Teacher Professional Goals Examples | Top 9 Must Have

For teachers and educators learning never stops, rather it is their passion. But to go on this path one really needs to set goals and that’s why I am sharing the top 9  teacher professional goals examples. Which I feel are the most relevant career goals for teacher in today’s modern time.

So, if you are a teacher/educator this is for you, I am sure this information will help you in may ways.

Also, setting career goals can be an effective path for career growth and personal development for any teacher/educators.

I am also listing five professional goal examples for teachers in SMART format. This will help you to visualise how you can set your own goals.

Why Set Professional Goals For Teachers?

So, let’s answer the question, there are several reasons why you as a teacher and educator would consider setting professional goals during your career (Promotion, self-development).

One of the most common reason why professional development for teachers is very important, as they want to advance in their career/have good opportunities.

As a teacher you want to seek a different position, a position with a higher salary or a promotion, or want to change city and need to look for another opportunity in a new city. Setting career goals will help you to achieve this new position/need.

On a personal note, you want to become better teachers in the same subject or learn different/new subjects. Setting a goal gives you a specific target (learn a new language, complete the next educational goal) to improve and also helps you to easily measure your progress toward a new goal.

What Are Different Areas To Set Goals For Teachers?

As a teacher you can set your goals in different area work, you can also have your some personal goals too.

Professional -Goals For Teachers

1. Promotions
2. Increment
3. Higher post

Personal -Goals For Teachers

1. Improving existing skill
2. Learning new skill
3. Self-development

Other – Goals For Teachers

1. Mentor new teachers
2. Community work

Top 9 Teacher Professional Goals Examples

Examples of professional goals for teachers:

1. Use Of Technology

During the pandemic we all went through a learning curve to learn and use technology to communicate and conduct class online. The classroom education went online and teachers were asked to follow new ways to provide instruction to students.

In this example of professional goals for teachers, a teacher might use a new digital whiteboard to provide interactive lessons and create a different learning environment for students.

There are many free apps on school-supplied digital whiteboards that can be used to enhance the learning experience but, teachers need to learn how to use them.

A another goal for you as a teacher can be to research some of the latest technological developments in education and incorporate relevant into their curriculum for the school year.

2. Go For Higher Education

Now there are many opportunities available for you to take higher education courses. So, some of the teachers can aim to advance their education by earning new degrees or completing additional courses.

This new degrees/ courses will enhance your chances for promotion/ better payoff.

For example, teachers who earn their Master’s degree in education administration in a particular year, if they want to become a school administration head/principal before they take on to new responsibility it will help them for this goal. This is on of the best teacher growth goals examples.

3. Develop Skills

There are always some areas where a teacher can feel the need for development, like their skills in a certain area.

Now to develop this skill, you can set a goal to spend extra time generating new information/ resources required for this goal.

For example, a teacher can decide that they want to improve their innovation area and new thinking for the upcoming academic year.

4. Improve Student Grades

For you as a teacher, nothing is more satisfying than to see their students performing well in all the subjects you teach.

As a teacher you often work hard to improve their students’ overall grades in all the subjects (maths, science).

For example, every exam gives a chance for evaluation, teacher can look at the average grade for their students at the end of one semester.

Now you can set a goal to improve this average by the end of the following semester, by identifying which subjects, where students need more focus and time to learn.

5. Mentor New Teachers

The people who start as teaching assistants or part-time teachers, may not have all the required experience in the beginning before they become full-time teachers.

So many people don’t begin their careers as full-time teachers teaching full classes in school. Most of the time these new teachers lean on job how to lead a full class from senior experienced teachers in that school.

So, some of the as a senior experienced teachers you can take a goal to help these generations of teachers to below full-time teachers leading successful classes. Mentoring new teacher is one of the best professional teaching goals.

6. Teach A New Course

Sometimes it is by choice or sometimes it is by demand that you need to teach a new course. So, one reason you might want to add more excitement to work and take a break from regular subjects, it is a good break from teaching the same subject for many years.

This will also help your resume to have more weight due to additional subjects/courses.

Sometimes it is because, as a teacher you have an interest in a particular subject (eg. IT, Modern Art) that is not one of your core subjects but you want to teach.

This gives you a chance to pursue your passion and teach something that interests you, and while doing so you might not mind spending additional hours learning and teaching.

7. Learn New Teaching Methods

New teaching methods can help teachers provide more opportunities for student involvement in the whole learning process.

Also, if you are teaching the same thing for a long time it will be a good change, so if you feel you can improve your method for teaching set a goal to find a new technique and implement it.

Sample professional teacher goals, you are normally teaching a subject through a lecture, now you set a goal to explore some methods that directly involve the students, like case studies/reading and group discussions.

8. Build A Positive Classroom Culture

Building a positive classroom culture (greeting each other in the morning, taking feedback) is an important aspect of creating an environment where all students feel supported by teachers.

This positive classroom management/culture creates a place where a teacher and students can build a trust base relationship with each other.

So, this goal requires teachers to actively work towards developing a welcoming atmosphere that includes the diversity of their students and promotes happiness.

9. Goal To Collaborate With Colleagues

When you set a goal to collaborate with colleagues (other teachers) you have a chance to share ideas, resources, and feedback about the class and students with other teachers.

This helps both ways other teachers know the strengths and weakness of a particular class and vice versa.

You can set a goal to have planned meetings with colleagues to collaborate and work together on new initiatives or projects.

These educator professional goals are examples for you to understand how you can set professional goals for your self.

SMART Professional Goals Examples For Teachers

Now that we have seen the examples of professional goals for teacher, the question is how do we convert them into SMART goals.

Don’t worry in the next step we will see how we can convert some of these professional goals into SMART teacher goal setting examples. But before we do that let’s quickly understand SMART goals in brief.

SMART Goals

SMART is, S as a Specific, M as a Measurable, A as a Achievable, R as a Relevant, and T as a Time-Bound.

These five interconnected principles (S=Specific, M=Measurable, A=Achievable, R=Relevant, and T=Time-bound) provide the basic foundation for effective goal setting, making sure that your goal is not just another wish, but a strategic plan backed by action and purpose.

List of professional goals for teachers

1. Develop Skills
2. Use Of Technology
3. Improve Student Grades
4. Learn New Teaching Methods
5. Collaborate With Colleagues

Let us see how we can use these professional goals for teachers examples list and convert each of the teacher goal examples into a SMART sample teacher professional goals.

1. Develop Skills – Join A Higher Educational Course

S: Specific – Join the higher educational course to get a higher education and certificate to advance in my professional career.

M: Measurable – Your enrollment in the course measures progression towards this goal, as does self-reflection to figure out what you learned and how you will apply the information.

A: Achievable – Complete all the classes with at least 98% attendance and secure grade A marks.

R: Relevant – As a teacher I want to become better, and an educational course will enhance my skills and knowledge.

T: Time-Bound – I will identify the educational course next 45 days and I will sign up for it.

Putting all the elements together, your SMART goal would be:

My teachers professional goals is , I will have signed up for an educational course to enhance my skills and knowledge (in teaching) in the next 45 days and I will complete this with 100% attendance and secure grade A marks in the final (Put a future date). This will help me to advance in my professional career.

2. Use Of Technology – Monthly Parent Newsletter Using Email

S: Specific – Increase the teacher-parent communication.

M: Measurable – The plan is to send out a monthly newsletter.

A: Achievable – In the first two weeks work on the content and last week Friday send the monthly newsletter.

R: Relevant – A newsletter to improve communications with parents and help them with relevant information on curriculum, and class activities.

T: Time-Bound – The monthly newsletter will be sent on the last Friday of the month.

Putting all the elements together, your SMART goal would be:

My professional goals as a teacher is by the end of the semester (Put a future date), I will have worked on a plan in place to make and send out a monthly newsletter covering topics covered during the month and class activities updates. This will help both teachers and parents to improve communication.

3. Improve Student Grades – Exam Scores & Performance

S: Specific – Help a class to improve the average grades compared to the last exam grades.

M: Measurable – The goal is to increase average grades compared to last exam grades by 15%.

A: Achievable – This is an attainable goal, with some additional time by the teacher students, and parents.

R: Relevant – Setting a goal like a grade improvement within the classroom and helping all students in class to get the most out of every day.

T: Time-Bound – The goal has set a clear target date i.e. the next semester exam date (Put a future date).

Putting all the elements together, your SMART goal would be:

So your professional goals as a teacher is by the end of the semester, I will help my class students to have at least a 15% increase in grades across all subjects on average. This also helps class students improve their performance and success.

4. Learn New Teaching Methods – Make Learning Fun

S: Specific – I will make learning a fun activity by substituting weekly one worksheet activity with games and group discussion.

M: Measurable – One worksheet activity is replaced by the group discussion so I know it is completed 100%.

A: Achievable – In a week it is planned once and the remaining days will cover the worksheet activity. This will still stay on top of my lesson plans and curriculum while I see students participating in fun and learning activities.

R: Relevant – As students they learn more when they have free hand and fun, this activity is entirely relevant as it helps students in confidence building and improvement in communication.

T: Time-Bound – I plan this in the next 30 days and implement this post-planning in weeks’ time (Put a future date) and I want to continue to achieve my goal every week.

Putting all the elements together, your SMART goal would be:

In this SMART professional goals for teachers you can write, I will start (Put a future date) to make learning a fun activity by substituting weekly worksheets with games and group discussions helping students in confidence building and improvement in communication. 

5. Collaborate With Colleagues

S: Specific – There is so much that teachers can learn from each other, and the goal is to share knowledge and spend time with one teacher every week.

M: Measurable – I will have a list prepared so that every week I can share my lunch break with a specific teacher and share the ideas and feedback.

A: Achievable – Lunch break provides a good time for discussion (personal, professional), and being productive in such time is valuable.

R: Relevant – Having healthy relationships at the workplace is very important for both personal and professional development as a teacher.

T: Time-Bound – I plan to start my lunch break sharing practice next month and follow the cycle.

Putting all the elements together, your SMART goal would be:

After COVID-19, things have changed, I plan to share my lunch time with all my teachers and create time to know each other and share ideas and feedback, after all, learning means adapting to changes. Also spending time with different personalities, I will have a chance to understand life better.

I suggest using some of the relevant teacher goals examples from the above list you can start building your own list.

How To Set Professional Goals? Smart Goals Template

You can use this SMART goals template and above examples of teacher goals to practice your goal setting exercise. This format can also be used for personal professional goals for teachers.

FAQ : Professional Teacher Goals

Conclusion

So, setting and pursuing professional goals and career goals for teachers is not just a personal endeavor, it also helps you to pursue your passion (teach new subjects, develop skills) and help new teachers and students.

We have seen the significance of clear, measurable, and achievable goals, and how they can be categorized (Professional, Personal, Other).

So use these teacher professional growth goals examples as a starting point to build your own list of goals you want to achieve.

So, next time when you sit down to plan/write your goals I am sure the above list of sample professional goals for teachers will help you.

Let me know your take on SMART goals in comment section below.