New Year's Resolutions for Educators

Can you believe it’s already 2023? You’ve officially made it halfway through the school year. Many people see the new year as a good time to set goals and resolutions for themselves. Unfortunately, often these resolutions are forgotten throughout the year. In fact, only 9% of people actually stick with theirs and 43% expect to give up their goals by February. If you have an idea in mind for a New Year's resolution this year that you really want to make sure you keep, whether it's professional or personal, consider these tips!

Tips for Setting Goals

1. Celebrate every success, whether it's big or small. Don’t just focus on the things you are unable to accomplish but really take time to celebrate all of your achievements throughout the year. You’re doing an amazing job and you deserve to be celebrated!
2. Come up with a list of things to look forward to. Some of the goals you set for yourself may be more challenging and less fun. In order to avoid giving up on them, create a list of things that you're looking forward to in order to stay motivated.

3. Make sure your goals are realistic. If you're setting an impossible goal for yourself, you'll probably end up frustrated that you're not getting the result you were hoping for and give up. Use SMART goals as a reference: 

    

   

4. Come up with objectives for each goal. Not only should they be achievable, but you should set objectives for each goal. If your goal is to improve your school’s communication or keep parents more involved, you’ve set a really great goal, but how are you going to achieve it? Create a checklist of what tools you’ll need to do this and the steps you'll need to take in order to get there. 
5. Do 30, 60, or 90-day challenges instead of a year-long goal. As New Year's resolutions tend to be forgotten as life gets busier throughout the year, set short-term goals instead. This way you can easily stay on top of your goals and reevaluate your progress at certain time frames. This is also a great way to show your progress and celebrate your achievements throughout the year. When reevaluating ask yourself these questions: 
   We’re your initial goals realistic?
   Could you challenge yourself even more?
   Was your 90-day challenge too long of a timeframe or your 30-day challenge too short?

Example Goals for Educators

Now that you have some helpful tips to help you figure out your goals this year, here are some examples of great goals to set for yourself as an educator!

1. Schedule work-free time. Create and maintain a healthy work/life balance to avoid burnout. Burnout is an issue that all educators face. Schedule time weekly outside of work when you don’t have to check your email or stress about everything that needs to be done throughout the week. Make time for your favorite self-care practices. 
2. Bring technology into your classroom. Technology is designed to make life easier. Research what tools are out there that can be incorporated into your classroom. 
3. Increase parent involvement by connecting with parents on a regular basis. You can provide biweekly announcements to your students' parents through secure group messaging. As you know, involved parents lead to higher academic achievement. Keeping parents in the loop of what assignments are coming up can help keep students on track.
4. Improve overall school-to-home communication by making it more consistent and accessible to all. What tools do you currently use to communicate with parents and guardians? Are your important messages being read by your targeted audience or are they being left unread in their full inboxes?

If any of the goals you've set for yourself this year involve school communication, we can help! SchoolInfo specializes in improving and simplifying school communication. With a parent communication app, you can be confident that your desired audience is receiving your important messages. Everyone in your community including administrators, teachers, parents, and students can benefit from a school app. Teachers can communicate directly with parents through the app and parents can see calendars and receive event notifications. Let us help you reach your goals this year! Connect with someone on our team today to learn more about how an app should be an essential part of your digital communication plan.