Trophy goals — the simplest way to run the core course
Give the class one trophy target, put the live board on the projector, and let every student find their own route to it. Plus teacher awards for the work that deserves them.
The core Python course has always rewarded students with trophies as they complete steps. This update turns those trophies into the simplest way to set and run work.
One target, many routes
A trophy goal gives the whole class a single target: twenty trophies before the bell, fifty this lesson, sixty by next lesson. Any step on the pathway counts towards it, so each student earns theirs from the steps that are right for them. The student consolidating Unit 2 and the student pushing into Unit 8 are working towards the same number, and both can get there.
Every student starts from their own baseline, taken when the goal begins, so nobody is carried by past work and nobody is punished for it.
This is how most classes in the pilot now run the core course: a goal for the lesson, a goal for the week's homework, a bigger one for the holidays. No picking individual steps, no chasing completion by hand. Set the number, and the course does the rest.
The board
Every goal has a board built for the front-of-class screen: one tile per student, live progress bars, class progress at the top. Open it in a new tab, switch to presentation mode, and put it on the projector. It refreshes itself as students make progress.
What teachers report is the quiet middle of the class moving more than usual. The board shows progress towards a personal target, not a ranking, so for once the scoreboard includes everyone.
Teacher awards
Some things deserve recognition that automatic marking cannot give: an elegant solution, a student who helped a classmate, real persistence on a hard problem. Teachers can award trophies directly, in one tap, from the class view or a student's record. Awards sit alongside earned trophies in the student's total, and every award is recorded.
And when the lesson ends
Trophies are also why the course keeps going after the bell. Students carry on at home, unprompted, because the next step is always clear and the progress is always visible. Goals just give that momentum somewhere to point.
New to setting goals? The guide takes two minutes: Set work with a trophy goal.