Goal Setting: One Step in the Journey to Becoming a Highly Effective Educator

Why is goal setting important for educators?

It’s no secret that effective educators have a positive impact on student outcomes. A critical component in teacher effectiveness is goal setting. 

Are you tired of your classroom looking the same every year? Are you ready for change? If so, think about using goal setting to create change in your classroom. 

Key Points: 

• Goal setting is the key to success in all areas of life including career. Goal setting is especially important for educators, because this practice helps improve their teaching and has the greatest impact on student outcomes. Educators should use goal setting to help them drive decision making in their classrooms. 

• Goal setting creates an opportunity for teachers to design the learning environment they want to create. By assessing what is working and not working in the classroom and within the instructional setting educators can determine what areas of growth are needed. Using these areas of growth to create goals that directly impact students and improve educator’s teaching practice is the road map to your success. 
  

Setting goals that motivate you as an educator create an opportunity to push yourself and transform your instructional practice in ways that you never thought imaginable. Goal setting gives educators an opportunity to consistently reflect and evaluate on what is working and not working in their classrooms. This consistent reflection will generate positive outcomes for students and schools alike. 

In order to move from goal setting to achieving, educators need to create a step by step plan for reaching their goals.Teachers have to be decided, determined, focused, and resilient to make their goals a reality. By starting with the goal in mind and creating a plan backwards to achieve that goal educators can realistically achieve their goals. 

Teachers who create goals they are passionate about are more likely to achieve them, because they are continuously motivated to work towards them. 

Do you believe goal setting is an effective way to impact change for educators and classrooms?

As a teacher will you start making goal setting a regular part of your teaching practice? If not, what is stopping you from incorporating goal setting into your classroom practice?