How Teachers Can Set Realistic Goals

Instead of trying to do everything, focus on what will help you and your students feel a sense of competence in the classroom.

One of the reasons I was burning out as a teacher was a growing sense of incompetence. I couldn’t figure out why I was always so far behind with work. I felt like my students and I worked diligently, yet every April, I was having to cut whole units that I didn’t have time to teach. (I guess we’re not getting to Rocks and Minerals this year!) Where did all the time go? Was I really so incompetent that I couldn’t get to all I was supposed to teach?

This prompted a thought exercise. For an entire year, I kept track of all of the time that was taken away from my teaching. Every time my students had a fire drill or a bus evacuation drill or I was pulled out of class for an IEP meeting, I logged the time lost on a simple file on my computer. Every time we attended a whole school assembly, missed a half-day for a delayed opening because of snow, or had an extra chorus practice to get ready for a concert, I logged the time lost. Some of these activities (e.g., assemblies and concerts) were good uses of time—educational and important. I wasn’t logging wasted time but time that I didn’t have to teach reading, writing, math, science, and social studies. I didn’t log time spent traveling to lunch or specials (which felt too nitpicky) or time I chose to do something non-curricular (e.g., an extra recess on a beautiful May afternoon). My goal was to see what time I was losing that I couldn’t control.