The Objective
“Students With A Goal” is an organization that aspires to help students create, modify, and sustain S.M.A.R.T. goals. Goal setting is an essential process for students to become successful. Research shows that students who set goals and maintain them achieve higher success in their academics, life decisions, future careers, and ultimately decreases the chances of dropping out of school. With the high dropout rate that is prevalent in the United States, many children find themselves with few options in life. These children are turning to violence, drugs, and negative influences that impact the country financially, socially, and culturally.
Helping students connect the relevance of setting goals, such as obtaining an education, to their success in life will be crucial to America’s next generation. By providing students with an opportunity to set goals and allow them to engage in a holistic learning environment using their head, heart, and hands, all students will achieve success in the 21st century.
Educating the Head, Heart, and Hands of our students should be the primary goal for all teachers, parents, and community stakeholders. What does it mean to educate the head, heart, and hands and will it provide students with a well-rounded education once they graduate from high school?
Head, Heart & Hands
Head – We must engage our students to think with their minds. They must be able to link complex systems and theories of all subjects to the current reality they are in. They should be able to not only recall and regurgitate information, but also be able to know how the information integrates itself with similar parts of all subject matter. They should be knowledgeable in a variety of fields, which include their core subjects and fine arts respectively.
Heart – We must help students to learn how to value other cultures, respect themselves and others that are different from them. They must learn how to possess self-worth and confidence. Parents and teachers should reinforce the common values and ethical standards that children learn at a very young age. Students must believe in themselves and know they can make a difference in the world around them.
Hands – Students must be given hands-on tasks and performance based instruction to learn and retain key concepts of skills needed to succeed in the world. They should be given the opportunity to find strength in experiences that create lifelong understanding and memories of their experiences that books alone cannot produce. By giving students an example, allowing them to be exposed to what they are learning, and allowing them to experience it for themselves will create a relevant, a real-world experience for them to show others.
Meet the Director
“I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”
– Maya Angelou
Anthony M. Chiles
Director
Anthony Chiles currently serves as an administrator in the Burke County Public School System in Waynesboro, GA. He has taught music education at the middle and high school levels before moving into administration. Currently in his sixth year of administration, he has worked with in all levels of administration in the K-12 public school system.
Mr. Chiles also works in school improvement with AdvancED, the continuous improvement organization that accredits schools and other agencies alike. He is also certified as a national SWIS (School-Wide Information System) Facilitator, which enables educators to use and sustain Positive Behavior Intervention and Supports software to influence how schools support student behavior.
Mr. Chiles has his bachelors of Music Education from Berry College and a Masters and Specialist in Educational Leadership from Georgia College and State University.