Focused Finish: MGCs Aimed at Purpose, Goals, and Growth

Dear colleague,

Thanks for those who've supported my work via registering for the Focused Finished Seminar (details/registration here). It makes what I do possible — truly.

Recently I took a day off school to visit Ravenna, OH. While there, I led colleagues through the student motivation/engagement methodology found in The Will to Learn.

Whenever I present on The Will to Learn, many become enamored of Strategy #1: Moments of Genuine Connection (MGCs). Part of me loves this because MGCs are foundational to so much; part of me gets worried that folks think I'm giving a “school is all about relationships” kind of message. (I'm not.)

For today's purposes, though, I don't want to wax philosophical on MGCs. Let's just focus on this question: If I wanted to move my MGC game forward one more click between now and year's end, what would I do?

Well as it happens, I've got a mini-project going right now toward that end. It is very simple.

Step 1: Students respond to a set of writing prompts.

My students are used to writing for 10 minutes at the start of class. One day recently, they walked in and I told them the following:

Between now and spring break, I'd like to check in with each of you regarding where you see yourself on your educational journey. Please respond to today's prompts honestly and with as much detail as you'd care to share. I'm excited for our check-ins.

(This year my students have used this term “check-in” to refer to my habit of pulling them aside for MGCs. I think it's a good student-developed term for what is happening from their perspective.)

The students then completed the following assignment on Canvas:

Who You Are, Where You're Going, and What You're Doing to Get There

The below prompts will be used by Mr. Stuart for a brief check-in with you between now and spring break. Settle in for some reflective, honest writing. Please note that what you write will NOT be public — only Mr. Stuart will see it.

1. Who are you as a person? What I mean is:
   • What kind of stuff in life is most important about you?
   • What do you think your purpose on this Earth is? 
2. Where are you trying to go? What I mean is:
   • What are your goals for high school?
   • And how about after high school?
   • (Don't limit yourself to only job stuff; zoom out as much as you'd like. This is you explaining your current idealized vision for your life.)
3. What are you doing to help you get there?
4. Is anything that you're doing hurting your chances of getting there?
5. Share anything else you'd like Stuart to know for your check-in.

(Note: there are lots of things happening here that help to motivate students. E.g., when I ask them who they are as a person/what their values are, this is leveraging the power present in the Values Affirmation research [p. 228 of WTL] and Valued Within exercises [Strategy #6 in WTL, pp. 157-165]. Practically everything I do at this point in my practice is built on the Five Key Beliefs methodology.)

Step 2: Read/notes/MGC, one student at a time.

With a printed out, fresh clipboard sheet, I start pulling one to two students aside per class period. In all but fifth hour (fifth hour is after lunch and a bit prone to getting off task), I do the pull-aside in the hallway while students are engaged in independent practice (e.g., the daily 10-minute writing warm-up I mentioned earlier). In fifth hour, I kneel beside the student at their desk for the check-in, enabling me to keep a closer presence with the rest of the room.

Before pulling a student aside, I read what they wrote in Canvas. About 90% of the time, they'll have written something that helps me know what to say or ask about. I go in directions like:

• “You wrote that you value ____________. Tell me more about that.”
• “You've set a goal of _____________. How'd you select that?”
• “You wrote that you're struggling with the self-inhibiting habit of ___________. I get it. Any ideas how to improve?”
• “You wrote that you're not sure of your purpose yet. What good do you think you're doing on this earth today or this week?”

(I've been especially drawn to the questions like that last one regarding purpose, as the student motivation apocalypse is making purpose and meaning even more powerful than they've always been. It's the whole bottom area of the Rainbow of Why thing. It acts like a fission reactor for human motivation and flourishing, especially in our times.)

Step 3: As you go, note how you feel, what you observe, how students respond.

The basic strategy behind a Focused Finish mini-project is this:

• You're doing something you believe is important, something that will move your teacher skill forward, expand your soul, deepen your practice.
• You've chosen it based on where you are today, not where you were at year's beginning or middle (this helps with keeping a grip on your own autonomy and professional agency).
• You set a SMART goal, a can't-miss goal, and a moonshot goal (examples below).

Examples of the three kinds of goals:

For the year-end MGC project I outline above, here are those three types of goals:

• SMART goal: By spring break (4/3/25), I want to attempt an MGC with each of my students. Where I can, I'll use their writing prompts as jumping off points. (When I set this goal, we had about 17 days of school left. For my largest classes of 35 students, this meant a cadence of two per day would get the job done.)
• Can't-miss goal: Learn something about a student or about teaching. (Literally impossible to miss this goal when you attempt to connect with 134 students, provided that you're doing so with at least a bit of mindfulness and presence at least some of the time.)
• Moonshot goal: At least one student will have their life trajectory positively affected by this brief interaction. (Not guaranteed but, from what I know of reality, incredibly likely.)

These three kinds of goals are tremendous at cultivating the Five Key Beliefs in your own soul. The moonshot goal helps with Value; the can't-miss goal locks in Efficacy; the SMART goal grows Effort.

(Note: I'll be talking a bit more about how the Five Key Beliefs work in our teacher souls during the Focused Finish Seminar — you can register here.)

Well, colleague — that's all I've got for today. I hope it helps.

Now, on to providing feedback on student writing…

Teaching right beside you,

DSJR

P.S. Folks who register for the Focused Finish Seminar by next Monday get to ask me anything.

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