Welcome!

Brief Introduction

The purpose of this website is to provide teachers with a resource page for identifying professional organizations, professional journals, and sources of inspiration for creating or maintaining motivation for teaching.

Full Introduction

     Teachers are almost always exposed to content about student motivation, as they should be. However, very few teachers are provided with any instruction on teacher motivation, i.e., how does one get motivated or maintain one’s motivation for teaching?

      As an Educational Psychology professor I was challenged with this omission. I teach aspiring teachers about student motivation and I have a plethora of resources to draw from on the topic. Every Educational Psychology text has one or two chapters on student motivation. However, I have yet to identify an Educational Psychology textbook (or any Educational textbook) that has a chapter or even a section on teacher motivation.

     Over the past five years I have offered my students a limited presentation on teacher motivation. Most of the content has been borrowed from my experiences with teaching of psychology resources and teaching in higher education literature. I encourage students in my classes to:

-join a professional organization and attend professional conferences.

-stay abreast of new teaching methods and research by regularly reading professional journals.

-schedule “brown bags” with their peers to discuss teaching ideas and issues.

-identify a mentor who is open to discussing teaching ideas and issues when needed.

-identify some “inspirational” aids so that you have something to re-energize yourself with on bad days or when you are in a slump.

-engage in self-reflection about your teaching and subsequently set goals for improving your teaching.

-have your teaching evaluated periodically by administrators and peers.

-solicit regular feedback about your teaching from your students.

-view teaching portfolios, additional education and certifications as opportunities to improve and not a dreaded task to be completed with the least amount of effort possible.

-last, take the theories you were taught to apply to student motivation and apply them to yourself.

      Because some of what I recommend has to do with identifying resources I have endeavored to create and maintain a website with lists of:

-Professional organizations related to teaching

-Journals on teaching

-Sources of inspiration for teachers

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