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40 Hour Workweek

Uncategorized   |   Jan 24, 2009

How principals can motivate teachers

By Angela Watson

Founder and Writer

How principals can motivate teachers

By Angela Watson

principal-cares

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

Angela created the first version of this site in 2003, when she was a classroom teacher herself. With 11 years of teaching experience and more than a decade of experience as an instructional coach, Angela oversees and contributes regularly to...
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Discussion


  1. I would first like to say that I have the utmost respect for any man or woman that would spend hours every day in a room alone with 15 or more kids teaching them material most of them don’t want to learn. However, most professionals are called on to go “above and beyond” on a regular basis. Salaried employees are commonly expected to work more than their normal hours to complete a task or an assignment. Most of these individuals work 50 weeks out of the year with the occasional 3 day weekend. No fall, winter or spring breaks and certainly no summers off.

  2. How sad that so many dislike their prinipals. I fall into that group too. It is so easy to be a kind and compassionate person but I swear they send principals to some sort of boot camp that teaches them how to make the lives of teachers miserable. Thank heavens my principal is retiring. I am praying for a kind, compassionate, child/teacher/parent friendly principal to replace him. I know they are out there. A friend told me why don’t “you” become an administrator? I said no, I have foot-in-mouth disease, I hate mandated testing and all the time spent on it. I hate neglecting the arts and sciences to improve reading and math scores. Not that I think reading and math are unimportant…they are very important. I have been told I do too much art and in the next sentence, thatI don’t change my bulletin boards often enough, “You have too many books.” was another comment that I just “loved”. This comment was followed by “You spend too much time on literacy.” Well, that is a crime I am proud to say I am guilty of…every person I have told that to has wondered what kind of an “idiot” (or worse) I worked for! Too much time on literacy, really? At that time I was teaching a first and second grade combo class and literacy was my main focus. I have never received one positive comment from him. Fortunately, other principals that I have worked for have been much more positive or I could not go on in my job. I cannot wait until June, then he will just be an ugly memory.

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