Teacher Tuesday: teacher goals 2016

Yesterday I shared my new year's resolutions as a parent for 2016. Today I wanted to talk about my new year's resolutions as a teacher. Do you set goals for yourself each calendar year? I do the bulk of my reflecting and goal-setting as a teacher over the summer, but it is nice to have a mid-point check-in over the holiday break as well. If you haven't set your own goals yet, I hope my list will provide some inspiration for your own reflection on your teaching as well!

1. Develop more personal relationships with my new students
Our school actually lost quite a few students over this past summer, and some of our classes were quite small when school started (which was wonderful!). But there was about a 3-month stretch between August and November where we were getting 2-3 new students almost every week (or at least it felt that way!). I realized in December that, because we had had so many students come in mid-year, there were quite a few students with whom I hadn't had a chance to connect the way I would like. My goal is to get to know those students better and develop those relationships.

2. Find/create better sub plans
To be honest, this has been a goal of mine for a couple of years now and I'm still not happy with where I am. I had some sub plans that worked well, but I've reached that point where all of my students have done all of the decent sub plans that I had prepared and I need new ones! Part of my struggle is that our substitutes aren't supposed to use the laptop computer that the school provides for our teaching (not to mention, the technology is not always reliable, and, let's be honest, the substitute teachers' tech knowledge is not always reliable either), so I can't have them show a video online, play music from a playlist, or powerpoint from the computer, I have one or two ideas that I will be working on over the holiday break, but I'd like to get some more plans ready for all of those sick days in the winter.

I'm going to stick with those two- I don't want to make too many goals and get overwhelmed! What are your goals for yourself as a teacher this year? Share them in the comments below!