You may not have known this, but I spent my four years of college life studying for a degree in business. Out of college, I worked in customer service, sales, and management before realizing my calling as an educator. With the loving support of my wife, I made the career shift and here I am now. The hardest part of it all? Wasn't working with the kids, lesson planning, or having to go back to school to get a masters. No.. in the end all of that was fine. The hardest part for me has been transitioning into a very different way of approaching work.
I spent my childhood watching my dad bust his butt in corporate America, and work his way up to executive positions. He was professional, trustworthy, and driven. Those qualities led to his success. I saw that, and lived by that out of college becoming an assistant manager of an Enterprise Rent-A-Car office just after a 1 year with the company. I work hard, I have a great attitude, and I strive to be the best. Promotions and raises followed in each of the positions I held before going back to become a teacher. So the challenge has been finding the driving, motivating force each year to become an even better teacher.
I get the idealistic concept of getting better for "the children." Sure. But isn't that why I got into the profession in the first place? Of course I work for the students each year. I give everything I have to motivate and inspire my students to be dedicated learners. I exhaust myself to the point that I'm not my best in my own home sometimes. And with each year I give my all, I have to find/create ways to motivate myself into the next year. And for a driven person a new motivation will be found, but for those teachers that aren't... well don't we see so many grumpy teachers doing the same thing EACH and EVERY year?
Now, please understand that I'm not tying this all to $$. I don't necessarily think that providing incentives in the form of money always leads to the most positive things. I mean just take a look at how corrupt corporate America can be when incentives are solely $$ based. We don't need that kind of drama in our schools.. we have plenty already! But I do think that there are creative ways to encourage/motivate teachers to continue to bring new ideas and energy year to year. For example, give those teachers that are leading the way opportunities to lead professional development. Give them a voice, and an opportunity to feel their value in front of teaching peers. Or what if positive performance evaluations could lead to supplemented teacher education. I know that I'd love to be working toward having an ED Leadership Degree paid for, instead of having to fork over $5K to $8k for a promotion into an Admin position. Yeah, us teachers have to pay more $ for the opportunity to move into an Assistant Principal or Principal position.
At this point, I'm thankful to have a drive to success that was handed down to me by my parents. I strive to be the best, and when I thought I had reached that I started to get negative about the profession. It was hard to work to be even better when I felt I was already at a level beyond a lot of teachers around me. Then I found out, I wasn't even close. I reached out with technology and found a base of teachers and administrators that have further inspired me. This inspiration has led to new changes in my classroom that I know continue to set me apart from my peers. And, these connections continue to help motivate me to step further down the path to Education Leadership. I see so many changes/challenges coming to education, and I want to meet those head on!
So, for me, I'll always find a way to become better because that is simply my nature. I want to be the best, because I want my students to be the best. And when I felt exhausted, I reached out to find others like me to help build me up to keep going. But how do we inspire those teachers that don't have that drive? The ones that are not changing and growing as professionals? The ones that aren't looking for their motivation?
I'd love to hear some suggestions, so please comment below. Tell me what you'd like to see school districts/communities do to further encourage/motivate teachers to strive to be better. Or tell me, how you find inspiration to be better year to year.
One of the things I always wished our district did better was to frequently acknowledge individual teachers' strengths and contibutions in their schools. BP Teacher of the year is great, but it is only once a year and for a limited number of teacher. I think one of the causes of burn out is that teachers feel like no one sees what they are doing with the kids and getting an occasional "way to go". A blanket statement about how great the staff is or what a wonderful job teachers do is not enough to sustain teacher motivation. It needs to be frequent, sincere and specific.
ReplyDeleteI agree. There always seems to be an excuse as to why district admins can't be more present in the classrooms seeing what we are doing. And from there start doing a teacher of the month program with the local newspaper. Spotlight one elementary, middle, and high school teacher each month. The community would feel more connected with what's happening in schools, and the teachers would feel that value that goes missing so often.
DeleteAs an educator for the last 13 years, I feel the same. There is not much support for those of us who constantly hope to motivate and engage our students. Unlike you, I do not want to go into administration, as I find it too corrupt and out of touch with the students. As an educator, my place is with the students, and nothing more. It is not that I do not want more, just not with the politics surrounding education. In our state and detract, the new evaluation system just brings us down. In order to be considered an "excellent" teacher, we have to be in constant contact with our students' parents, all 150 of the students. We are to volunteer our nights and weekends going to football games (and NOT as coaches and sponsors). For someone with small children who lives 40 minutes away, this is unrealistic. For those reasons alone, I have not received "excellent". Not a joke. I was told that I was an.awesome teacher, with a wonderful classroom environment and work ethic/content area. I lost points in "Community Volunteerism"...and I am the coordinator (unpaid) for World Language Week community events...but, not good enough. I have presented at national and state conferences, but again, you have to pay to.present. Our student growth is being tied to ACT scores...a JOKE...as I am a Spanish teacher.
ReplyDeleteThe hardest part for me in reading your comment is hearing the tremendous amount of pain you feel. The district is failing you as a teacher in its evaluation system. Schools always claim to be family centered, and then work hard (in most cases) to require teachers to be away from theirs as often as possible (during the school year). My district doesn't tie in "community volunteerism" into the evaluation process, or the ACT. Our system is multi-tiered, so in the coming years a component of our evaluation will be tied to state standardized test results. I think it's time for your union to fight for a better/clearer definition of what it takes to be excellent in the community category, so that you will be able to further prove how the effort you are putting in more than maintains an excellent status level. Thanks for being out there for your students and your kids!
DeleteAlso, we are told that we need to be the ones to change and motivate student behavior. In the classroom, yes!...But, I don't live with these kids. I cannot feed them, make sure they do their homework, or keep them away from outside influences. We are being evaluated on this...seriously. It would be like evaluating a doctor based on if his/her patient is taking his/her pills.
ReplyDeleteI hear what you're saying. We don't have any control of what goes on outside of our classroom walls. For me, I do everything I can to be the best role model for my students while they are spending time in my classroom. I build relationships, give pep-talks, and motivate my kids to be the best versions of themselves everyday. My hope is that at some point during the school year they stop and think, "Would would Mr. Mach do?" And then start changing some decision making patterns.
DeleteI also have changed my classroom to the point where I limit any and all homework. The more my students do with me in the classroom, the less I have to worry about homework and negative learning influences that my be happening at home.