4 Steps for Setting Intentions for Personal and Professional Growth as a Teacher

Okay, teacher friend. One of the things that I have found that has made my summers the most successful is to set some intentions before the summer starts because when I don’t, I have found that I have. More likely than not, tried to do too much into little time and really didn’t give myself a lot of time.

Today we are going to be really looking into ways that you can set some intentions, some goals for your personal and professional growth as a teacher. Welcome to the Secondary Teacher Podcast, the podcast for middle and high school teachers juggling multiple preps to get the strategies to reduce overwhelm so that you don’t have to choose between being an effective teacher and prioritizing important relationships.

I’m your host, Khristen Masek, a 10-year high school engineering teacher, former middle school assistant principal and teacher coach. Every week, we will discuss strategies, systems, and time saving tips to help you not only survive but thrive as a multiple prep teacher.   📍 📍 One of my very favorite ways to set goals is to backward design.

This is with lesson planning as well. I like to use a strategy that’s called the Ideal Day and think about what I want my life to look like: at that point in time. What do you want your life to look like at the end of the summer? And then you are going to figure out how to get there. And that is going to be by setting goals.

 So you know, What you want your life to look like. And the idea would be is that you don’t live two different lives. You don’t have your summer life and you don’t have your school year life. What are you wanting to do and create for yourself that you can carry into next school year to make your ideal career life continue rather than having this disjointed life.

What do you want your life to look like professionally? What do you want your family life to look like? What do you want your life to look like personally? Just with you. Think about that on a very broad sense, and then we’re going to be going over four steps for setting those intentions and per personal and professional growth as a teacher this year.

The four steps are going to be keep them few and number meaning your goals. Make them smarter. Write them down and review them frequently. Let’s dive into each of those a little bit more and give you some examples as you set your intentions for the summer. The first one, Is going to be keep them few a number.

This is something that I have often struggled with, is trying to do too much. The idea is over the summer you are supposed to be taking a break because this is a great time for you to recharge, although this is also a good time to set some habits so that recharging can happen more frequently during the school year.

Don’t try to do too many things this summer. Keep it super, super simple. One, two or three goals is all you need. You don’t need to overdo it. You will not get a prize at the beginning of the school year based on how much you got accomplished during this the summer. And also keep in mind that. You are not with your students.

And so a lot of the things that you could do during the summer as far as planning curriculum, and everything could change based on who you get in your class next year, and you don’t want all that time to be wasted. Number one, keep them few and number your goals. Keep them few and number. The second one is going to be make them smarter.

You’ve probably heard of smart goals before. But recently I was introduced to Michael Hyatt and he has a book called Your Best Year Ever. And within that book, he talks about how a goal must meet seven criteria. Now I went the extra mile and I took his criteria and I put it into my good friend ChatGPT to come up with some goals.

And quite frankly, most of the goals that chat G P T came up with were. Kind of ridiculous in size for the summer, and I even tried to remind it, but it gave us a little bit of an idea. I did revamp and rewrite and x quite a few of these, but I have some examples to share from my good friend ChatGPT

the first one is, we’re spelling the word smarter S “specific”. Clearly define the area for your focus of your goal. Here is an example: Develop a project based learning unit outline, and I added the outline part for the advanced graphic design class covering topics such as branding, digital media, and portfolio development.

You are creating an outline. That would be something that you could use during the school year. The next one is “measurable”, set clear criteria to track progress and success. The example is: Increase your proficiency in using your LMS, your learning management system) by completing an online course or certification related to your l m s before the end of the summer.

The next one is “actionable”. Start your goal with an action verb. The example here is: Revise and enhance the woodworking program’s safety protocols by reviewing common safety issues from this past school year. The next one is “risky”. Set a goal that challenges you but is attainable. The example here would be: Develop a plan for promoting one of your classes by scheduling admin and counselor visits each month of school and submitting monthly articles to your PR person.

In this one, you are creating the plan, but you do have several steps that will happen during the school year. The next is “time keyed”. Set a specific timeframe for achieving the goal. Now, for most of these, it’s going to be the summer, but here is an example: Create a series of video tutorials to introduce students to three of your routines and procedures used in your teaching space and or lab shop area by the beginning of school.

Moving on to “exciting”. Choose a goal that motivates and excites you. Example: Organize and plan a field trip to uncommon industry sites or pro post-secondary opportunities to be taken during the school year with your advanced level students. And then finally, we have “relevant.” Align the goal with your values, seasons in life, and other goals.

The example here would be to: Create a curated list of educational podcasts or TED Talks related to your subject area or teaching methodology. Aim to compile a list of at least 10 high quality resources that you can share with colleagues and students before the start of the next school year.

I wanna do a mini review of the Smarter acronym because I failed to mention it at the beginning of the podcast.

So let’s go over that. S is “specific”. M is “measurable”. A is “actionable”. R is “risky.” T is “time keyed.” E is “exciting.” And R is “relevant.” That is Michael Hyatt’s smarter system.

Now you’ve got two of the four steps completed. The third step is you need to write down your goals.

There is quite a bit of research out there that people have goals, but not a lot of people write them down, which you think is odd, but it makes sense. I know I have some goals that I’ve thought about but haven’t actually written down, but the only ones that get accomplished for me are those that I write down.

You need to write down your goal in order to have that intention come to fruition by the end of the summer. And then the last step is not only having to write them down, but you need to review them frequently. You need to remind yourself what your goals are so that you know what steps you are currently on in working backwards.

And part of that with the writing them down. Is chunking them into smaller bite size. Like what do you do next? And that’s what happens when you review them frequently when you’re looking at those goals and you’re saying, Hey, this is where I am as far as progress goes on this goal, and what do I need to do next?

That will help remind you of what you need to do. And it will also keep it at the forefront of your mind. Even if you are not. Actively working on that goal. You might get inspired and come up with some ideas while you are doing something else, if you’re at the beach or something that might help you accomplish that goal, but you will only think of those items if you are reviewing them.

Frequently and keeping them top of mind. Okay, in summary, we’re going to go over the four steps for setting intentions for personal and professional growth as a teacher, specifically for the summer. The first one is keep these goals or intentions. Few in number. The next. Number two is make them smarter.

Number three is to write them down, and number four is to review them frequently. If this is a episode or a topic that resonated with you, it probably could for others, make sure that you share it with your teacher friends, your teacher bestie. This is the. Best time over the summer because there is tons of time when you’re mowing the lawn, when you’re sitting by the pool, whatever you’re doing to pop in a podcast and help you and your fellow teachers get some PD that will be of value for next school year.