It’s that time of year again when all the teachers at our school have to write their professional goals for the year. I agonize over it every single year. No kidding. It’s one of those things where you know you’ll be really happy you did it once it’s done but the thought of sitting down to do it is gut wrenching. It takes pure force of will for me to set aside some time from doing all the stuff I think is important and actually put into writing the stuff that actually is important.

And there’s the rub. You know you’ll be more effective and productive if you do it but you think you’re just too busy to find the time. Well, here goes.

This year I want to improve the amount of critical thinking that goes on in my classroom. This has been on ongoing goal for about three years now so it’s kind of cheating to use it again. On the other hand, I’m not where I want to be on that front so it’s still legit right? I’ve implemented a  few strategies to increase the thinking that my students have to do and I’ll be writing about them in future blog entries. Things like open book tests and group tests but I won’t spoil the surprise any further. I’m thinking about introducing case studies this semester so maybe I’ll write about how that’s going as I give it more thought and finally try it out.

Regardless of what my goals end up being, I have to stay focused on the fact that it’s important to have them. Writing them down and showing them to someone gives us a way to stay focused on reaching them and makes us accountable if we start to get side tracked. The most amazing and  rewarding thing about the whole process to me is looking back at my goals at the end of the year and recognizing just how well I did. And if I fell short of the mark, that’s ok too. There’s always next year!

What are the goals you’re working on this year? Maybe I’ll use them next year. 😉