Forward Thinking Planning: Setting Goals That Guide Your Year
Forward Thinking Planning: Setting Goals That Guide Your Year
[00:00:00] Welcome to the eight to four teacher where we tackle the habits, routines, and mindset shifts that help teachers leave school at four without guilt. This is a space for teachers who wanna do meaningful work without working around the clock. I'm your host, Barb Flowers, and I believe you can be an amazing teacher and have a life outside of school.
Let's build a teaching life that feels sustainable and fulfilling. Let's make eight to four your new normal.
Welcome Teachers to the eight to four teacher . Today we're talking about forward thinking, planning, and setting goals that are going to guide your year. And I wanna talk about this because I know for our teachers, when I taught and then when I was a principal, we would guide them in setting smart goals as part of their evaluation.
And we had a goal that they had to pick and then we would check in on that through the school year. And there were a couple of problems with that I wanna first start out by addressing. They would pick a goal, and not that the [00:01:00] goals that they picked weren't good, but they would kind of put the paper somewhere.
Maybe it was too big of a goal or it didn't seem a very practical goal. And they would put their goal sheet somewhere and they would come to me mid-year and be like, what was my goal again? And that's a problem, right? It's probably not a goal that you need to be working on if you don't know what the goal is, or maybe it's not one that's relevant to you or meaningful.
And so what I always try to help teachers with is making goals that are really important to them. Based on teaching or , based on teaching data, whatever they needed to be focused on. And today we're talking about that, but we're also thinking about wellbeing goals. And as part of the evaluation system, that wasn't one of our components.
But I do think it's something that teachers need to think about and everybody's. Different here. So as we talk today, I want you to be thinking about what goals you have for the next school year as you start the new school year. And when you think about goals, we all know about smart goals, [00:02:00] right? Are they specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time bound.
And to break this down, really what I tell people, anybody I'm coaching. Is when you are creating a goal, it needs to be so simple and not simple in achieving it, but broken down into such a small step that you don't feel overwhelmed thinking about it. Because a lot of times what I notice people do is they have this big overarching goal, which is fine.
,, it is a smart goal. It fits into all of that. But it doesn't feel practical in how you can do it in your day to day. And so I think that's the biggest thing and that's actually why I created , the Teacher's Custom Habit system. Because when you're trying to implement any kind of goal, I think it's really important for you to think about the habits and routines that go into that.
And as I'm thinking about that, I had a lot of teachers set goals, , related to maybe integrating science and social studies into reading and language arts. And if you think about it,, okay, what routines [00:03:00] and systems can be put into place to do that?
'cause otherwise you'll forget that's your goal. Or I had people make their goal something related to a book study. They wanted to get better at explicit instruction. Okay. That's a great goal, but let's break that down even more. Let's just start with, maybe you wanna get better at explicit instruction with reading comprehension, , so break that goal down, because if it's just, I'm gonna get better at explicit instruction.
Sure. That's measurable, achievable, relevant, time bound. But how can we make it more specific and as detailed and focused as possible? Because once you get better at doing it in one area, then it'll transfer to other areas. That's what a lot of coaches say too. If you're thinking about, , I have a goal of losing weight, I.
Really, when you get more disciplined in one area, it comes in all different areas. Maybe you get better at, , having time to exercise and maybe you get better at drinking more water and better at your time management. All these things can happen just from one goal. So you [00:04:00] wanna keep it really specific, keep it small so that it doesn't feel overwhelming, because if it feels overwhelming, you're probably not going to do it.
You're probably going to forget about it and just. Stuff it somewhere, and it's going to be done in a way that it's just the paperwork that needs to be done. Like we have to set a goal. And honestly, as a teacher, that's how mine was. I felt like it was more like we have to set this goal. So the one that I wrote down as part of my evaluation wasn't really the one that maybe I was focusing on as much.
I wanna encourage you to reflect on that and think about it. But I also want you to reflect on last year when you're thinking about goals that you want to set and how you want the school year to be different. I want you to think about not only the academic piece with kids, but also your wellbeing, your mindset, your confidence, all of these things that we don't talk about a lot in education.
, for example, reflect on what kept you working late. Was it grading, delegating, dealing with behaviors or something else? , what areas did you feel [00:05:00] confident in when you taught? What areas did you not feel confident? And I think this is really important because , this goes into how you enjoy teaching.
I always say if you're confident in something, you're going to enjoy it so much more. And if there's this. Underlying level where you don't feel confident or you feel insecure in an area of teaching that you might not even realize. It's going to make you more stressed in that area. And I'm thinking of, maybe you don't feel as confident.
I hear elementary teachers say, I don't feel confident in math. I'm terrible at math. Well, one, the more you tell yourself and your kids you're terrible at math, the more , that becomes true. So thinking about, what that looks like and what areas aren't you confident that you could set a goal to?
Feel better in that area and you feel better by learning more or by doing something different. So that's just something I want you to think about as you start to set a goal. So forward thinking, planning is really having a clear plan that is going to help you reduce stress [00:06:00] and build momentum throughout the year.
And this is a very important process when you think about whatever stressed you out last year because. I always say to teachers, if you felt stressed out, overwhelmed, burnt out. There's always those seasons of the school year that are more stressful. But if you felt it overall, just having a break, it doesn't go away.
You actually have to plan how it's going to be different. And I talk about that in my course, the burnout breakthrough, , which you can go to barb flowers coaching.com/courses if you're interested in that. If you type. Code podcast, you get 50% off. But anyways, it's really it. It is about reflecting and having that forward thinking, planning, and thinking about what the goals are.
What is your big picture for teaching? What do you want your personal and professional goals to look like? And I think having a personal goal for the school year is really important too. Because you wanna think about, what you want that school year to look like. How do you wanna design [00:07:00] that? I always say, what do you want your ideal life to look like?
And you might think, okay, I am a teacher. I work eight to four, eight to five, or maybe it's eight to six, I don't know. But I don't get to choose. I have so much to do. There's so many things on my plate. But if you take the time, you really do get to choose. It, you might have more things than other people.
Everybody has a different level of commitment and stress based on kids and seasons of life. But , you do have choice in what your life looks like. You do have choice in what your day looks like, and you do have choice in how you, plan the day to day. So summer's a really good time or the beginning of the year to think about what you want that to look like, both personally and professionally.
What are the values that guide your teaching? What are the values that guide your personal life?
Values for me that guide my personal life are one, me being healthy and having time for myself. That is a huge value I have. Little kids at home, but I value exercising every day. Whether it's walking, stretching, I don't care. , that's my time for [00:08:00] myself. That is a value that is really important. Of course, spending time with my husband and kids is a value in teaching.
I value, being as effective as possible. I valued. Having my students make growth, I valued being effective in everything I was doing. So if those are my values, then what do I need to do to make sure those things are happening? So you wanna set goals that align with these values because goals really are going to contribute to your professional growth, but also that work life balance.
And like I said, when I have that value that. I will exercise every day and have something I do for myself that impacts my professional life, being able to exercise and come to work. I have exercised in the morning for probably 10 to 15 years, and so being able to go to work. With my workout already done for the day and feeling like I'm setting my day, like I already met a goal [00:09:00] for the day and I feel good, my body feels good because I've moved it for the day.
That made me better at my job. Whether it was being a principal, a teacher, it didn't matter. That was something that I valued in my personal life that really affected my professional life. So set goals that align. So I would really encourage you to think about a teaching goal that you have. And a wellbeing goal.
So maybe a teaching goal, you wanna use more student led activities in math, be specific or student led activities in, , phonics, whatever. Be very specific there. Your wellbeing goal might be at the end of the school day, I'm gonna do a 15 minute walk. That was another thing I did at school. A lot of teachers, , and I would sometimes just walk and get steps.
Maybe a goal is I'm going to get 10,000 steps a day, and that's your wellbeing goal. I'm not leaving school until I get 10,000 steps. That could be a goal too, because I know for me, sometimes, once I get home, it's hard. Also, when I was teaching, there was a group of us that we knew once we went home, we weren't going to exercise, so we actually put a [00:10:00] workout on the smart board in a classroom and there would be like 10 of us.
Working out together after school at my kid's school. A bunch of teachers work out together. I see that all the time. So that's another one. Have wellbeing goals with other people. But what's really important here is you want to break down your big goal into very small steps. The smaller the step it is, the more actionable it is, the easier it is to do.
If you say, I'm going to start exercising an hour a day when you don't exercise, that's a big step. But if you say, I'm going to exercise for 15 minutes, three days a week, that is more easier to manage. Now, I will say for me, I'm better off to have it as a habit where I'm doing it every day.
Versus three days a week, because that's harder to me versus just every single day, this is what I do. But take one of your big goals and break it down. Maybe you have the goal of improving classroom management. Okay, that's a big goal. So think about what needs to get [00:11:00] better with classroom management.
Maybe it's reteach routines. Every Monday, like you know that you have good routines in place, but you need to be better at teaching them more explicitly. Maybe it's get better at , following through on consequences. Maybe it's communicating behavior with parents like what needs to improve in classroom management
, and then you also wanna take time to schedule, time to work on these tasks, these goals that you wanna achieve each week so they don't overwhelm you and contribute to you staying late. So again, if your goal is to improve classroom management and you wanna communicate with parents more, how are you going to do that in a systematic way that it's not gonna keep you at work till six o'clock every day?
And then decide how you're going to track your progress to keep your motivation and adjust it when needed. So again, I want you to reflect on what specific task made you stay late or take work home last year. If you wanna be the eight to four teacher in the next [00:12:00] school year, what specific task really made you stay late?
When I think about a friend, my best friend, I lived with her, she was a middle school English teacher. She would stay late grading and then she would grade all weekend and talking to her. Now, she's been in, education for a long time and is now an administrator. What she learned from that is she was giving way too specific feedback, like all this feedback on these papers where she could have just picked one thing to focus on.
And because giving all that feedback, I said, , do your students even read this feedback? I know I didn't in college, and that was me as a, , 18, 20-year-old versus a seventh or eighth grader. So how can you streamline the processes that are keeping you at school late or taking up so much of your time?
If it's parent communication? Do you need to set boundaries with parents so that it's not stressing you out so that you're not talking to parents all evening? Which again goes to the next thing you know. Maybe one of your goal needs to be [00:13:00] setting boundaries and prioritizing your time. Do you need to set designated times during the day to check emails, to check, remind?
, don't be checking those things all evening because you should have time to relax and be with your family, or just have time for yourself. You should be doing that day during dedicated time. Because the other thing I saw teachers doing is they were replying to parents all day.
, you determine that relationship you have with parents. So if parents know that you're gonna respond to them right away as soon as possible, that's what they get used to. So think about that. You have to set the parameters on what that looks like. So you wanna use time blocking techniques to block off time, to check your email, to check your mind, to talk to parents, whatever that is.
But that's going to really give you that balance, that you're doing it in a meaningful way, and it's not taking over your time. So here is your action plan. The takeaway I want you to really think about, I want you to set two professional goals for the year. And one goal is going to [00:14:00] be related to academics, and one goal is going to be related to your wellbeing.
And I want you to think about what that goal is, and if you have a big goal, let's say your big goal is classroom management. How are you going to break it down? Even more into monthly steps, action steps that you're going to take weekly action steps, and maybe even how can this become a habit or routine within your day?
Okay? And then think about maybe, is there anything you can do to delegate to help streamline and save time so that you can leave work by 4:00 PM I just did an episode on delegating. If you didn't listen, go back and listen to that. But maybe there's something within your goals. That you can delegate and have somebody help you and then create that personal boundary.
Whatever that looks like for you to protect your time outside of school. Do you need to leave work at four every day? Maybe you already leave work at four, but then you're texting parents all night or talking to parents all night. Do you need to shut off your phone? Take the app off your phone. What does that personal boundary look like?[00:15:00]
Okay, so start planning now. What do you want your year to look like? Focus on being clear of what you want. What you want your days to look like, what you want those boundaries to look like, and how you want your work life balance to look. Thanks for tuning in. Remember, planning is the key to feeling in control and achieving more without overworking.
Don't forget to subscribe to the podcast, for more tips on managing your workload, being out the door by four and finding fulfillment in your teaching career. And I'll see you here next time.
