How Teachers Should Set Goals for Their Continued Professional Development
It is a fact that in the teaching profession, it remains important to learn and grow to improve your knowledge and skills. This not only makes you infinitely more employable, it also makes you better at your craft. Looking at skills you can develop to help your students succeed while improving your own teaching strategies is essential. When you look at how teachers should set goals for their continued professional development, there are a number of aspects that can be taken into account.
What are your goals?
You need to decide on what you need to work on in order to reach specific improvement goals. Write down what you would like to work on, then you can lay out a game plan and a potential end goal. Let’s look at a few potential goals.
Organize
For those that have an issue with time management, filing, incomplete projects, disorganized classrooms or lessons that are not as well planned as they should be, organizing your time and your spaces is a good goal to work towards. Using tools such as the calendar function on your laptop or phone and setting reminders is a good way to start time management and keep track of important tasks, events and so forth. Synchronize between devices in order to ensure you are always up to date.
Make sure filing is done on a regular basis and organize your files both digitally and on paper. You should always back up the files to ensure that you do not lose important information. Make notes of projects that are incomplete and either discard those that are no longer relevant or schedule those that need to be completed and get started with finishing them.
Improve your students’ results
If improving your students’ knowledge and growth is a goal for you, there are a few things you can do in this regard as well. Start off by setting higher expectations for your students and then work at helping them reach them. Make sure you are up to date on the latest educational technology and products that can help in the classroom. Develop strategies for improved instruction and class management. Look at ways of improving higher-order thinking.
Incorporate cooperative learning in the classroom to improve overall results. Aim to go above and beyond the basic teaching curriculum and give students life skills where possible as well. Plan your classroom time so that you are more effective and can have all the appropriate technology and other materials to hand for each lesson. Ask your students for feedback to help you improve further.
Improve your knowledge and skills
Spend time learning about the latest technology, take a course if necessary, so that you can be more effective and offer your students better resources as well. Attend conferences and workshops, learn from your peers, and discover new strategies to improve in the classroom as well as personally. You can also look at attending online seminars where possible.
Read books, journals, and education blogs. Forums and groups for educators is another way to learn from your peers and find new ways to improve your skills. You can also look at sitting in on other teacher’s lessons and in this way you may pick up some new skills or strategies that you can use yourself. When considering how teachers should set goals for their continued professional development, you need to look at it from a personal perspective and work towards your own specific goals.
Classroom management
Effective classroom management helps ensure everything runs smoothly. Students are learn better in a well-managed classroom. Whether you are a new or veteran teacher, it is a good idea to brush up on your classroom management. This is one of the aspects covered by professional development for teachers. After you’ve learned new classroom management strategies, test them out to determine which are most effective.
Career path
The education field offers many career options beyond the classroom. You may opt to remain in the classroom or pursue other avenues. Options include becoming a teacher mentor, instruction specialist, curriculum specialist, principal or superintendent. If you have the necessary degree and experience, you can set a goal to start applying for these positions.
Conclusion
How teachers should set goals for their continued professional development is a very important aspect that should be revisited on a regular basis. Perhaps include in your schedule a specific date each year when you sit down and assess where you are in your teaching goals and set new goals for the year ahead. Don’t be afraid to try something new.
INcompassing Education offers on-site (Indiana), off-site, and online professional development for teachers. Improve your knowledge and skills while earning credits for your continuing education. Contact us to learn more. Like us on Facebook, INcompassing Education LLC. You can also check out these education books, webinars for parents, and webinars for educators
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