SMART Goals for Teachers

Set Realistic Smart Goals

You know those smart goals we tell our students to set? SMART goals stand for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Timely goals.

Set those SMART goals for yourself. Think about what you want to achieve in your practice. This goal may be personal or one that you want to use for your yearly evaluation. Here are some tips for setting SMART Goals for teachers.

Specific Goals

Maybe you want to try Genius Hour as a form of Project Based Learning in your classroom. Have your students explore their own learning goals and questions. Learn more about Genius Hour in Education in our online community!

Measurable Goals

For a long time, I thought measurable was all about statistics or quantitative data. However, writing your own reflections or having students reflect on their goals leads to qualitative data. Measure variables like engagement or student autonomy in PBL. This is what I am doing for my dissertation!

Achievable Goals

Don’t set out to change the whole education system in a semester. Set attainable goals. Perhaps, set up your own Genius Hour in order to share and reflect with your students during the first quarter.

Realistic Goals

Again, make sure your goals are realistic. Planning to attend an expensive, international conference is not realistic, but taking online PD for PBL might be!

Timely Goals

Time is on your side! Make sure your goal takes longer than a class period but is something that you can accomplish in a term or a year. Of course, a timely goal can be part of a bigger long term goal. For example, earning your PhD might be the long term goal but finishing your stats class with good grades is a short term goal. Just make sure it’s a SMART one!

Free Smart Goal Template

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What SMART GOALS do you have for your school year? Share in the comments!