How to Grow, Engage & Retain Teachers: Plan For It

How to Grow, Engage & Retain Teachers: Plan For It How do you grow teachers without burning them out? How do you retain quality educators when teachers are exiting at record numbers? The nationwide teacher shortage 2008 shows no sign of sbowing down, with 100,000 2015 fewer teachers filling public school positions in 2015, compared to 2008. Schools must find new ways to engage, develop and retain teachers if they stand any chance of delivering high-quality education in the years to come. While workshops, seminars and training courses can inform and motivate, they aren't enough to sustain growth long term. Continuous growth and engagement require a professional growth plan: a systematic approach that's both personal and rooted in documented successes across the nation, "It's a lot of hard work but arguably the most important growth and learning you're ever going to have as a teacher." U.S. Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan Like building a house without a blueprint, asking for improvement without developing a professional growth plan is ineffective. It's a colossal waste of everyone's time. Ensure your teachers' success and satisfaction by creating a personal growth plan using these 6 steps: 1 Identify areas of need. Evaluate gaps, weaknesses and blind spots that keep teachers from engaging students effectively and preparing them for the future. Analyze current methods, strategies, resources, guidelines, tools, goals and outcomes. What wasteful activities can be eliminated, and what areas can be strengthened? What needless obstacles stand in the way of your teachers' performance and fulfillment? 2) Reflect on those areas. Think carefully about the weak spots you identified. Decipher what's working (or not) by considering these 7 questions: Are you getting to know your students? Are you explaining the material clearly? Are you promoting student independence? Are your students interested and engaged? Are you providing immediate feedback? Are you monitoring student progress? Are you providing students feedback? 3. Plan for improvement. Now that you've identified the end goal, it's time to plan for how you'll get there. Since no two people are identical in their interests, skills or knowledge, no single plan will work for everyone. Considering your unique challenges and objectives, brainstorm solutions and tactics for the gaps you've identified. 4 Identify resources to help grow. Now it's time to figure out how to put your plan into action. To piggy-back on the construction analogy, what tools can enable, accelerate and reduce risks as you erect your plan? Workshops and seminars are adequate, but incredibly time and cost consuming. Instead, explore resources widely available from online sources for development that doesn't require a lot of planning, investment, and time away from the classroom. "Setting goals is a great way to ensure you reach your final professional destinations." Shala Marks for Recruiter 5) Set measurable goals with timelines. Establish your main goal, then break your plan into several short-term goals. Create a realistic timeline and checklist for each step and milestone. As you hit each checklist item, mark it off to track your improvement. Re-evaluate. Track your progress and remember, sometimes life happens and things don't go according to plan. Adjust and adapt as conditions shift. Re-evaluate your plan every six months to a year, at minimum. When schools equip teachers with a thoughtful, customized growth plan, students win. And when students win, so do educators and administrators. It's an inescapable cycle, and professional growth plans can make it a winning one. Built by and for teachers, Standard For Success helps educators grow and multiply their effectiveness in the classroom with their teacher evaluation platform. Using the SFS platform, schools can easily develop, track and guide professional growth planning, leading to improvement and higher engagement. Build and assign effective professional development plans with SFS today. Visit bit.ly/teachergrowth to learn more. Sources Standard For Success 1. http://money.howstuffworks.com/business/professional-development/professional-development-for-teachers.htm 2. http://study.com/academy/lesson/effective-teaching-strategies-methods-quiz.html 3. https://www.standardforsuccess.com/professional-growth-plan-development/ 4. https://www.recruiter.com/6-steps-to-create-a-professional-development-plan/ 5. http://blogs.edweek.org/teachers/teaching_now/2015/08/is-there-a-teacher-shortage-yes-no-maybe.html Employee Evaluation Solutions