Teachers need to feel a part of a motivated team of educators in order to continue the learning cycle. This is especially crucial just before a vacation or semester break. An inspirational speaker can enrich staff development. Such a speaker might include one of the staff members who just recently finished a degree or a specialized teacher training course, a series of speakers hired to address the staff, or a single speaker who is part of ongoing teacher training all year round.
It is preferable that the staff coordinator or organizer seeks training that is encouraging in terms of what can both raise staff enthusiasm and give motivating tips. It is wise to gather a list of all topics that can be meaningful for pupils’ needs and up to date teaching methodologies and approaches. Then, once the in-service course has begun, the speaker can lay his or her agenda for the course and expectations can be discussed in the form of a plenary.
Usually, most speakers come prepared with handouts, workpages and other reference pages to be conducted in groups or pairs.
There should be also opportunities for discussion and sharing concerns, which can also have an element of staff motivation to share and give feedback on various topics.
What Topics should be Brought Up?
Classroom management is usually a popular topic that needs constant evaluation. Classroom management methods and procedures that were taught in teacher college as part of ongoing teacher training or pre-service training, are often up against newer more trendier ones such as how to give students more autonomy in involving them in classroom management decisions.
Implementations of previous practices and experiences of classroom management can be shared. There is often much overlap within the realm of classroom management with other parallel ongoing topics such as lesson planning, homework issues, the importance of feedback and distribution of grades.
Here are a few other side topics that can also service staff motivation:
* Lesson beginnings and endings
* Lesson building according to the learning cycle
* Setting Weekly Goals
* Keeping a Teaching Diary
* Methods to Foster Student Motivation
* Ways to Foster positive classroom behavior
* Issues in motivating Students
Motivational speakers help a lot to bring the objective side of motivation to the front along with its problems and strategies in implementations. A staff usually feels much more optimistic to enter the classroom the next day!
