Using SMART Goal Templates

Video Transcription

Welcome to this lesson. My name is Gino Sangiuliano. And in this video, we're going to look at SMART goal templates and we're going to see how to use them and look at an example of a very basic template. So let's get started.

A few months ago, I began wearing one of those bracelet pedometers that collects data on my activity as I go along my normal daily routine. I have to say it's pretty cool. I often find myself glancing down at it to see how many steps I've walked or how many calories I've burned. I'm able to set goals. For example, 15,000 steps a day, and track progress throughout the day. The next step would be to fully integrate it into a plan of getting healthier by eating right and sleeping more. Sounds like a SMART goal to me.

In an effort to improve upon practices, SPMs and PLCs use SMART goals. Smart is, of course, an acronym and we'll review what it stands for in just a moment. As you know, a SMART goal is a valuable tool that as an educator can help guide our work. A simple search will yield many templates that can be useful to teams as they develop and monitor their own SMART goals. Many of these temples are very similar in content, however they may vary in structure.

Some basic features that most of them cover are timelines, responsible parties, and a way to monitor progress. You're probably wondering what these templates look like and how you determine which one is right for you. There's no shortage of options, but first you have to answer a few questions. Do you prefer to work on a collaborative document or a spreadsheet with your colleagues at the same time? With the increasing popularity of shared documents, many people find it advantageous to use an online SMART sheet that offers the capability to create timelines, assign responsibility, and monitor progress along the way. Google seems to have its hand in everything these days, and in the case of templates, one option is to go with smartsheet.com This site lets you use a baseline version using your Google account for free.

Once you have answered those questions, it's time to select a SMART goal template. Before beginning, run through this checklist to see if it includes the necessary components. A specific goal. A measure to use. A table criteria. Relevant criteria. And person or persons responsible and participating. And finally, a timetable for monitoring and expected dates of reaching the goal, and time for review and adjustment.

Now I'm going to model a very basic template found on smartsheet.com Don't get caught up on the content, as I simplified it in order to highlight the tool. So here we go. Here's a look at a basic template. Note the columns for task name, responsible, state, due date, comments. I will demonstrate how to populate those fields. I will begin by naming the sheet. In this case, Kindergarten Team. And then I have filled in the goal, to increase sight words. And objectives, gather baseline data, research online tools, increase intervention times.

Next I have listed the individuals that will be responsible for each goal, as well as target dates for completion of these steps. This tool offers you the flexibility to personalize it to include additional dates along the way to help monitor progress. In the comments section, I've included that an assessment will be given in order to measure the baseline and the progress toward achieving that goal. If this were an actual goal, I would be much more specific in terms of what assessment and to what degree of success we are looking for. Finally, you can color code your progress using a red, yellow, or green dot. This gives the user a nice visual to check the status.

So in this lesson, we reviewed SMART goals, we looked at what they are and what SMART stands for. We talked about choosing a template to progress, monitor your SMART goal. And we went through the process of using something from smartsheet.com in order to develop a template.

Go to smartsheet.com and just muck around with it. Oftentimes that is the best way to become comfortable with the new tool. For more information on how to apply what you've learned in this video, please view the additional resources section that accompany this presentation. The additional resources section include hyperlinks useful for applications of the course material, including a brief description of each resource. That's it for now. Thank you for joining me and I hope to see you next time.