Lesson 3

| Main Menu | How to Join | Lessons | Description | Curriculum | Resources |

Friends,

Your dream project is well under way. You are building web pages that are a digital portfolio of your outstanding work. You want to be sure to continue your successes. To monitor your progress you must make assessments every step of the way. A key to your success is your willingness to step back, revisit your ideas and recognize if and when you must revise your plans. During Lesson 3 we will highlight strategies for ongoing assessment.

Are you enjoying the project?

The activities and discussions below are suggestions. Use these as a guide for completing the program. You may always substitute other activities that are more suitable for your needs.

Ongoing assessment...

What are you assessing?

1. Personal goals

   Examine the process you went through as you and your peers worked together to design a dream plan that contained pieces of each of your dreams. Think back to Module 1 and the soul searching you did as you crystallized your own personal dreams.

   You and your team members are working toward the success of a common goal that will benefit those who live on our planet. As individuals on this team you, too, will realize personal goals. You cannot work for the common good of humanity and remain the same. You will grow in wisdom and experience. Spend some time now to reflect on this process and your own personal growth. Share it with the other participants in the I Have a Dream program.

   1. Is this process an easy one? What has been difficult and what is not so hard to do? Do you find that negotiation and comprise are a natural way of working or do you find them difficult?
   2. What have you learned about working together as a team, as youth from different cultures, with different languages and age ranges? What causes you the most difficulty and what brings success?
   3. How have your grown as a responsible world citizen from the beginning of the program until now? In what ways? How are you different?
   4. Have you come to new realizations? Share those with everyone.
   5. Have your visions for your dreams changed or branched out into new directions?

   Each team member should make a graphic organizer and assess personal goals and growth during the I Have a Dream program. Below is a sample with suggested growth areas. You should adapt your organizer to reflect your specific personal goals.

   Don't stop with the checks in a box marked "Yes" or "Working toward." Be specific and:

   1. verify each "Yes" with specific examples
   2. confirm each "Working toward" with examples of how you are trying to meet your goals.

   Reflect and discuss your growth assessment during team meetings or via e-mail to your team list. Your team will only be as strong and successful as each member.

   Assessing Personal Growth
   Areas of Growth	Yes	Working toward
   1. Are you taking ownership and responsibility for the scope of your learning?
   2. Are you developing a sense of inquiry and willingness to learn new things?
   3. Are you engaged in deep thinking and creation of new ideas and original viewpoints?
   4. Do you respect the opinions and judgments of others whose age, language and culture are not the same as yours?
   5. Are you open and positive to new learning situations?
   6. Are you gaining a deeper and more immediate understanding of world situations and the people whose lives are touched by them?

2. Team goals

   Your dream project goals were defined in the early days of this program. In the first lesson of Module 4 we encourage you to revisit these goals to make sure that all team members are focused on them as your project begins.

   1. Are you on the right path?

      During the implementation phase of your project it is necessary to engage in ongoing assessment of your progress toward your goals. You don't want to wait too long to determine if you are on the right path. Make sure you that all of your actions are taking your team efforts in a positive direction toward your goals.

      Example: Assessing Project Goals
      Goal: To help raise the literacy rate in The Gambia by bringing Kidlink to this country
      Objective	Progress	Challenges	Possible Solutions
      To introduce Kidlink to educational leaders in Gambia	communicating with the Ministry of Education in Gambia and Africa Educational Trust	lack of translations of Kidlink materials in indigenous languages [note: English is official language]	search for locals who could translate "Who am I?" into Mandinka. Seek funding from donors to AET

   2. Dealing with challenges

      For every objective toward your goal you will meet challenges or obstacles. How are you meeting these challenges?

      1. Prioritize your challenges - which are important and which are immediate needs?
      2. Define the challenge - where, when, how, why is it happening?
      3. Who owns the challenge? - who can best overcome it?
      4. Examine the causes - avoid blaming, look for simple facts
      5. Explore alternative solutions - seek advice from team members and coaches
      6. Choose the best solution and begin again - don't waste time
      7. Monitor and assess the new solution - is the challenge being met? Has the problem disappeared or resolved itself?

Reaching your goals

1. How do you define success?

   As a team discuss the meaning of success for your dream project. You will not save the world in 8 months. Set reasonable definitions of success for your team to avoid disappointment and frustration.

2. How do you measure success?

   Use your definitions of success to create the rubric below. Place your criteria for "Fair," "Good," and "Excellent" in the boxes and then score your efforts periodically during your project. Score and date your assessments and make them available to your complete team.

   Rubric for Defining Success

   Objective	1 Fair	2 Good	3 Excellent	Score
   To introduce Kidlink to educational leaders in The Gambia	Made only a few attempts to do the task	Made several attempts to do the task and did follow ups	Involved in the task, doing follow ups, working on a revised plan for continued progress
   Total score for dream project (date ________)

3. How will projects be evaluated.

   At the end of this project judges will evaluate projects and awards will be given. To take that into consideration while working on the project it might be good to see how judges will evaluate projects, look at their scoring rubrics.

The next steps...

1. A project over time

   Your team has been engaged quite some time in the task of taking a dream project and making it a reality. You have been watching and assessing its development and now must decide if this project will continue and for how long. Does your team have the resources and time to continue these efforts? Have you involved sponsors and support members to assist you? Do you have a recruitment plan ready to gather new members when needed? Discuss this among your team.

2. Go for the gold!
   "Shoot for the moon, if you miss you'll still be in the stars."
   - Gene Donohue

   In the next Module you will evaluate your project and make plans to continue it or not. You will also discuss the reality of funding to make your dream real!