Managing one's own behavior

After reading chapter 11, I realized how important it is to teach students how to manage their own behavior. Teachers at all levels can help their students learn goal setting. I realized that I have been teaching goals to my students without even knowing it! I work in a preschool class and potty training is a goal most of the students want to achieve. All three of the adults in the classroom make going potty a huge deal and show how proud we are of the students when they use the potty and so do the students. The students want to be a big boy or girl and wear cool underwear so they strive to achieve their goal. The students that do not want to achieve this goal don't until they are ready. We can not force a child to use the restroom, when they are ready and want to achieve the goal they usually can train within a few short weeks. I also notice in my classroom that lots of students use self-instruction, including myself. My students talk their way through problem solving when something goes wrong or they are working on a tough puzzle. We have an ABC puzzle and the student's usually say the letter then look all over the puzzle to find where it goes. I know they are using self instruction skills while putting the puzzle together.