Using SMART Goal Templates

Video Transcription

PLCs and site-based management teams collaboratively develop SMART goals as a part of their continuous improvement efforts. There are many different SMART goal templates out there that your team might choose to use, and most of them really are very similar in content with the ability to help your team both develop and monitor your SMART goals. But you'll find that templates may vary in structure, and so in this tutorial, I will walk you through the process of finding SMART goal templates, and we'll also talk about using SMART goal templates with your team in order to develop your SMART goals. So let's get started.

Let's begin by discussing how you might find some SMART goal templates to use. There are numerous SMART goal templates out there. You'll want to determine whether you would prefer a word processing document or a spreadsheet. And hand in hand with this decision, you need to decide whether or not you want that document to be collaborative. The benefit of a collaborative document or spreadsheet is that then all of the members of the team can view and contribute to the document at the same time.

If you are leaning towards a collaborative spreadsheet, you might consider using a resource called Smartsheet. Smartsheet.com is an online template website that allows you to create a baseline version of a spreadsheet for free when you link this Smartsheet account to your Google account, and then within the context of your Smartsheet, you can assign responsibilities for tasks and create timelines and monitor progress, and you can get an overall visual display of your project management.

No matter what type of template you choose, you need to make certain that your template is aligned with the SMART acronym. It needs to allow you to indicate a specific goal, to indicate the measurements that you will use, to determine whether the goal is attainable, to specify the criteria that make the goal relevant, or to indicate to be people who are responsible for participating in the various steps in the goal, and to indicate the timeline or the timetable both for the expected end date when you are expected to reach the goal, but also the timeline for monitoring and reviewing and potentially adjusting the action steps.

Let me demonstrate for you how your PLC might use Smartsheet to develop your SMART goal. There are many different templates that are available on Smartsheet. This is just one of many formats you might choose in order to help your team collaborate. Let's say that this particular PLC is going to write a SMART goal that is related to students being able to use the four basic operations-- addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division-- with fractions.

So in general terms, they know that the topic of the goal is going to be using these operations with fractions, but one of the important elements here is gathering some baseline data. And so the team has outlined two different assessments that will be used to gather this baseline data. There is a due date given for each of these assessments, and all three members of this team are going to be completing those two action steps.

The specific formative and summative assessments that will be used to measure progress are outlined in all of these various tasks. Other actions in the development of this goal include specific team members locating online resources, iPad apps, and paper and pencil resources that might help students to improve their ability to use these operations with fractions.

Team members can also use the Comments section to indicate whether or not they feel that these are attainable pieces of the goal for students. They can also suggest ways that the specific steps can be adjusted if necessary. Specific due dates or timelines are provided for the tasks, and this helps everyone to stay on track and to work together to check progress. In fact, specific dates are even given for when the data is going to be analyzed.

If the team wanted to pinpoint any particular students or groups of students, they could do that in the context of this spreadsheet, although it's clear here in this particular example that all of the teachers are going to be administering these formative and summative assessments to all students. One of the great features of this interactive collaborative tool is that everyone involved can see clearly who has been assigned each duty, and in fact, as tasks are completed, they can be marked as done in the spreadsheet.

Following the gathering and examination of the baseline data, and after the team has determined exactly what they want their specific goal to contain, that goal could be included in this spreadsheet itself, or the spreadsheet can just be used to track those individual action steps and the actual goal can be recorded, for example, in a professional development plan, in a PLC action plan, or in some other document that the PLC also is collaborating on.

So here's a chance for you to stop and reflect. Consider signing up for a Smartsheet account in order to try your hand at locating or developing a template that would work well for your team. Or perhaps spend some time searching online for the type of document that would best suit the needs of your team. To dive a little deeper and learn how to apply this information, be sure to check out the Additional Resources section associated with this video. This is where you'll find links targeted toward helping you discover more ways to apply this course material.

Thanks for watching. Have a great day.