SMART Goals for a Great New Year

It’s time for my favorite holiday, New Year’s Day!

I know how strange that sounds, but after the hustle and bustle of Christmas, I always enjoy the slowdown in the weeks before school starts. In addition to taking time to rejuvenate and creating memories with family, I like to think about how the old year played out, and I get excited about what lies ahead in the new year.

Educators are offered the unique benefit of an extra-long break after Christmas. We are given plenty of time to reflect on the successes and failures of the previous year, make plans for the upcoming year, and return to school refreshed and eager to work with children again.

Many people make New Year’s resolutions around this time of year. They say they’ll lose weight, exercise more, get their work done earlier…only to go back to their normal routines after a couple of weeks. The problem is that resolutions without specific targets and accountability are doomed to fail. That’s why the gym fills up in January, but it’s back to normal in February.

SMART Goals become Accomplished Goals

Before Christmas break, I held one on one meetings with each of my teachers, and I asked them to share their top three goals. Many of them talked about nebulous, hard to measure goals, such as building better relationships with students, teaching life’s lessons, or becoming a better teacher.

I asked a few guiding questions to help them specify what achieving that goal would look like. How would they know if they’d met their goal or not? When would they finish their goal to be able to set a new one? I shared the SMART acronym with a few of them, and those teachers got right to work on clarifying their goals to make sure they would be accomplished.

Any time you set a goal, make sure that it is SMART–specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound. Set goals that are

• Specific - Specificity narrows your focus so that you’re not trying to do too much at once. “Increasing the time spent observing individual teachers” is a more specific goal than “raising teacher performance,” for instance.

• Measurable - A goal that is measurable has a number attached, whether that number refers to frequency, percentage, or duration. “I will observe each teacher twice per grading period” is better than “I will observe teachers more often.” If you can’t measure it, how will you know if you accomplished it?

• Achievable - A goal that is not achievable can’t be done, so choose something that makes sense based on the other commitments you have. “All of my students will be proficient by the end of the school year” is not likely to occur, given that some students have discipline, emotional, or cognitive issues. “We will increase from 60% proficiency to 65% proficiency by the end of the school year” may be more achievable.

• Relevant - Relevant goals ensure that you are giving your time and attention to goals that truly matter. Make sure that the goals you set for yourself or your team are aligned with higher-level goals, such as your mission, vision, and values. Setting a goal to spend less time on grading papers or looking at lesson plans may conflict with the broader goal of school improvement that you’re trying to achieve for the year.

• Time-bound - Finally, making a time-bound goal sets a deadline, and deadlines are excellent motivators. “Finish evaluating all teachers by March 21” is much better than “evaluate all my teachers this year.”

Going forward, I plan to encourage my staff to use SMART goals at key times throughout the school year.

My Professional Goals for 2023

For the past several years, instead of making New Years resolutions, I’ve written down SMART goals for the upcoming year and given myself deadlines for completing them. I use Michael Hyatt’s plan for making “habit” goals and “achievement” goals (from Hyatt’s book,Your Best Year Ever). Doing so has helped me complete my dissertation, invest in my health, read great books, and spend more time with my family.

This year, I have three main professional goals.

1. Use my school’s three goals and the Five Core Values as a rubric for making big decisions. I’ll use these both personally and in team meetings to ensure that we stick to the mission, vision, and values of the school.

2. Write thirty minutes a day at least four days a week. I want to be more intentional about learning and reflecting on what I’ve learned, and I want to create more opportunities to share what I’ve learned with others.

3. Optimize and stick to my end of the day routine. My mornings are highly structured, but my afternoons could use a lot of work. I’ve noticed how some of my colleagues, like Dr. Hoye at Lake Middle School, respond to emails only after students have loaded the buses. I know I would benefit from at least following an end-of-the-day checklist!

What about you? Have you set any personal or professional goals for the upcoming school year?

Let me know in the comments below!