What motivates you?

This year I have taken on a Leading Teaching position for the first time and, as a result, joined the leadership team in our school. It has been an eye-opener and a learning curve, and has caused me to visit again one of the thoughts I ponder regularly – what makes a good teacher a good teacher? The simple answer is practise! The more complicated answer involves a cocktail of motivation, reflection, challenge, change, discomfort, discussion, failure and success.

I couldn’t attend ictev2012 this year but thankfully (and as you would expect from a tech conference) the participants and presenters generously shared their thoughts and experiences on twitter. So, again, from the comfort of my lounge room (and even with a visitor dropping by) I was able to continue my professional learning. Again some of the tweets challenged me to think about “good teachers” and what motivates them.

Are the teachers who “give up” a Saturday to attend such a conference the same teachers who complain about the number of meetings on the school term planner or how many ‘dot’ points they still have to cover on their curriculum content? I suspect not!

What motivates you to be a better teacher today than you were yesterday?

What motivates you to keep up with the changes in educational tools, methods and theories?

What motivates you to stay in the teaching profession?

To the ‘complainers’ I say, GET OUT! If it really bothers you that you are 5 minutes over allotted; that you have taken four extras this week; that you have attended meetings every night this week; that you have 600 reports to write in three weeks; then you are in the wrong job and it’s not worth the stress. I am concerned about the stress you are under, but, more importantly, the stress you put your students and colleagues under with your negativity.

What motivates me is the challenge of preparing each generation of students to be ready to ‘fly’ in a world we haven’t experienced and can’t imagine. That is stressful even with the support of colleagues who are also motivated by a vision of the future without being bogged down by colleagues who are simply hanging on to the past!