There were three problems with my initial goal and monitoring document:

1: It was too distant. I had achievable proximal goals, but they were in service to a goal that involved a few too many steps. The course asked me to focus on my meta-cognition, and I could feel the overwhelming nature of my goal causing me to avoid taking even the first step.

2: My external motivation changed due to circumstances beyond my control. At the beginning of the course, the end of the inquiry project and the first few weeks of classes at my school lined up perfectly. I would have an opportunity to put my planning into action, and to receive student feedback and reflect on each class. Unfortunately, with a 3 week delay at minimum, I could no longer receive any feedback, reflect on my classes, and – worst of all – I struggled to motivate myself without a clear start date to work towards.

3: My end goal was actually outside the scope of the course. I originally thought including my end professional goal for this year was a good idea, but I can see now that it mainly prevented me from moving forward towards a more realistic goal.

This meant that my second monitoring document should 1: create a clearer, closer goal that motivates me and allows me to think it through more easily, 2: not rely on student feedback or reflections on the actual lessons themselves, and 3: be achievable within the timeframe of the course.