6 Doable New Years Resolutions for Teachers

I sat down this morning with my IEP coach hat on to get to work and all that was on my mind was setting resolutions for next year.

Now, I am one of those people that either doesn’t set a resolution because I know it won’t happen OR I set one and by the end of January it’s out the door. It’s not that I don’t need to set resolutions, it’s just that… I guess, I have never really chosen a resolution that made an immediate, direct impact on my day to day life.

Sound familiar?

So why am I here today talking about resolutions when I don’t even keep them myself…🧐

Because last year I tried something new and it worked for me… I set goals instead of resolutions.

Now, full transparency – I did keep the goals for the entire year, I did not meet them all, but I did revisit them every month or two to see what progress I had made and made changes as needed to help me reach the goal (or get close to it).

Kind of like the IEP goal progress we keep on our students…💡

Which got me thinking that maybe I can help you with your “teacher goals” for the year (please don’t ask me for help with exercising… I am not that kind of coach😅).

I chose these 6 new year goals based on questions and comments I see frequently in the free Facebook group, and across social media. Why 6? Because it’s my favorite number.😉

You can choose 1 or multiple, or none – it’s completely up to you.

1. IEP Season is coming!

For the lucky half of us that have an IEP season (i.e., we write all of our IEPs in one month out of the year, usually in the Spring), it doesn’t come without stress on stress on stress. And even when you write IEPs all school year long, there’s stress.

What do you do when, and how far out? What are all of the other things you need to do before you even write the actual IEP?

Here’s a free resource for you, our IEP Writing Timeline. This is your turning point, and if you try nothing else to enhance your IEP writing, let it be this. To learn more about the IEP Writing Timeline, start here.

2. “How do I figure out what goal to write next…?”

IEP goal writing is one of the biggest struggles I see with IEP teams, and for good reason. IEP goals are the driving factors of special education services, and it can be difficult to determine what comes next.

Especially when your students are a grade level – or multiple grade levels – behind their peers.

This was something I personally struggled with when I taught in the self-contained setting. Some states will give you a little guidance, but for the most part you’re on your own. You feel that though, don’t you?

That’s why I developed the IEP Matrix™.

3. Be Better at Data Collection and Progress Monitoring

Writing IEP goals is the first step, the next step is collecting data on those goals. And once you’ve written a solid goal with progress monitoring in mind, the data collection is the easy part.

Here are a few free, readable resources to help you get started:

• Data Collection for Special Education Teachers (blog post)
• I Took Data, Now What? (blog post)
• How to Write Progress Reports (blog post)
• Data Collection Shortcuts (download)

If you’re looking for a more video-type of training, you’ll enjoy our Intentional Data Collection course inside of The Intentional IEP. This training series walks you through the 5 Wh’s of data collection, shows you how and what to collect data on, and then provides you with guided practice to hone your new skill before you DIY it in your classroom. Get started here.

You can also find all of the data sheets you will ever need in the TII shop.

4. Organize the IEP Paperwork

Wooo… this is a big one, and can feel like such an enormous undertaking if you’re just getting started or looking for a new organization method to take the place of your current-no-working-so-well-method. Lucky for you, I have a couple of resources to help.

• Your caseload – if you want to have a clear, simple system for managing your entire caseload in one place, try this. It’s how I managed my caseloads, whether I had 2 students, 12 students, or 60+ students. To learn more, start here.
• Your individual students – If you’re open to having one binder for each of your students (or if you have a larger caseload (read: more than 16 students on your caseload), start here.) that will be the place you keep all of that student’s information, work samples, etc… start here.

6. “[Stephanie] isn’t following the IEP…”

This is a phrase I see all too often (and have personally experienced as a special education teacher and caseload manager), and there’s a lot of unpack here.

And, as always, I will never throw anyone but myself under the bus – so here are a few resources that may be helpful in navigating this frustrating space:

• What to Do When IEP Goals Aren’t Working
• 8 IEP Red Flags
• What are Parent’s Rights with an IEP?
• How to Better Explain IEPs to General Ed Teachers

On a super serious not, when you notice an IEP team member is not following the IEP, you should:

1. take data on it,
2. talk to the team member about it, and
3. talk to admin (if necessary).

At the end of the day, all special education teachers have to write IEPs and we should be celebrating that we get to be a part of our students’ lives in such a profound, powerful way. Yes, IEPs are exhausting and stressful to write – but they help our students succeed and grow. How cool is that?

The best part? You don’t have to IEP alone.

No one teaches us how to advocate—they just tell us to do it. But real advocacy requires real knowledge. The Intentional IEP gives you that: clear goals, training that actually makes sense, and tools that save you time. Because when you know better, you advocate better.