It’s the time of year where we look back and reflect. What were the good things? Struggles? Did I meet the goals I set for myself at the beginning of the year? I invite you to also do this with your teaching practice. Let this be the year where you set SMART goals for yourself as a teaching professional. SMART goals came from the business world. What makes them different and more effective is the different elements. They are Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-Bound. If you set SMART teaching goals, they can go from being a teaching goal to becoming a teaching practice. Isn’t that what we want all our goals to do, make us better? How can we set these SMART goals? “A 2015 study by psychologist Gail Matthews showed when people wrote down their goals, they were 33% more successful in achieving them than those who formulated outcomes in their heads.” (Price-Mitchell 2018). Let’s grab our pens and do this together.

How do I even begin setting SMART GOALS?

First, brainstorm a list of areas you feel you could improve on. I’ll go first: incorporating movement into my lessons, having an extension activity for all my math lessons, more student-led research projects, better routines for transition times, more engaging lessons, learning more about the science of reading, participating in a book study with my peers on how to increase student engagement. There is never a lack of learning and growth opportunities as a teacher! When I was doing my teacher training, I got some great advice. My mentor teacher told me that as she was lesson planning, she knew she could not have superstar lessons for every subject every day, so she set a goal for herself to have one superstar lesson per subject per week. This made the goal of lesson planning manageable, and it was through this that by the end of each year there was a bank of engaging, effective lessons that could be used year after year, and each year it grew exponentially.

I have created my list so… now what?

Look at your list now and think about which of the areas you want to focus on. Think of how it could be a SMART goal. Can you make it specific? For example, I will have at least one student-led research project once every 9 weeks. Next, is it measurable? There will be at least one project per 9 weeks. Check. Now let’s get to the nitty-gritty. Is it achievable? When you are thinking of your goal, think of what work is going to be required on your part. Is this doable? Are you being realistic? Make sure you set a goal that you can achieve in the time you have given yourself. The next step is asking yourself, “is it relevant?” Will this improve student learning? No one knows what your students need better than you do. Are you looking to further engage them, make them independent learners, give them opportunities for authentic inquiry and research? Thinking about this is a good way to confirm that the goal you have chosen is a good one. Lastly, make sure it is time-bound. You don’t want your goal to be vague. For example, I am going to be a better reading teacher. That is a great idea but how will you know when you will be a better reading teacher. To follow the example we started with, it is time-bound because we have an expectation that something will take place EVERY nine weeks.

Is it important to share these ideas with my students?

By looking at these 5 components of a SMART goal and using them to write your goal down you are stepping in the right direction to get that goal accomplished and have it improve your teaching practice. Do you want to take this process even further? Teach it to your students. An article in Edutopia talks about the importance of teaching resourcefulness to students. Children learn to be resourceful through learning the stories of resourceful people. “What did they do? Why? How did they accomplish their goals?” (Price-Mitchell 2015). After looking at how others made goals and achieved them, they can then use the SMART goal model to make their own goals. This could be a great exercise to start out the new year. Share with your students your SMART goal and get them to write out SMART goals of their own. At the end of the year, you can all analyze how you met your goal!

 References:

Locke Edwin & Gary Latham. “Goal Setters Perform Better.” Northpass, Nick Santaniello, The Northpass Blog, 05 Oct. 2017. https://www.northpass.com/blog/smart-goals-template-for-strategic-and-data-driven-managers. 16 Dec. 2021.

Price-Mitchell, Marilyn. “Goal-Setting Is Linked to Higher Achievement | Psychology ...” Psychology Today, 14 Mar. 2018, https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-moment-youth/201803/goal-setting-is-linked-higher-achievement.

Price-Mitchell, Marilyn. “Teaching for Life Success: Why Resourcefulness Matters.” Edutopia, George Lucas Educational Foundation, 13 July 2015, https://www.edutopia.org/blog/8-pathways-why-resourcefulness-matters-marilyn-price-mitchell.