ELT365 · Day 263 — Personal Aims for Teachers
Idea
A personal aim is one teaching skill you are working on in a particular lesson. It makes observation feedback targeted rather than general.
Example
‘My personal aim is to elicit the target language from learners rather than presenting it myself.’ This gives the observer something specific to watch.
Try
Identify one teaching habit you want to change. Write it as a personal aim for your next three lessons.
From my training materials
My CELTA cover sheets provided a clear model for writing measurable personal aims. In my TP2 plan for a present-continuous-for-future lesson, I wrote specific goals to reduce my talking time. I committed to using half-finished phrases, for example, ‘He is meeting his…’ to let students finish the sentence. I also set an aim regarding instruction checking. Instead of asking ‘Do you understand?’, I planned to ask specific questions like, ‘Are you speaking or writing?’ This structure helped me focus on one actionable behavior during the observation.
I also have vocabulary worksheets that support this aim. One worksheet, ‘Personal possessions’, asks students to match words to pictures of two people’s belongings. It includes a note on the difference between a rubber and an eraser. While this is a lexical activity, it requires clear instructions. I can use it to practice my aim of precise checking. If I can guide learners through matching sixteen objects without over-explaining, I have successfully applied the skill. The connection is shared: both documents focus on making my instructions and linguistic output as concise and effective as possible.
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