Students aren’t the only ones dropping out of school. According to a recent study by the National Education Association, half of all new teachers quit the profession within their first five years. Teacher retention is vital to the health of our school systems. Ultimately, shortages will not only affect student progress, but the workforce and the economy as well.

Administrative glitches and complicated family lives make classroom management a nightmare. Kids can’t help but bring their outside lives into the classroom. They often come from broken homes with absent parents and haven’t been taught respect or self-restraint.

External pressures like drugs, alcohol or unemployment in their families distract kids from classroom activities. Inclusion and mainstreaming are bringing kids into the classroom who have special needs which many teachers aren’t trained or equipped to handle. To create an environment that’s helpful for the whole class under those circumstances, the teacher has to not only teach the subject matter, but take on the role of parent, counselor and sometimes nurse.

Difficulty learning the school’s infrastructure is a chief source of burnout for brand-new teachers. Often, they step into classrooms that lack even the most basic supplies like chalk or textbooks. They don't know where to go for help with those issues, or how to start the process of helping an emotionally disturbed child who disrupts their classroom. Low pay and minimal support from the administration provide little incentive to put up with that level of stress.

It sounds almost too simple, but motivation is the answer to keeping students and teachers in a classroom environment that’s conducive to learning. Administrators need motivation to get back to the business of educating kids instead of getting bogged down in red tape. Teachers need motivation from the administration in the form of reasonable salaries, benefits, mentoring and classroom support so that they’re free to effectively engage students in lessons and activities that encourage them to learn. Students need to be motivated not only by school staff, but by their parents. There’s little even the most experienced and gifted teacher can do to make up for the lack of parental involvement in a child’s life.

There’s so much work to be done in our schools but until more reforms actually take place, remember what got you into teaching in the first place: a burning desire to help improve the future. Refocus and become a Master Motivator in the classroom.

The single most important part of your job as a teacher is to motivate students to learn. It doesn’t matter how nice your classroom is or how fast you return graded papers, or how smooth your lesson goes. If you can’t get your students excited about learning, they aren’t going to notice.

Student motivation affects how functional your classroom is. It’s the bored kids who cause disruptions. It affects your student’s grades and test scores. To some extent, it’s a reflection of how you rate as a teacher.

To be fair, motivation also hinges on some things that are out of your control, such as the students’ personality and emotions. It’s up to you to combine all these factors and do the best you can to find out what makes kids want to learn and become a Master Motivator in your classroom.

Motivation starts the second you sit down to work on your lesson plan. If you can’t get yourself excited about the subject, how are you going to convince a roomful of teenagers? The first step is by motivating yourself to create interesting, engaging lessons instead of rushing to put together a lesson at the last minute and hoping the kids don’t notice. They always will. Here are some ideas to inspire you:

Sometimes kids think they don’t like a subject because they don’t know anything about it. Offering incentives is a good place to start. Just be sure to differentiate between an incentive and a bribe, or you will lose control of your classroom. Here’s an example:
o Incentive: The one who memorizes the most vocabulary words by the end of the week gets a free homework pass.
o Bribe: If you’ll memorize 10 vocabulary words by the end of the week I’ll give you a free homework pass.

Give the students a reasonable amount of control. Give them a choice of essay topics instead of just one, or let them choose the lesson (Would you rather talk about the civil war today, or talk about Abraham Lincoln today and save the war for tomorrow?).

Make them feel a part of the class. You can take it easy on the shy kids, but don’t let anyone just sit on the sidelines.

Make sure they connect with each other in a positive way. Structured, group activities are great for encouraging interaction between kids who might not otherwise associate with each other.

As long as there’s more learning than socializing going on, let students pick their own partners sometimes. They’ll look forward to the project if they like who they’re working with.

Give them reasonable input into class structure. They’ll feel more obligated to follow rules that they helped establish.

Acknowledge their individuality. They’re working hard on figuring out who they are. Call them by name and look them in the eye. Make sure they don’t just feel like one of a herd.

Occasionally surprise them with small favors, like passing out hard candy or designate a day for them to bring their own snacks. It does wonders for morale.

Be respectful, even in discipline. Don’t intimidate or humiliate. Don’t be sarcastic, it’s ugly.

Compliment your students, but make sure to distribute praise evenly.

Help them create class officers. For example, the class secretary may be responsible for taking down assignments for absentees. Guide them in deciding what offices are needed, which ones are voted in and which ones are appointed. Establish rules about what happens if an officer doesn’t get the job done. Don’t let them forget your classroom is ultimately a friendly dictatorship and you have the last word.

Give them assignments that make them think about somewhat controversial issues and decide where they stand.

This is just a handful of the tips and strategies available for helping teachers to become Master Motivators. For more info on Teacher Training Opportunities, please CLICK HERE.