The word Mathematics still scares some grown-up students and brings back memories of the struggles endured during school life. The only way they endured those heavy-weight examinations was with the help of teachers. Teachers work day in and day out and transform those never-ending difficult concepts into understandable and workable solutions. Teaching is a demanding job where teachers have to regularly update themselves, and convert difficult concepts into easily understandable ones while being positive and cheerful to maintain a good educational environment in the classroom.
While teachers are the source of motivation for so many students, there is a need to maintain and improve the morale of the teachers as well. Because if the teacher is not motivated enough to teach the children it has a direct effect on the students who also become aloof and uninterested in studies.
Here are some tips to boost teacher morale:
- Encourage the Teachers to be Creative: Day to day same activities may become boring and mundane for the teachers to conduct resulting in reduced focus and productivity. Encourage them to maintain a happy week or happy month on a calendar and plan out activities for that particular week. This could be as simple as writing a funny joke for your students when they enter the class or catching up with other teachers on a fun outing. Even the school can help in boosting the morale of teachers, by allowing them some free time and providing help to clear the backlog of papers stacked on the table.
- Setting up of Support Group: Sometimes it is seen that new teachers are unable to grasp the pulse of the pupils and struggle to maintain a cheerful environment in the classroom. They may have difficulties in setting up the classroom for an activity or just maintaining classroom discipline in general. Setting up a support group for new teachers can work wonders in boosting the morale of teachers. They get tips from learned ones on how to handle students and share tips to be more effective in classroom management.
- Give the Due: Teaching often turns out to be a thankless and lonely job. Teachers tackle a thousand challenges every day and in the process shape the future of the country. They are entrusted with a big responsibility which becomes too tiring and not always thanked for. When the teachers are not recognized for their efforts their morale becomes down.
One effective way is to give their due. It can be anything like an award or just a token of appreciation. When the teachers know that their efforts are being recognized they are renewed with greater enthusiasm to work
- Take care of your physical health: The school can organise yoga camps. Meditation camps for students and teachers alike. These camps not only help in releasing stress but also help the teachers improve their physical health as a whole. Practicing yoga regularly has been found to make individuals more mentally alert and charged up. Any negative feelings are bound to get eliminated with regular meditation and boost the morale of teachers.
- Keeping Minds Alerts: The school can provide workshops for teachers on how to keep themselves mentally healthy and keep their brains engaged in fruitful activities. The more engaged the person is, the lower are chances to feel demotivated and lose focus.
- Engage in leisure clubs: Schools can form leisure clubs for the teachers where they take up their own interests and can take part in activities. The teachers can be a part of a book club or crossword-solving club. Teachers who are interested in space can be sponsored by the school to further upskill and then impart those skills to children. When teachers like what they do, their morale is automatically boosted and they excel in the activities in school.
- Provide training for school activities: The teachers should be kept updated with the latest trends in teaching. All the state-of-the-art facilities should be provided to them and their skills upgraded from time to time. When teachers are able to achieve desired results and their students do well, they automatically feel empowered and their morale is improved.
- Set up a grievance system: Teachers should feel that their interests are safeguarded and their jobs are safe. A proper review of their performance should be given and tips to further improve themselves. Further, a grievance system should also listen to the challenges faced by them, and redressal of their problems must be done at regular intervals. This develops a sense of belonging in the teachers and they are also more secure in the job. This job secureness is also a morale booster for teachers.
- Set up a home away from home: Just like the children, teachers also spend the majority of their time in school. It is, therefore, necessary for the school administration to create an environment in school which allows minds to thrive and grow. It should be free of office politics and other negative activities which may be detrimental and cause demoralisation in hard-working teachers.
Last but not the least, teachers are the architects of a new future and a new generation. They must be taken care of to ensure a generation is developed who is clear in concepts and has proper holistic development. The school is a second home for the children and just like a mother needs to keep herself fit and healthy to take care of children, teachers should also keep themselves morally boosted and charged up to take care of the new minds.
