As teachers, lesson objectives are a vital part of daily teaching but how often have you considered the importance of objectives in your own teacher professional development? For many of us, January is the start of a new term. For others, January represents the beginning of a new school year. So, what you want to achieve professionally in 2023?
- Step 1: Reflect on your development in 2022
All our Teach2030 community worked hard to upskill themselves last year but unless we reflect today, we risk forgetting some of our professional development progress.
Now is the perfect time to reward your progress by considering exactly what you learnt.
Teach2030 encourages you to keep action plans and a teacher portfolio. But, how often do you look back over your entries?
Natukunda Phionah from Uganda shared his action plan, having completed our ‘Fresh Thinking’ course:
| What would I like to improve? | Why? | How will I do it? | When will I review my action plan? |
| Ensuring that 21st century skills are emphasised in my practice (the 4cs) | It is important for learners to attain these skills because I have learnt that once students attain them, they are able to thrive in a world, where change is constant and learning never stops. | I will encourage student collaboration by creating study groups for students to do group projects. Nurture students’ communication skills through encouraging ‘presentation making,’ in order to build student confidence. I will also encourage creativity through encouraging new skills; fostering a question-friendly environment, practising generating more ideas; as well as modelling creativity in the classroom. I will teach and emphasise metacognition, as well as using extensive and detailed questions, in order to help students develop into critical thinkers. | Monthly |
Actions plans are useful, but only if they are reviewed and maintained. It is a habit – and habits take time to create. They are as important as the action plan itself.
Only once we have reviewed what we have already learnt – and how effectively we kept up the practice – can we begin to set ourselves objectives.
- Step 2: Draft Objectives for 2023
Now it is time to think about what you want to learn this year. It might be related to a subject, topic, strategy or skill. Perhaps you are keen to learn about formative assessment or differentiation. SMART objectives are useful for the classroom and useful for life as well.
Begin by drafting three objectives for the year. Here are some examples:
- to apply three new formative assessment strategies effectively in my Year 2 English class (across the academic year)
- to complete one Teach2030 course between January and March
- to construct a healthy habit of reflecting on my lesson plans every week
The example objectives are SMART. They are specific, measurable, achievable and timely. Note that the final objective is not as specific as it could be. This is because I might not know yet what the healthy habit is. Perhaps it is in the morning that I need to reflect or at the end of the teaching day. Sometimes, trial and error is the key to finding success. You might not have the solution straight away – this is probably why you have picked it as an objective in the first place.
- Step 3: Review Objectives for 2023
At Teach2030, we always promote reflection and review; it is the cycle of learning. Stepping away from your draft objectives, give yourself time to think about whether these are the best goals for yourself and your teacher professional development. Nobody is testing you on these. So, take your time to get them right.
Teach2030 will support you throughout 2023. Every month this year, we will have free live Q&As and workshops. To sign up, click here. On our Facebook and Instagram pages, we highlight different lessons that you might want to implement in your classroom, especially through our Teaching Tip of The Week. We are building a supportive, global Teach2030 community, where you can feel confident discussing ways to improve your teaching. Let’s work together to make that happen! Online learning through the smartphone is the future of low-cost access to high quality and contextualised professional development. Develop your skills and model the growth expected in their learners by joining our Teach 2030 social media community today!
Let’s begin the conversation by sharing your professional development objectives with us. Simply comment below!
I will learn from her, and will consider developing my own action plan and more importantly doing the required courses and implementing them in my classroom