Whether it is professional or personal, assessment matters. I thought about this today as I looked ahead to a personal assessment coming up. I asked myself, What can I do to be ready for this assessment?
Perhaps the love of assessments came from my many years as a student. I rarely fretted with regard to tests and that's probably because I was a fairly good test taker. I liked challenging myself to do well on those school assessments. Also as an educator, I enjoyed most assessments because they served as goal posts for my teaching and professional work. Those assessments gave me a broad brush look at what was working and what was not working. The assessments provided a good point of reflection which helped me to plan the next goals, professional learning, and activity to come. For better or worse, I never pressured myself to get top scores, but instead saw the value in assessments as a tool to provide an honest overview of what was going on.
So as I plan for the upcoming assessment, what will I do?
First, I'll outline what I have to do to earn a high score on this assessment. As with most goals, this assessment success requires a healthy, positive routine.
To meet the assessment requirements, I'll need to be explicit about the needed actions. To be explicity, it helps to write down what I need to do.
Promising myself a reward if I hit the mark also helps to create motivation and enlisting the support of a few loved ones who want to see me succeed helps too.
The assessment occurs in about eight weeks--that's a good, manageable timeline for goal setting and assessment success. Let's see what happens.