Short term goals are goals that you can complete as part of a whole. When it comes to education, there are a variety of short terms goals that you might want to decide upon. Short term goals might be daily or weekly, monthly, by semester, or by year. Although the length of time might not always be thought of as "short" if a goal is a tiny part of a bigger goal, it can be considered to be short term.
Daily or Weekly
When educators think of short term goals in education, they often think of daily or weekly goals. Students might learn one vocabulary or spelling word a day, read one chapter a week in a reading book, or spend a certain number of hours per week in silent reading. These short term goals should add up to a teacher's yearly goals to meet their required curriculum.
Monthly
Many teachers set monthly short term goals for classrooms. The teacher might want children to learn a chapter in a book each month, or for students to do one art project per month. Monthly goals are often easy to meet because teachers divide the school year into nine months, and focus on each month. Especially early elementary schools, where students are learning about the months of the year, can focus on setting monthly goals.
By Semester
Teachers also set semester goals as short term goals. Often teachers have a long term, yearly goal for students or for their classroom, so they try to meet it in smaller increments, like quarters or semesters. If a teacher wants her students to get through the entire math book in a year, a short term, semester goal, might be to have students complete half of of the book by the holiday break. Other short term semester goals might include raising reading scores in increments throughout the year, or working on a few basic behavior problems each semester until your long term behavioral goals are met.
Yearly
Yearly goals can also be short term goals. If you eventually want to raise a million dollars for your school's remodeling project, a short term goal might be to have seven events in one year to try to raise money. You might also have short term goals for a student over the course of a year. If their long term goals include learning to read at grade level, the yearly short term goal might be moving them up two grade levels to get closer to their own reading level.
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Writer Bio
Terrance Karter has served as a reporter, reviewer and columnist for "The Exponent," as well as a contributor to the "Shelterbelt," both based in northeast South Dakota. Karter holds a Bachelor of Arts in history from Northern State University in South Dakota.