In my recent reading of The Writing on the Classroom Wall, I found a couple of quotes to be interesting. The first reminded me of a watercolor painting.
The clearer your goal is, the nearer you are to it.
Last weekend, I saw such works of art at Silver Dollar City's fall festival. In one booth, there were large photographs displayed. They were bright and beautiful images of land- and waterscapes. Upon closer inspection, I could see more clearly that these were not photographs at all; the images were painted by an artist using watercolor paints. Up close, I could appreciate the talent and time spent in creating the images. In fact, the artist was working on a new painting nearby. From a distance, we don't see the intricacies of our goals, but as we get closer details become clearer to us.
 | Attaching the word "by" to a desired outcome lets me set bigger, riskier goals. In our class, we make weekly goals. Students use our G.R.O.S.S. outline. Steve Wyborney touches on this by suggesting that we make a goal with the word by. He means we must think about how we are going to strive and not simply about what we want to achieve. In out G.R.O.S.S. outline, we also think about the obstacles to our efforts, as well as any tools of support we can identify. In all of this, our objective is clarity. |
