Conference season is upon us, and it’s important for all teachers to have had contact with family and students multiple times before conferences, especially positive contact. Building rapport with your classroom families ensures mutual respect and trust. Without a plan, you might find yourself getting to the end of September or October without much meaningful contact with families or students, especially if you have a large class! End the cycle of behavior or conference only contact by setting a SMART goal for student & family relationships.
1. Identify your Professional Goal
Teaching goals can be found in 3 different categories (organization & lesson planning have been addressed in previous posts):
- Organization (this also includes time management)
- Curriculum and Lesson Planning (this includes any type of assessment)
- Student and Family Relationships (this also includes classroom management)
Think about where you stand in each category.
Take a moment to rate yourself in each category. 1 being your weakest area and 3 your strongest.
Use either your 1 or 2 to narrow down your more specific goal.
2. Narrow it Down
After you’ve identified your weakest category, narrow it down to a specific task in that category.
Here are some components of each category; feel free to brainstorm your own! Your job, in reviewing this list, is to ask yourself, “Which component makes me anxious or is missing from my teaching practice? If I had that component, my teaching life would be more joyful and less stressful!”
Student & Family Relationships
-Relationships are Key
- Do you feel like there’s not enough time in the day to get to know students one-on-one? Do you have so many students but not enough mental or relational space to build meaningful relationships with each one?
-Family and Teacher Partnership
- Do you get intimidated by interacting with families, even though you know that the partnership will benefit your students? Is it hard to reach out to all families in a meaningful way in order to build trust and respect?
-Safe Classrooms
- Do you feel like you’re just putting out fires during the day? Is it difficult for you to build relationships with more challenging students, even though you know that that will benefit the class in the long run?
3. Write a SMART goal
Use the specific task in step 2 to write your SMART goal. I would recommend narrowing it down even more to 1 class period.
For example, I am a teacher who feels like I don’t have enough time to build meaningful relationships with students. This is greatly impacting my class, and I feel like I’m putting out more fires than actually teaching. I know relationships are key, but I don’t know where to start.
Specific-Specificity ensures that goals are met at a higher rate. Vague or too large goals are often forgotten about, especially if they seem too daunting to achieve within the school year.
I will have 5 minutes of relationship building time with each of my students each week.
Measurable–We’re now taking our goal and ensuring that we can reasonably measure our goal.
I will spend at least 5 minutes with my students outside of class (before or after school or lunch). I will track this by printing out a class roster and calendar and planning in advanced who I hope to connect with each day.
Achievable– Realistically think about how you can achieve this goal. Talk with colleagues or admin to help you identify blind spots or glitches in your goal. You want to walk away with something you CAN achieve! I’m starting with my 2nd period class since they’re my most difficult class.
For my 2nd period class (my most difficult class), I will spend at least 5 minutes with 3 students outside of class (before or after school or lunch) each day of the week. Since I have 25 students, I will cycle through each student every 9 days. I will track this by printing out a class roster and calendar and planning in advanced who I hope to connect with each day.
Relevant & Realistic-Why is this goal important to your teaching context? When you AND students know where they stand in your class, you’ll be able to intervene when necessary and build confidence where it might be lacking.
In order to build meaningful relationships with students and mutual respect in my 2nd period class (my most difficult class), I will spend at least 5 minutes with 3 students outside of class (before or after school or lunch) each day of the week. Since I have 25 students, I will cycle through each student every 8-9 days. I will track this by printing out a class roster and calendar and planning in advanced who I hope to connect with each day.
Time Bound-When do you hope to achieve this goal? Think about the entire school year and what makes sense for your specific goal. If your course is only 1 semester, you might have to rewrite it for a new class the next semester. It’s okay to change goals mid-year if your teaching context changes.
In order to build meaningful relationships with students and mutual respect in my 2nd period class (my most difficult class), I will spend at least 5 minutes with 3 students outside of class (before or after school or lunch) each day of the week. Since I have 25 students, I will cycle through each student every 8-9 days. I will track this by printing out a class roster and calendar and planning in advanced who I hope to connect with each day for the rest of the semester.
4. Accountability
After writing your SMART goal, be sure to share it with a colleague who also has their own SMART goal. I recommend meeting once a week at the start of your SMART goal to ensure you both feel supported in your goal. Then, as the year goes on, you can have twice a month check-ins.
Plan for celebrations and you meet each step of your SMART goal. Be sure to give yourself grace on days when things don’t go to plan. If you find that your SMART goal isn’t work, rewrite it so that it does work and can be achieved.
The time we spend in community and holding space for each other with our goals sets a beautiful foundation for our teaching. Teachers, students, and school communities thrive when everyone knows what they’re working towards and that they don’t have to do so alone.
Be sure to share your student or family relationships SMART goals with us or let us know if you’d like help in writing a student or family relationships SMART goal!