25 ways to motivate teachers

8/6/2019 25 Ways to Motivate Teachers

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25 Ways to Motivate Teachers

From time to time, Education World updates and reposts a previously published article that wethink might be of interest to administrators. We hope you find this recently updated article to beof value.

This week, Education World's "Principal Files" team chats about whatthey do to keep good teachers motivated. What special things do theydo to inspire teachers to keep learning and improving their skills? Whatdo they do to keep up staff morale and make their schools fun placesto work? Our principal team shares their best ideas for encouragingteachers to keep on plugging... Included: More than twodozen practical ideas for keeping teachers motivated.

Given the state of school budgets, it is extremely difficult for most principals to do substantial thingsto motivate and inspire teachers. But sometimes little things can make an even bigger difference!That's why Education World recently asked our Principal Files principals to share with us some of their best ideas for keeping teachers motivated. As usual, our principals responded with dozens of practical ideas.

This month's P-Files question reminded principal Les Potter about Robert Greenleaf, authorof Servant Leadership . Greenleaf's idea is that "administrators need to serve the worker," explainedPotter. "At our school we try to do that. We work hard at making things less difficult andcomplicated. We try to cut down the amount of paperwork our faculty must do, limit the number of staff meetings, streamline procedures..."

Administrators at Potter's school try to show teachers every day that they care in many ways. "Wehave an open-door policy, they see us picking up trash and cleaning cafeteria tables, we arrive oncampus before they do and we are here when they leave, and we do not have designated parking orother perks sometimes associated with management," Potter said.

"Administrators always have to put aside their own issues and do what is best for students and staff in a caring and sensitive way. We try not to say no to teachers, and we always treat them as adults."

Principal Tony Pallija agrees. He and the rest of his administrative team try to do lots of specialthings for the entire staff -- from special little gifts to Cookie Day. "We try to pretend we are at IBM -- we treat everyone as a professional and we celebrate whenever we can," said Pallija. "The materialthings are nice, but I have a motto that I try to live by each day: My job as principal is to make theteacher's job easier, better, so they can teach and students can learn."

"Developing a positive school climate is critical to an effective school," added Les Potter. "Morale is avery tentative issue. You can do 99 things right and make one mistake that will shoot moraleforever."

R ECOGNIZING THOSE WHO GO ABOVE AND BEYOND!


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STICKY NOTES, OLYMPIC GAMES, TV STAR S, MINI G R ANTS, MO R E!

Principal Teri Stokes tries to observe every teacher at least two times amonth. Many of those visits are unscheduled, "snapshot" stops. Beforeheading on to the next class, Stokes takes a moment to scribble apositive comment or two on a sticky note. On the way out of the room,she sticks that note to the door or the teacher's desk.

In addition, Stokes often drops little feel-good cards or inexpensivegifts in teachers' mailboxes or on their desks. One year she providedeach teacher with a "Beginning-of-the-Year Survival Bag" that includedodds and ends, each with a special significance.

Does this sound like an idea you might want to employ? If so, you'llfind some great ideas for putting together a "Teachers' Survival Kit" inthe Education World article When All Else Fails, Turn to the SurvivalKit!

Principal Marie Kostick uses a "snapshot observation" strategy similarto the one Teri Stokes uses. In addition, she takes advantage of localtelevision stations that reach out into the community to offers awardssuch as "The Class Act Award" or the "Excellence in Teaching Award."Kostick nominates members of her staff who go beyond the call of duty. Reporters from the television stations come to school tointerview the teachers and present them with certificates. Eachteacher is then recognized in a TV spot that is broadcast several timesin one week.

To build a strong team, principal Phil Shaman held an "EducationalOlympics" at this school one year. Teachers were divided into teamsand competed in a variety of events. All events required that teammembers support each other to complete a task. Events, planned withthe support of his physical education staff, were both athletic (forexample, relay events and a team table tennis match in which team members had to alternate hits)and non-athletic (such as going through a maze blindfolded).

Many states and some local school districts offer reward monies for schools whose students showimprovements on standardized tests. In some schools, those monies are divided among contributingstaff. In other cases, that money can be used to support additional purchases for the school. At Silver

Sands Middle School, staff members voted to set aside a chunk of that money for mini-grants,principal Les Potter told Education World. Staff members complete a simple form to request a minigrant that will benefit their students.

20 MO R E GR EAT IDEAS FOR MOTIVATING TEACHE R S

Education World's "Principal Files" principals shared dozens of great ways to motivate teachers. Sofar, we have mentioned just a handful of those ideas. Following is a list of more than 20 additionalideas presented by principals already mentioned above:

century). "Retreatactivities included a mixof socialization andteam-building activities;analysis of the strengthsand weaknesses of theschool's culture; andcreating essentialagreements about howwe want to worktogether," Ryan toldEducation World.

That retreat was paid forby a parent donation,

Ryan noted, "but inother years we haveheld simpler daytime,off-grounds retreats thathave been very effectivein setting a tone for theyear. Teachers feeltreated and they get toknow new colleagues --which is essential in aninternational school witha fairly transientfaculty."


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The December holidays can be such a busy time. Instead of adding onemore thing to do and one more expense to the month of December,why not spread around the fun? In October, for example, one schoolheld Secret Spook Week. Those teachers who wanted to participatefilled out a profile form that asked questions about favoritecolors,

foods, drinks, hobbies, and so on. Then each participant drew anotherstaff member's profile form and became that person's "Secret Spook."Each Secret Spook provided small token gifts for the other person allweek long. The total expenditure for each participant was set at $10.

Include on each weekly staff memo a quick activity idea that might betried out in the classroom, a quote related to education , or ashort school-related joke . (Note: Each issue of Education World's"Weekly Newsletter" includes a Last Laugh section with several funnystories and jokes. Feel free to copy and paste them for use in your ownweekly memos or parent newsletters.)

Send cards to teachers to welcome them back after an illness,celebrate a birthday or another important event, or recognize a specialachievement... Add a copy of those "special achievements" cards toteachers' personnel files.

Once a semester, or once a quarter, provide all staff members with acome-late-to-work-no-questions-asked form. (Or give that form tostaff members who logged one or no absences in the most recentquarter.) That form represents two hours of time that can be taken atthe start or end of the school day for any reason -- from sleeping in togetting a head start on the weekend. The only catch is that the formmust be "cashed in" in advance so arrangements can be made to freean administrator or somebody else to cover the staff member'sresponsibilities. Little things like this cost no money and demonstratethat administrators are willing to go the extra mile for the folks whowork for them.

Provide free coffee in the teacher's lounge from 7:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. every day.

Select a "Teacher of the Month." Set aside a special parking space close to the main faculty entrancethat is marked with a "Reserved for the Teacher of the Month" sign.

To motivate professional development, arrange study groups (perhaps organized by grade level) toread a book or discuss and research a current hot topic.

Set up a schedule to ensure that every educator makes at least two visits to other teachers'classrooms or other schools during the year. Arrange coverage for those teachers. You might set upa special arrangement with other schools to open their classrooms to your teachers, but teachersshould also be able to make their own arrangements for visitations to classes/schools they havelearned about through the grapevine.

finding, training, andretaining substituteteachers.

Data Is Making aDifference in TheseSchools Principals share ways inwhich they are usingdata to lead theirschools to success.

Great Staff Meetings:Pointers from thePrincipals Who Lead

Them Stuck for ideas foreffective staff meetings?Looking for ways tomake sure everybody ispresent and interested?

Teachers Urged toConsider Principalship Principals share the joysof the job plu s words of encouragement foreducators who might beconsidering the path tothe principal's office.


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Feed the teachers! Celebrate the end of a busy week by arranging to have the cafeteria staff preparea special continental breakfast -- beverages and muffins, rolls, or coffee cake -- every Friday morning.(Even once a month would be nice!) Don't forget to do something nice for the cafeteria folks acouple times a year.

Appoint a teacher to be "acting principal" when you are out of the building. (This usually convincesthem that they love being a teacher!)

Make sure that everyone is on a committee that meets regularly and that they have real tasks andopportunities for real input in school-level decision making.

Arrange to have music played (or piped in) during faculty meetings. Music stimulates the brain.

Be sure to publicly commend staff members who go above and beyond outside of the school day --by volunteering to be part of district-wide or state-level committees, for example.

Approach the parent-school association, local business partners, Jaycees, or other groups to gathermaterials and labor to accomplish various fix-it projects that the Board of Education is unable totackle.

Organize a social committee to plan events just for fun. One such event might be a monthly "Treat-Your-Friends Tuesday." Each month a different group of teachers brings themed food items to shareduring the day in the teacher's lounge.

During Teacher Appreciation Week hold a daily drawing for a "1/2-day off" certificate. The principalwill cover the class when you take that time off.

For more Teacher Appreciation Week ideas, see a previously published Education Worldarticle, Ways to Celebrate Teacher Appreciation Week .

Make a spot on your weekly memo for a special thank-you or congratulations to individuals or theentire team. For example: Thank you for organizing Red Ribbon Week! Thanks for the extra effort onparent teacher conferences! Thank you to the "bulletin board fairy" who decorated the board in theworkroom!...

ADDITIONAL R ESOUR CE

Back-to-School Survivor Day Offers Lessons About Quality Learning Educator recounts how her school's administrators used the Survivor television show as a theme tostrengthen teams, build camaraderie, present challenges -- and teach a few lessons about how tocreate a quality classroom environment for students. Included: Survivor activity ideas and teacher

reactions!

25 ways to motivate teachers

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