IND301A: Reflection on Montessori Academy and Personal Goal Setting

This report provides a comprehensive reflection on the Montessori Academy, focusing on personal goal setting and career planning. The author, working as an educator in an NGO, aims to become a Montessori teacher and uses the GROW and SMART models to structure their goals. The report details the importance of goal setting, the GROW model (Goal, Reality, Options, Will), and the SMART goals approach (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, Timely). Personal assessments are included, highlighting experiences in student management, performance management, and performance reviews within the NGO. The author's experiences are used to demonstrate the skills that can be useful in a Montessori Academy. The report concludes with the author's aspirations to materialize their career goals. References are provided to support the reflections and methods used.

Running head: REFLECTION ON MONTESSORI ACADEMY
REFLECTION ON MONTESSORI ACADEMY
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author Note:

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To acquire the dreamt position in the personal life, it is important to set and plan for
goal strategy that will help in fulfilling the dream. Every successful individuals and
entrepreneurs in their personal life has followed this, and the result is very evident and much
visible in front of the whole world. Setting goals provides a person with an inhibition, and a
zeal to achieve what one has desired for a long time (Lent, 2013). Therefore, I would like to
start this reflection with the importance of setting goals in personal life, in order to have a
successful career and to acquire a position in the dreamt professional field. Firstly, setting
goals provide an individual with clarity related to the goal or the vision that one is perceiving.
As according to the industrialists, first it should happen in your head and then in reality, and
until and unless one is not able to visualise the future position in the mind, then it can never
happen in reality. Goal also, pushes one forward. The goal refers to strategizing and
structuring for the achievement of the perceived profession and serves as a motivating factor
(Zepeda, 2013). Goal setting also provides one to narrow down his or her approaches and
further focus on the prime points. Goal setting also helps in being accountable for the actions,
and be committed to the professional goal that one has been perceiving for, and thus a goal
planning helps an individual to not to take any wrong moves and deviate from the vision.
The GROW Model:
I presently, am working in an NGO, in the role of an educator, and I want to pursue
my further career as a Montessori teacher. I have always seen myself as a teacher, since
childhood. While growing up I had always practiced at home with my friends and with my
dolls. Therefore, in order to develop a goal I will follow the GROW Model. The GROW
model is a simple but very effective tool that can be used to frame and structure the goals and
evaluate the achievable factor of the goals. The GROW refer to Goal, Reality, Options, Will.
Therefore, the goal section helps one to structure the goals. The reality refers to the
evaluation of the goals of whether the selected goals are achievable. The Reality also helps in

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focusing on the current situation of an individual, that is, how much he or she is near to
perceiving the goals. Options refers to the things that can be done. The option also refer to
analyse the factors that can make the goals easily achievable or perceivable (Lennard,2013).
Therefore, the option factor will facilitate one individual to focus on the available options and
therefore structure the goal perceiving plan accordingly. Lastly, the Will refers to how much
an individual is ready to take all the initiatives to achieve the goal. It is the most important
factor to be analysed. The will refers to the self- perception, which is, how much on is willing
to and is ready to sacrifice to make the goal happen (Yates, 2013).
Therefore, to plan for the goals, I will analyse the goals through this GROW model,
which will provide me an insight regarding myself. However, to plan for the goals, or to
structure the goals, I will follow the SMART Goals approach or model.
The SMART Model:
The SMART goal approach refer to the goal plan or structure that helps an individual
to strategically plan the goals through the five elements consisted in the SMART goal
approach. The SMART acronym stands for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and
Timely, thus, through all these five elements the SMART approach enables an individual to
focus on putting efforts and therefore, achieving the goals. Specific refers to the goals being
defined, clear and unambiguous (Letaifa, 2015). The Measurable factor refers to the goals
having specific criteria. If the goals do not have specific criteria, then it will be difficult to
setting the target and therefore meeting the same. The third factor is Achievable, which refers
to the understanding of how much are the gaols achievable. A goal can be achievable only
when it will be in accordance with one’s educational understandings, and will fall in line with
the experiences that one has. The fourth factor is realistic, that is, whether the goal is realistic
enough to be achieved. The factors, achievable and realistic, go hand in hand. If the goals are

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not realistic, ten they cannot be achievable, similarly, if the goals are not achievable, then that
simply means that the goals are not realistic enough to be achieved. Lastly, the factor timely.
To set any goal, the time management should be analysed as it is the most integral point of
any goal planning. The basic aspect of a goal is, that, it is to be met within a given time,
therefore, in order to achieve the goal, the time for achievement should be measured, and
further, the works are to be done accordingly (Rathanayaka et al., 2014).
Personal Assessment:
Therefore, such an approach will be followed by me, while planning for the goals. In
this notion, it is important to mention that while working with the NGO, I have gathered a
variety of experience, which can advance my position for the Montessori job. I had the
understanding that in order to gain a position as a teacher in a school, I must have some first
experience in a similar filed, therefore, when I came across of such a situation I had readily
accepted the offer and had gathered experiences in there different fields.
Student Management: I was given a handful of fifty students, whom I had to manage on my
own, and would have to provide the basic knowledge of English and Wellness. I had
successfully managed the fifty students, single handedly, and on the last day, upon an
evaluation test, they has scored greatly.
Performance Management: On the last day of the workshop, there were delegates who were
supposed to come and I had to plan for a drama involving all the students. So I had chosen
Romeo and Juliet, and the students had staged the whole performance very well, and got
appreciation from the delegates.
Performance Review: The organization was supposed to provide us all with certificates upon
our performances. In the performance review I have acquired some great comments from the
administrative department, especially on my teaching pattern, communication skill and

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managerial skills. However, it reflected that I have to work more upon my critical analysis
skill.
Therefore, the NGO work had provided me with grate and versatile experiences,
which can be useful in a Montessori Academy, and hence I am being hopeful, that I can
finally materialise my goal.

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References:
Lennard, D. (2013). Coaching Models: A Cultural Perspective: A Guide to Model
Development: for Practitioners and Students of Coaching. Routledge.
Lent, R. W. (2013). Career‐life preparedness: Revisiting career planning and adjustment in
the new workplace. The Career Development Quarterly, 61(1), 2-14.
Letaifa, S. B. (2015). How to strategize smart cities: Revealing the SMART model. Journal
of Business Research, 68(7), 1414-1419.
Rathnayaka, A. D., Potdar, V. M., Dillon, T., Hussain, O., & Kuruppu, S. (2014). Goal-
oriented prosumer community groups for the smart grid. IEEE Technology and
Society Magazine, 33(1), 41-48.
Yates, J. (2013). The career coaching handbook. Routledge.
Zepeda, S. J. (2013). Professional development: What works. Routledge.