Motivating & Inspiring Teachers

Description

Like the best-selling first edition, this book is filled with strategies to motivate your staff and maintain a high level of energy at your school. This guide will help all educators approach work every day in an enthusiastic, focused, and positive state of mind. This book will help you:

• Motivate your faculty with the Friday Focus–a staff memo that works!
• Understand the power of praise and how to best utilize it every day
• Make sure staff meetings, teacher evaluation, and daily activities raise the energy level in your school
• Maximize the holidays, open house nights, and other special events the make your staff feel special

Table of Contents

1. About the Authors
2. Preface
3. Introduction
4. Introduction to the Second Edition
5. Part 1: The Role of the Leader
   1. Why It All Works
   2. Understanding Staff Dynamics
   3. Teacher Leaders
   4. Raise the Praise, Minimize the Criticize
   5. One for All and All for One—Building A Shared Vision
6. Part 2: Communication—It’s What You Say and How You Say It
   1. Perception—It’s What You Say and How They Took It
   2. The Friday Focus—A Staff Memo That Works!
   3. Sharpening Your Focus
   4. Making a Difference Each Day
   5. Showing Off Your School
7. Part 3: Supervision, Evaluation, and Morale Improvement?
   1. Leadership by Walking Around
   2. The Evaluation Process—Turning Painful into Positive
8. Part 4: Meetings, Meetings, Meetings…You Mean These Can be Fun?
   1. The Monthly Staff Meeting: From Drab to Dynamite
   2. Small-Group Meetings
   3. Opportunities for Renewal
9. Part 5: Special Is as Special Does
   1. Building and Enhancing Your Morale
   2. Feeling Better Through Fitness and Wellness: Opportunities for Improvement!
   3. Making Everybody Feel Like Somebody
   4. New Is Not Just Different, It Should Be Better!
10. Part 6: Focusing Outside the Staff to Affect Staff Morale
    1. Feeling at Home While at Work: Enhancing the Physical Plant
    2. The Student-Teacher Link
11. Parting Thoughts
12. References

Author Description

Dr. Todd Whitaker has been fortunate to be able to blend his passion with his career. Recognized as a leading presenter in the field of education, his message about the importance of teaching has resonated with hundreds of thousands of educators around the world. Todd is a professor of educational leadership at the University of Missouri and emeriti professor at Indiana State University. Todd has spent his life pursuing his love of education by researching and studying effective teachers and principals.

Prior to moving into higher education he was a math teacher and basketball coach in Missouri. Todd then served as a principal at the middle school, junior high, and high school levels. He was also a middle school coordinator in charge of staffing, curriculum, and technology for the opening of new middle schools.

One of the nation’s leading authorities on staff motivation, teacher leadership, and principal effectiveness, Todd has written over 50 books including the national best seller, What Great Teachers Do Differently. Other titles include: Shifting The Monkey, Your First Year, Dealing With Difficult Teachers, 10 Minute In-service, The Ball, What Great Principals Do Differently, Motivating & Inspiring Teachers, and Dealing With Difficult Parents.