The whole of Athens, Greece buzzes below us as my wife and I sit in a dark hotel room, ceiling fan clanking and vibrating over our heads, as we prepare for the school year ahead of us. Such is the life of an international school teacher.
My heart is pounding (like usual) as loudly as an Athenian night club about what prospects lie ahead. Goal-setting is one of the most important parts of the student experience in my classroom, and I like to model it as much as possible throughout the year.
Typically, I put my goals up on a big chart paper right next to where the students’ goals are. Using a great framework such as the SMART framework is helpful, but sometimes I find it easy to just dive right in, depending on the class.
There are many variations of what SMART stands for, but the essence is this – goals should be:
- Specific.
- Measurable.
- Attainable.
- Relevant.
- Time Bound.
However you start goal-setting, you have to maintain the process throughout the year. Students should feel like they are accountable to their goals. Students should feel pride when they are able to remove one of their goals (limit it to just a few) and replace it with a new one.
I have many goals this year. One of them is to maintain a blog. Let me try to model the SMART strategy:
- Specific
- I will maintain this edublog with my wife
- Measureable AND
- Attainable
- I will post a minimum of one blog post every week. I will spend 1 hour on each blog post, no more.
- Relevant
- Teaching is my passion. It is important to me and to my wife.
- Time Bound
- I will keep this blog updated until the end of the school year. I will take breaks from it during my vacations. I will reevaluate how well it has worked throughout the year, and decide if this is indeed the best goal for me.
What are your teaching goals for this year? Follow me on Twitter @MrZachG
Education Rickshaw 
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