There’s just something about a fresh start that I love. A blank planner, the whole year ahead. I am totally the person to set year-long goals and new year’s resolutions for my personal non-work life. And I do the same thing in my teaching life. While I’m usually setting teaching goals at the beginning of the school year, mid-year can be a great time to check in and evaluate any goals you did set. If you are looking for ideas I’m sharing 15 professional goals for teachers examples to get your creative brain working.
These professional goals for teachers examples can be tweaked to fit your grade, subject, or situation. If one of these goals doesn’t fit into your year right now, that’s ok! Just pin this post for later reading.
New year’s resolutions in the workplace
Setting new year’s resolutions in the workplace? Of course! These professional goals for teachers examples are great for evaluations or to improve your teaching. Even if you have been at this a few years, there are always areas to improve on.
New year’s resolutions in the workplace do take a little bit of a mindset shift when it comes to how to accomplish them. All of these professional goals for teachers examples have steps that should be completed during your work day. I am a firm believer in leaving work at work. This means that my teacher goals are able to be accomplished during my 8-4 work day.
That level of work-life balance is so key to stopping teacher burnout. I share my 7 secrets to saving my plan time in this FREE GUIDE. I share exactly how I keep my work at work and do not take a single thing home with me, ever. Yes, it’s totally possible! Drop your email below to get the free 7 secrets delivered straight to your inbox.
Professional goals for teachers examples
What Classroom Management Strategies
This should be one of your goals for teachers, especially if you are a newer teacher. If you did a grade change, this is also a great goal to tackle.
Mini-action steps could include watching other teachers’ classrooms, using attention-getters, transitions between subjects, positive reinforcement, and parent communication. I share what classroom management strategies I use in middle school if you also teach 6th-8th grade. Be sure to check out the blog post here.
Classroom Culture
This new year’s resolution could take on two different sides. The first way could be to create a positive classroom culture with your students. This would help your classroom management and in general create a safe space to learn.
The other side of classroom culture is to spend time learning and showcasing the different cultures within your classroom. This would be a really cool goal if you teach in a diverse area or just want to have all students included.
Professional goals for teachers examples of action steps include reading a book about classroom culture, working with teachers at the beginning of the year, diversity training or professional development, and building relationships with your students.
Math Stations
This is a topic that I learned about in my first year of teaching and I have never looked back! If you teach math, I have a 5 part video series training that would make a great action step to starting up math stations in your classroom. Drop your email below for free video series where I talk all about the what, when and how of math learning centers.
Professional goals for teachers examples: Mini Lessons
When I moved to 3rd grade this was one of my professional goals to work on. I watched a coach teach a few mini-lessons in reading and then I planned with him to understand the structure of a mini-lesson. I then started to implement that structure and was observed by the coach. I took in feedback and made adjustments to my mini-lesson and saw so much growth in my students. If you have an instructional coach in your building, this is a great goal that doesn’t take too much additional time to implement since you have to teach a lesson anyway 😉
Small Groups
If you are starting up math stations or literacy centers, figuring out how to run small groups is key. Similar to the mini-lesson professional goals for teachers examples, small group instruction can include watching a more veteran teacher, getting lessons and topic ideas from a professional development book, or taking a professional development session to learn more. Trying out small group instruction on a weekly scale with maybe one group could be another action step for setting up small groups.
Questioning Strategies
Want to learn how to ask better questions? This type of professional goals for teachers examples is a bit higher level but still a great option! Learning about the different types of questions like Depth of Knowledge or Bloom’s Taxonomy, starting to write a different type of question on an assessment, or asking in a discussion can all help move this goal forward. This is another less time-consuming type of goal that can really improve student learning.
Standards Based Grading
In middle school science, this is my current professional goals for teachers examples. Last year I set out to create one standards-based unit. I read a professional development book during my plan period, looked at another teacher’s standards-based unit, and set about breaking down the standards. Then I created mini-quizzes for each standard and planned out the unit. Then I taught the unit in the 3rd quarter. By picking a unit in the middle/end of the school year I was able to spend the first part of the year learning about and planning for it. Then I was just following my lesson plans.
I loved how this goal turned out and I continued it for the following year with a new unit.
Student Centric Learning Methods
I already have an idea for my next teacher’s new year’s resolution and it’s all about creating a more student-centered classroom. I want to learn more about student centric learning methods and how to use those in my middle school math and science classroom. I wrote a blog post about student-centric learning methods using choice board templates if you want to check it out here.
Professional Goals for Teachers Examples: Classroom Organization
I love an organized classroom. From using bins and boxes to binders for storing math games, I keep everything as neat and tidy as I can. I share more about my teacher binder in this blog post. And if you are looking for ways to spend a gift card, check out this post all about my teacher’s wish list.
Have you just been told that you don’t have a classroom to teach from? Don’t worry, I was a cart teacher and shared all of my tips to stay organized without a classroom. Check out the post here.
Parent Communication
These professional goals for teachers’ examples could be combined with classroom management but maybe it’s separate too. Action ideas for this goal could be to make a positive phone call each week to a new family, send home a weekly or monthly newsletter, email or call for any behavior concerns and create a system for keeping track of what communication you make during the school year.
Professional Goals for Teachers Examples and Ideas
Lesson Planning
This might seem like another new teacher goal idea, but I think that everyone can learn how to streamline their lesson planning. I personally swear by batch planning and it has changed my teaching life. If you want to learn all the ins and outs of this system, be sure to check it out here.
This is another goal that helps you work smarter not harder and really helps with that work-life balance.
Learning a New Curriculum
New to a grade level? Going through a new curriculum rollout? This goal is perfect for anyone in this position. You could attend a training about the new curriculum, spend time organizing it in your classroom, reading through the teacher manual, and then lesson planning and implementing the curriculum as best you can. Also, include the time you spend reflecting on lessons and the pacing of the curriculum.
Professional goals for teachers examples: Using Technology
This was actually one of my goals for teachers during the 2019-2020 school year. Yep, couldn’t have planned that one better if I tried. From learning about different platforms to setting up Google Classrooms and watching Youtube videos on how to create digital games, learning to use technology still helps me, even today!
I share my favorite ways to use technology in math classrooms in this blog post if you want to include research as a part of your teaching goal.
What Growth Mindset
What growth mindset do students actually need? This new year’s resolution idea could totally change a student’s life. Spend some time reading about growth mindset vs fixed mindset and how to help students build resilience. Create some homeroom lessons on social emotional learning and growth mindset. There are tons of resources on the internet that I rounded up in this blog post to help get you started.
Diverse Learners
Looking for a goal that encompasses a lot? This goal can be focused on challenging advanced learners or learning more about accommodations and modifications for students who need a little extra help. Working with the Sped teacher or gifted and talented teacher would be a great resource on how to help support these students and I’m sure they have articles and ideas on how to help you reach diverse learners.
New year’s resolutions tips
New year’s resolution tips to staying on track with your goals for teachers. Once I decide on my professional goal for the year, I write it down. There’s just something about writing it that helps me remember and stay focused. I don’t just write it anywhere. I write it on post-it notes and stick one on each month of my lesson planner. That way I’m seeing it at least once a month.
If I have broken my goal down into steps, I will also write that step in the month I think it will make the most sense timewise. That way I can just complete my post-it notes and I’m really just completing my goal.
Break down your goals. I included action steps for each of the 15 professional goals for teachers examples above to help you get started. If an action step doesn’t make sense for you, tweak it.
Reflect on each action step or mini-goal. Even a quick post-it note next to your goal written can be helpful when it comes to end-of-the-year reflections. I rather reflect along the way than try to remember how well this goal was going in October.
More professional goals for teachers examples
Looking for more professional goals for teachers examples? I found some other blog posts that give even more ideas. Remember, these are just suggestions and are meant to help you find goals that you want to work toward over the course of the school year.
- What are your top professional goals as a teacher?
- 26 Teachers Goals and Objectives
- 20 Goals for Teachers for This Year
- 10 Examples of Professional Goals for Teachers to Set Now
- 4 Main Goals for Effective Teachers
- 20 SMART Goals for Teachers
I’d love to know your professional goals for teachers examples! Share your ideas in the comments!
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