BHAG!

You probably looked at the title of this blog post and thought I lost my mind, unless you are already familiar with the term. For those that are not, you are probably asking yourself, "What's a BHAG?"

BHAG is an acronym which stands for Big Hairy Audacious Goals. This acronym was coined by Jim Collins and James Porras. They are the authors of Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies. Developing a BHAG will help me to achieve my Big Hairy Audacious Goal which is to create an academic learning network with a virtual presence for academic work and social interaction. You can learn more about my innovation plan here.

I have determined that I need to transition my students from a 4-walled classroom setting to an online classroom. The online classroom will be the bridge between the 4-walled classroom and the e-portfolio. Therefore, I have created a BHAG regarding the creation of the online classroom.

I used the Fink's taxonomy of a significant learning environment to help me create the online classroom BHAG. I completed two worksheets to help me fill in the three column table created by Fink.

BHAG (Big Hairy Audacious Goal) – Overarching Course Goal

for Learners will be to establish an online learning environment for sixth grade students and continue the online format until high school graduation.

The three column table to help define that goal is below.

Now......time for some honesty. This BHAG scares me. In fact, I saved all of the work to create this BHAG, and started creating another one. It was more of a planning unit BHAG for a unit in New World History and Geography. It was a nice looking BHAG. However, I knew that it wasn't the BHAG for me because it didn't scare me. To use the unit BHAG for a blog post or a submission for my graduate studies would have been an easy way out, and it would not have been authentic. I deleted the unit BHAG and went back to the original one that you see above. Why does this BHAG scare me? I'm not sure that my classroom discussions will translate into an online classroom setting. I'm worried that my students may not be ready for deadlines. I'm worried that my students will be unwilling to complete assignments without specific directions. I'm worried that parents may be reluctant to transition to an online classroom because of internet access concerns, and/or data usage. Will the parents still think I'm an effective teacher online compared to in classroom? All of these worries are valid. All of these worries will be addressed as the need arises. Finally, my students know that I expect a lot from them. I know that if I set the bar high that they will rise to meet it, and exceed it. I need to have faith in my students, and in myself.

References:

Fink, L. Dee (2003) Creating Significant Learning Experiences: An Integrated Approach to Designing College Courses. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass

Orangutan Image. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://image.slidesharecdn.com/bighairyaudaciousgoals-100812103817-phpapp01/95/big-hairy-audacious-goals-1-728.jpg?cb=1342405815