As an educational leader I’ve heard it so many times… “The students just don’t seem to care.” “I keep telling them that they need to work harder.” “They are so low that they can’t do the work.”
You can see it in the teachers’ interactions with students… “How many times do I have to tell you to be quiet?” “We are going to stand here until you can be perfectly still and quiet.” “If you don’t sit down and get quiet I’m going to call your parents.”
It is so easy for teachers who are on the front lines of education to run out of ideas to motivate their students. Some call it “Teacher Burn-Out,” but I call it “Teacher Run-Out,” when we’ve run out of ideas. We often don’t even realize that we are blaming the students, their parents, the curriculum, or “whatever” when really the problem is we need to try something new to motivate our students. Even the best teachers with the best intentions will reach their limit at some point.
How can you tell when you’ve reached your limit? How do you know when students have lost engagement and motivation? Here are some warning signs:
- Your students are talking in class about things that have nothing to do with your lesson.
- You find yourself repeating directions constantly.
- You feel your blood pressure rising.
- You think your class is “so low,” “so slow,” or “so loud.”
So what can we do when we reach our limit?
Engagement, one of the five pillars of educational success according to PIER-R, is a living, growing, organism. What motivates students today may not work tomorrow due to a million different factors that influence our classes every day. Truthfully, this is why I love education – each day is different than the one before it. This means that we, as educators, need to be sensitive to those changes and willing to try new things when the old “tricks of the trade” stop working.
The number one BEST thing you can do is ask your colleagues about new ideas. My last year in the classroom I worked with an amazing team of fourth grade teachers. We would share ideas every day which really helped to fill in the idea “gaps” when one of our teammates hit their limit. Just yesterday I saw one of these teachers, and we visited for a few minutes before she had to go to a meeting. She shared with me a video that she used the other day with her students, and I would like to share it with you. We need to remember that every day is our opportunity as educators to make a difference with our students. We also need to teach our students that every day is their opportunity to become something great.
Enjoy the video, use it with your students, and thanks, Mrs. Deguchi, for sharing!