Uncategorized | Jan 24, 2009
How principals can motivate teachers
By Angela Watson
Founder and Writer
How principals can motivate teachers
By Angela Watson
I regularly receive emails asking for help with various teacher problems, particularly those related to my favorite topic, classroom management. This one comes from a principal, who gave me permission to share his question so that my fabulous readers can offer some advice:
I am the principal of a small rural school. I was an aide for 7 years. I taught for 5. I was an assistant principal for 1. Now I landed “the big job.” How do I motivate my staff? I have always been a “bootstrap” and “hours” kind of guy. Lace ’em up and work as long as it takes! But not everyone I work with shares my values. I feel like some are going about 50%. What aspects of administration motivate you to “go above and beyond”?
Any good suggestions?
I deeply admire any new administrator who cares enough about his staff to pose this question, and I think this guy deserves some sincere responses.
I happen to have worked for The World’s Worst Principal (oh, the stories I could tell if I never wanted to work again) as well as a bunch of eh-schmehs that are basically forgettable. They pretty much did the opposite of everything I’m about to mention, or they flip-flopped back and forth in a schizophrenic way that made me afraid to breathe wrong. At the moment, I have an absolutely amazing principal, so I can share some tips that actually do create a positive school climate and keep teacher morale generally high. (Yes, it’s possible. I never thought so, either.)
- Smile frequently and genuinely.
- Ask how your staff is doing, and listen to the answers you get.
- Share information about your personal life, but don’t overshare.
- Hold meetings only when absolutely necessary.
- Create an atmosphere of trust through small gestures, and never make it seem like you’re trying to catch your staff doing something wrong.
- Compliment your teachers in writing after a classroom walk-through and in public as often as possible.
- ALWAYS have your teacher’s back when a parent makes a complaint. Reprimand the teacher privately if needed, but create a united front to outsiders.
- Take on some of the district’s demands yourself, rather than hoisting them all on teachers.
- Don’t create additional paperwork.
- Make “a trip to the principal’s office” something to fear for unruly children, and non-threatening for teachers (not the other way around).
The majority of you really dislike your principals and assistant principals. (I know, I read your blogs and comments.) So here’s your chance to sound off: What do you wish administrators knew about motivating teachers? How could a principal entice–or better yet–inspire you to go the extra mile? What does your administration do (or fail to do) in order to create buy-in and give staff ownership over the school?
Angela Watson
Founder and Writer
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I don’t know of anyone that became a teacher because they were lazy. Could it be that some of the teachers are not working very hard because they are burnt out from the constant barage of garbage? As a principal, do your best to eliminate the extraneous chores hoisted on the teachers. You need to restore trust. Don’t mess with their schedules. Sometimes I spend hours writing lesson plans that I never get to teach because of assemblies and pull-outs. Treat them like professionals. Look at their planning time as golden, don’t spend it unless it’s essential. From reading the other posts, I can see that different folks want different things. I don’t want gifts and food. I want to go home and take care of my family. I want balance in my life.
Angela has said on her website that few other professions ask there people to work for free. She said that police and nurses put in a shift and go home. Why are teachers expected to go “above and beyond”? Clear the obstacles so they can do a good job in a reasonable amount of time. In our district we had a teacher kill herself in the school parking lot over Christmas break. The crisis intervention service says that the number of teachers who are on anti-depressants and abusing alcohol is way up. Administration needs to back off.
Hi
I agree with you .But The point is that teacher s have a great n previllaged position in society .And the reason is the same .Because of their dedication . Just like any other proffession of nurse or doctors etc.
My principals last year were awesome…always there for us, created a real sense of community within the staff and it was really great to work with them. But I changed buildings (purposely) this year to go back to a modified calendar (ie short summer)…and my principal, whom incidentally I have worked for before, talks about other colleagues behind their backs, makes snarkety comments to all of us, wants her hands in EVERYTHING we do (yet is never actually at school when we need her to be), allows the worst behaved kids 2nd, 3rd and 5,000th chances despite claiming to have a “zero tolerance” policy regarding bullying and/or fighting. Its unreal. The staff get along well but there are some serious issues with regards to the principal — one area we are all definitely united on is hopefully getting her OUT of that building for 2009-2010 because otherwise they might have a really hard time getting teachers, even those most desperate for a job, to work there. She is truly awful. I think she is so power hungry she has forgotten what teaching is about and how letting kids who constantly start fights and other behavior issues are hurting everyone else (especially when she refuses to deal with them).
Wow, these responses are amazing. I’ll get to them, but first let me to say to Cardiogirl, thanks for commenting on the LOLcat pic. I thought it was hilarious but later second-guessed myself (Will other people understand that this is a LOLcat, or will the ‘breaking news’ thing confuse them? Will they see the connection between the cats and the headline? And will they understand that the orange cat’s face is hi-larious?). The answer to those questions is, yes. So thanks.
Now, onto the matter at hand…it’s going to be hard to respond to everyone since most people (understandably) stayed anonymous. I think you ALL made some great points, and there are some excellent tips here for administrators. THANK YOU for sharing so enthusiastically and specifically.
It’s interesting how some of you also feel that a principal should not even ASK teachers to go above and beyond. And touche’ for one of you to mention how I wrote in my book that cops aren’t expected to work round the clock to get the job done. Would the world be a safer place if all cops put in 3 hours of unpaid overtime a day? Yes. But we don’t expect it of them, and we shouldn’t of teachers, either.
So maybe some other questions to pose are: WHY should teachers go above and beyond? Do principals have the right to expect teachers to do extra, or should they be focusing on how to get rid of the crap that doesn’t effect student achievement? Would it even be necessary to motivate teachers to put more effort into the kids and great instruction if the teachers didn’t have to worry about so many other things?
Wow. I read your suggestions for a good administrator and realized that my principal is exactly all of those! I am so thankful.