becoming more clear. I can see my motivation for assignments becoming intrinsic as I begin to come up with ways to implement the lessons learned into my future as a teacher.
6. Are you focusing on mastery or performance goals? I am focusing on both mastery and performance goals. I feel balanced in the way I view my grades and my increasing knowledge towards becoming a better teacher. Does anything need to change? Yes. There is always room for change. As it gets harder and more tiring throughout the semester, it is also going to continually get harder to stay on top of things. I think that is when the performance goals will kick in to get me through, but hopefully my under-riding mastery goals will allow me to use the information throughout my future career.