Smart goals for teachers are needed to establish ways to help students perform academically. Students will be motivated to complete in-class and out of class assignments by studying harder to achieve higher test scores. Smart goals for teachers result in the approach teachers take when mentoring students in the classroom to help them develop and achieve their personal academic goals for success. Here are some examples of smart goals for teachers.
In 1981 James Cunningham, George Doran and Arthur Miller wrote an article explaining the use of SMART goals and how to help teachers achieve these goals. Since then millions of people use this system. Here is what the smart and smarter acronym represents…
Specific – Specific goals that should be met. Questions about who, when, where, why and how these goals will be met are answered.
Measurable – Establishes when meaningful, measurable and motivating goals will be achieved. It’s important to set a date for meeting these measurable goals because it will impact the result.
Attainable – The process of taking steps to achieve the desired outcome. Smart goals in education are acceptable, achievable, action-oriented, agreed upon and attainable.
Realistic – If a goal is unrealistic, the level of motivation will decrease over time. It’s unlikely the desired outcome will be achieved. Smart goals are realistic, reasonable, relevant, results-oriented and rewarding.
Timely – The specified outcome should be achieved within a specific time frame. A finish date and time should be set in order to achieve an acceptable outcome. Setting smart objectives should be tangible and timely.
Measurable time management goals should include attainable goals, measurable goals and achievable goals. SMART goals should be written and reviewed once each week. Teachers can divide their professional growth plan into several milestones that can be reached one goal at a time. Here are some examples of smart goals for teachers.
Avoid teacher burnout by taking time out of the teaching work schedule to rest and relax. This might include watching favorite sporting events, socializing with friends and family or going on shopping trips.
Technology in the form of computers, mobile phones, mobile phone apps and other technology tools is transforming education in the 21st century. Using technology in the classroom helps teachers grow professionally.
Teachers who have good writing or presentation skills can create an online blog to share thoughts and ideas with others. Creating social media pages for students encourages their collaboration in a digital environment. Joining an online community of teachers is a way to exchange thoughts and ideas about the learning process with other teachers.
Teachers should build strong relationships with fellow teachers. This includes networking with teachers and administrators from other school districts.
Engage students by adding more fun activities to your lesson plan. Adding interactive mobile phone app games and warm-up activities make learning fun and interesting for students.
Teachers can become National Board Certified. Teachers can also work abroad as an exchange teacher to add to a portfolio of teaching work experience.
Teachers should encourage each parent to actively participate in their child’s education.
Teachers can improve organizational skills. Many teachers are organized by nature. However, surfing the Web for tips on how to organize time, files and the classroom can’t hurt.
Teachers can attend a professional development school. Teachers can also attend symposia, conferences, seminars, retreats, webinars and other events for teachers to learn new teaching styles.
Smart goals for teachers should include the use of mobile phone apps to increase student understanding of each day's lesson. Students have different learning styles. Some students learn at a slower pace than other students do. Mobile apps encourage students to learn at his or her pace. Mobile apps are available for all types of skill levels.
Teachers can use a variety of teaching methods using mobile apps. Mobile lessons through video tutorials and educational games are available at any time of day. Students can study and test themselves on important lessons through downloadable content whenever they have time.
Individually focused learning is a benefit of mobile apps for student use. Teachers can’t always spend the time with one student to overcome learning obstacles. However, with a mobile app each student can learn at his or her own pace. Students are not competing with other 20 to 30 students for the attention they need from one teacher.
Smart goals for teachers should include the use of educational apps in daily lesson plans. Most of the information in textbooks has been included in textbook apps. Learning apps include information from physics, mathematics, well-known books and historical textbooks and are available for many other subjects.
Educational apps have built-in databases. These databases store stories, completed assignments, digital copies of references and texts.
Smart goals for teachers should include discussions about how educational apps help students understand the lessons they learn in the classroom.
Technology smart goals for teachers’ examples include the use of mobile phones and mobile phone educational apps in the classroom. Experts agree that educational apps promote interactive engagement between students, teachers and parents. The most effective way is to engage with students while they are using the mobile phone apps.
Smart goals for teachers should be that the use of mobile phone apps make learning fun. Students become more involved with the material they are studying. Students have access to games, puzzles or other challenging tasks through apps. App learning stimulates the brain cells to give students a new way of learning as an alternative to traditional classroom learning.
Studies show that an ordinary mobile phone user looks at their phone more than 150 times a day. Students are more likely to reach for their mobile phone device than they are for a textbook. All students love this new way to learn using a mobile phone.
Subconsciously, apps encourage students to keep learning all the time. Learning is a continuous process that never stops when kids are on vacation or during those times when they are not sitting in a traditional classroom.
Most educational apps are usable without an Internet connection. When students know that they can access educational materials without Internet access on an app, they will be able to schedule study time more efficiently. Mobile phones are portable. Educational apps are available to students whenever they are ready to learn.
App based learning enable both smart and systematic learning. Students are encouraged to study when using apps that promote systematic learning.
Many educational apps allow the user to take notes and arrange them in a systematic way. Ever note is an app that provides students with fast access to their notes. The notes that students take using the systematic apps are stored through cloud storage. Students will always have access to their notes that can’t be lost when stored on the cloud.
Students can listen to pre-recorded lectures that they missed in class from their teachers using mobile apps. These pre-recorded lectures are revision tools for assessments and exams. A pre-recorded lecture provides students with the opportunity to listen to the lectures on the way home or at home as many times as they need to understand the lecture lesson.
It is a known fact that most students have difficulty understanding every important point while listening to a live presentation from teachers. Research demonstrates that around 13 percent of public-school students have some form of learning disability. Disabled students have difficulty listening to a teacher, processing the information and taking notes at the same time. Pre-recorded lectures make it easier for all students to understand the material presented by their teachers in class.
When students use mobile apps as tools to listen to pre-recorded lectures, they promote accountability that is important to higher education and life after they have graduated. A recent study shows that many students entering college don’t have the skills they need to be active learners. Students will have easier access to information presented in the classroom when they use apps to listen to pre-recorded lectures. This helps bridge the gap between active learning and college preparedness.
Student understanding of the lessons taught by the teachers in class increases with collaborative learning through mobile devices that provide access to social media channels. Teachers can help students by answering student questions and posting status updates about the material covered in class. Students can access in-class assignments or homework. Around 70 percent of students think that their education should include using social media as a learning tool.
Smart goals for history teachers should also include the use of mobile phones and technology in their daily teacher-lesson-plans.
Emerging technologies for education explores different ways history teachers can use virtual and augmented reality in class to make studying history and other social studies subjects engaging for their students.
Teachers can discover how the use of apps for mobile phones can make history fun for their students.
Push notification mobile apps reminds students to complete their assignments. When students complete their assignments, they are better prepared for classroom discussions. Student engagement is up in the classroom. Smart goals for teachers have been achieved with some of the best educational apps.