Classroom and Career Goals

In order to have a productive and successful classroom, it is important to set goals and work to achieve those goals. One of the main classroom goals I have is to simply stay organized. In my experience so far, I have seen both classrooms that are and those that are not. The practices by these two groups of teachers are also directly reflected upon by their students. By practicing what you preach so to speak, students see a direct example of what you can get done by staying organized and being efficient. I believe it can be a potentially positive experience to set common goals in which both you and your students can work towards at an individual level, and the aspect of organization is one that fits that model. Another classroom goal I have is to have students more interested leaving class the last day as the first. For many teachers they resort to “just getting through the year.” However, I want my students to walk away sparked with not only more knowledge but more inquiry in to the subject. The more questions they have the better, meaning they want to know more and are thirsty to figure all of it out. If I can achieve this goal, then learning will exceed just the classroom and create some well-rounded 21^st century thinkers.

In terms of my career goals, they are a little more vague. I would love to say that I want to stay and teach in one spot for the majority of my career. While I have no plans to not do so, obviously life happens at moments and it is hard to say I will absolutely be able to do so. By staying in one school I can work towards becoming staple in that community and hopefully someone students, families, and faculty look up to as an example of how to do it the right way. Another career goal I think that would be of interest to me down the line would be to take a higher up position within a school. Whether this be a department chair or an administrator, this has become something that has started to cross my mind and could become a possibility. Obviously to help achieve this goal down the road I would take the necessary continuing credits to do so.

As I move forward in my teaching career, I am sure more goals will pop up and become clear and important to me. For now, my focus is one keeping them small and attainable. I am a firm believer in the idea that a series of small attainable goals have compounding effects in to something bigger and better. My first goal was simply to obtain a full-time position as soon as possible, and since I have already done so I am headed in the right direction towards the rest of them.