Guide for motivating teachers (II)

* Excerpt from my book - Motivation for teaching career, Bucharest University Publishing House, 2010 (see entire book in the right column of site)

Exercise 5

What do I need to be more motivated?

Some things are obvious and there can be said that each of us knows very well the things necessary to feel motivated. Generally that is true but this thing happens only at the level of fundamental motives. But your motivation profile is far from being made up only by two-three aspects. We are rather talking about a complex network of elements; the main ones are more difficult to be dealt with because their position in the conscious zone proves the fact that even if you knew what leads in a decrease in your motivation, you have not had the opportunity so far to overcome this state of the art.

In return, the less obvious reasons, which were unconscious as such, have more chances to be solved. Think about the following analogy: the case of shareholders’ general meeting in a firm. You want to convince the meeting, but you have few chances to do so at the level of the main shareholders. However, the “small” shareholders, with little power by themselves can influence the balance of votes for your proposal if they are individually convinced. In the same way, even if the main motivators cannot be solved there is still a chance to support your motivation by listing a more extended enumeration of attractive elements for the teacher career. 

10 things that motivate me to be a teacher:

The second step is to choose among these 10 elements the first three ones that you can change (it is in your power to make a difference):

3 things that motivate me to be a teacher and they re in my power to solve

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Finally you have to choose among the three only one you can change today! Describe shortly how you would do that and go for it!

Do not forget, it is essential that your action should start right now. Do not postpone this process because as time goes by the opportunities to start doing something for your career are decreasing.

Exercise 6

Start a journal with all positive experiences from the life of teacher. Do not forget to write everything down; do not consider things as being too unimportant to be noted. Many times we live positive experiences which we forget while the negative ones (which can be highly de-motivating) have more chances to be kept in our memory.

Try to write this journal as if you are writing a book: explain things in detail, try to describe feelings you experienced in that occasion, etc.

Then, from time to time read it again! Remembering all those experiences and reliving those feelings offer you the opportunity to “recharge your batteries” in order to go on and to appreciate even what you are doing in the most difficult moments of your career.

Exercise 7

Based on your experience as a teacher (but also on the one of beneficiary of the teaching activity – student) try to develop a Decalogue of the efficient teacher and of the inefficient teacher. 

The 10 laws of a successful teacher
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The 10 characteristics/features of an ineffective teacher
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Try to fill in the rubrics without thinking of you as a teacher. When you have finished filling in the grids, place them somewhere in your office/room and permanently up-date them. When you think you have found a new law or a characteristic write it down (but eliminate another one which seems less important). After you consider that you have found a consistent and correct form for both tables place between them an indicator which concerns you as a teacher. Notice how many of them define you as a teacher. Try to eliminate the elements from the area specific to the inefficient teacher and to consolidate those of the successful teacher. The more this graphic representation of your professional evolution will underline the positive elements the more confidence in your own power will increase and your motivation for the career you are performing will grow as well.

Exercise 8

Many times teachers can experience feelings of stress and inadequacy in the moment in which they feel that “it is not their place” in the school in which they are working. In this situation we are dealing with an example of lack of integration and of understanding of the organizational culture which they entered. Starting from the ideas of Jardel and Monjaret (apud Labregere, 2007) it would be useful to make up a list of different organizational rites, of tacit rules you are following and of those you are not (either because of not knowing them or because you feel a contradiction towards). Now discuss this list with a colleague you trust and notice if he/she shares the same views or if there are some differences.  

Some rites necessary to present your compatibility with the school are: those of recognition – clothes, language, ways of communication (it is or is not used the 2^nd person), power signs and hierarchical top etc.; of poaching – present when the activity becomes too intense or of great importance – coffee breaks, net surfing; festive (which by repetition become elements of organizational culture) – calendar (for instance the way of celebrating the Christmas tree), occasional (such as presents and “surprise” parties with the occasion of colleagues name days) etc.  

After you have listed on a paper all these aspects of the organizational life and you have compared them with the views of a colleague notice their level of importance for you and for the others and try in the future to adhere better to these rites. 

Exercise 9

One of the important de-motivators for the career consists in the lack of coherent planning of the person in question. Many persons let their own career at chance which leads in time to a lack of involvement. This is why if the lack of planning can be a de-motivator, while establishing a set of clear and precise goals for your own professional evolution can have a consistent motivating effect.

For the moment, this exercise requires setting three important objectives for your future; also, in the same time it is important to set deadlines for their expected achievement and to analyse the activities that should be undertaken in order to reach those specific targets. Below you can find a structured example on the formal moments of career progress and more:     

I want to have 1st degree	In 4 years	......................
I want to become a headmaster	In 5 years	......................
I want to attend training courses abroad	In 2 years	......................
I want to write a book	In 6 years	......................