SMART GOALS

My school is adopting S.M.A.R.T. Goals this year.  Students and staff alike are creating personal and whole group goals that are :

Specific            

Measurable

Achievable

Realistic

Time-bound

Creating classroom goals is not new for us.  Due to the fact that I teach mainly Math and Science, I centered our goals around Math this year:

90% of all students will be at Level 4.0 or higher in Moby Math by the end of April 2015.

 

90% of all students will master their Multiplication Facts from 0-10 by the end of April 2015.

(3rd graders in Texas take the state test at the end of April, so that's why the due date is before the end of the school year.)

This year we are implementing personal SMART goals as well.  My students did a wonderful job setting a one-week goal for themselves.  Many of them chose to set their goal around our Accelerated Reader Program.  "I will read 2 AR books this week and pass with an 80% or 100%"  Others set their goal to align with one of our class goals, "I will complete 4 Moby Max Math sessions this week." or "I will master my multiplication x2 facts this week."  

Our entire school set goals this week, so some wonderful teachers created a space in the hallway to hang the goals.  Once the goals were completed, the students placed a sticker on their 3x5 card.  Next week each student will create a new goal and staple it over the completed goal.  Eventually we will create one month goals instead of just weekly goals.

I set a few goals for myself as well.  Realistically, every teacher sets goals for themselves when creating a To-Do list, but by making it into a SMART goal, I knew I would have to make it a priority, rather than just another thing on my To-Do list to get to whenever I had the extra time.

I still had two students left to test with the Fountas and Pinnell Reading Benchmark Assessment, and had been putting it off.  So, that was perfect for my first SMART goal.  It was accomplished by Tuesday afternoon!  I had a secondary goal about using my Planning Time wisely, and I can say that most days I was successful!  

Overall, SMART Goals were very successful this week!  I'm looking forward to next week.  It will be interesting to see what the students choose for their new goals.  And I need to come up with a good one for myself too.  I can't expect to use my Planning Time wisely EVERY DAY, as there are always friends/co-workers to chat with!

Have a good week!