25 goals for teachers, from the first day of school to the last

Teacher goals for the school year

Year goals are totals that fill from the first day to the last, such as a class reading total, and reading goals has more ways to count pages and books.

• Read aloud to your class for 10 minutes on 150 school days.
• Reach 500 books read as a class by the end of the year.
• Contact every family once with good news before the winter break.
• Learn every student's name by the end of the first week.
• Try 6 new teaching methods this year, one every 6 weeks, and keep the ones that work.

Classroom routine and management goals

A routine is done when the class runs it without being told, so these goals count the days of practice it takes to get there.

• Teach 5 routines in the first 2 weeks: coming in, leaving, materials, group work and asking for help.
• Practise the entry routine at the start of every lesson for 20 school days.
• Start every lesson within 2 minutes of the bell for a month.
• Write the day's plan on the board before every lesson for a term.
• Use one attention signal, and only that one, for a whole term.

Teacher goals for students: feedback and relationships

Feedback goals count what each student hears back from you, and students can keep counts of their own, with academic goals as examples to hand out.

• Give spoken feedback to 5 students in every lesson.
• Return every marked piece of work within 7 days, for a term.
• Tell every student one thing they did well, once a month.
• Have a 2 minute one-to-one chat with every student in the first 6 weeks.
• Give the class 10 minutes a week to act on your feedback.

Professional development goals for teachers

Some professional goals lead out of the classroom, toward a team or a department, which is where leadership goals begin.

• Watch 6 lessons taught by colleagues this year.
• Invite a colleague into your room once a term, with one thing to watch for.
• Film one of your lessons each term and watch it with a checklist.
• Read one book on teaching each term and try one idea from it for 3 weeks.
• Mentor one new teacher through their first year.

Teacher wellbeing goals

Wellbeing goals guard the hours outside school, and they count the same way as every other goal on this list.

• Leave school by 5 pm on 2 days a week.
• Keep one weekend day free of marking for a whole term.
• Eat lunch away from your desk 3 days a week.
• Swap written comments for spoken feedback on 1 task in 3.
• Close school email after 7 pm for 30 days.

What is a good teacher goal?

A good teacher goal counts what you do, because results belong to the whole room. A test score depends on every student and on the years of school before yours. Feedback given, calls made and routines practised depend on you. A review of 35 years of goal research found that specific, hard goals lead to higher performance than being told to do your best, and "be a better teacher" is a do your best goal.

If you pick one area, pick feedback. The Education Endowment Foundation's teaching toolkit, which sums up school research, rates feedback as high impact for very low cost, based on extensive evidence: about 6 months of extra progress for students, on average. Spoken feedback came out a little higher, at 7 months. The same summary says to give feedback when work is right, not only when it is wrong, and to watch how much time written marking takes.

Look at your counts once a week. A weekly review on Friday afternoon takes 10 minutes and shows which goal slipped while there are still weeks left in the term.

How to track teacher goals

Log each count on the day it happens. A review of 138 studies found that people who monitored their progress reached their goals more often, and that recording it beat keeping it in your head. The goal research above found what every teacher sees in class: a goal works better with feedback on progress than without it.

Read-alouds, calls home and lessons watched are amounts that add up over the year. Days you left by 5 pm are a day count, the shape most work challenge ideas use.

A school year is long, and by June the first weeks feel far away. A grid of dots that fills like a seating plan shows the whole year in one picture.

Frequently asked questions

What are some examples of teacher goals?

Read aloud to your class for 10 minutes on 150 school days. Give spoken feedback to 5 students in every lesson. Watch 6 lessons taught by colleagues this year. Leave school by 5 pm on 2 days a week. Each one is a count you control.

What are good teacher goals for a new school year?

Learn every name in the first week, teach your 5 routines in the first 2 weeks, and contact every family with good news before the winter break. The first weeks set up the rest of the year.

How do I write a professional goal as a teacher?

Name an action, a number and a date. For example: watch 6 lessons taught by colleagues by June, and try one idea from each in my own class. The number tells you when it is done.