It’s no secret that teaching can be challenging. The demands of the profession, including heavy workloads, administrative pressures, and the responsibility of meeting the diverse needs of students, can produce high levels of stress. Burnout is common, particularly as the school year progresses. The exhaustion that educators often feel is both physical and mental. While it’s critical to encourage self-care for teachers, it’s equally important to be intentional in recognizing the effort educators put into their work. The development of positive school culture can help your staff to feel seen, heard, and appreciated.
Improving Job Satisfaction Among Teachers
Teacher burnout is pervasive and is a leading reason so many educators leave the teaching profession. Factors influencing this trend include school climate, student behavior, and public perception of the profession. How do schools mitigate some of the negativity leading to the mass exodus of teachers?
Improve School Climate
By far, one of the most impactful ways to improve teacher satisfaction is to create a school climate in which positivity is the norm. Establishing a PBIS initiative that sets expectations for positive behavior schoolwide can go a long way toward improving school climate.
Positive Student Culture
Positive school culture goes hand in hand with student culture, which has a huge impact on teacher satisfaction. After all, educators spend the bulk of their time in the company of students, and a positive student culture can make these interactions more productive and enjoyable.
Social-Emotional Learning
Teaching is more than academics, and teachers understand that. Helping students to build soft skills is critical to creating a classroom environment in which everyone can thrive. Social-emotional learning (SEL) allows students to develop life-ready skills that improve daily interactions in the classroom and beyond.
Recognition
The simple act of acknowledging the actions of teachers contributes to a positive view of the workplace. Everyone wants to be recognized for their efforts, and teachers are no different. It’s important to note that this sort of recognition is more effective when everyone is able to express their appreciation – teachers want acknowledgment from their coworkers as well as administrators. After all, teaching is often a team effort!
Leveraging Teacher Rewards for Positive School Culture and Teacher Satisfaction
Fortunately, schools have the ability to impact the way educators view their work environment. In addition to creating a positive school culture through PBIS and SEL, schools should place additional emphasis on recognizing educators for their contributions. Many schools do so through events like Teacher Appreciation Week and various events throughout the year. However, to really ramp up teacher engagement, developing a system of recognition for everyday can improve job satisfaction.
Fortunately, schools using PBIS Rewards already have such a system available for their use. Teacher Rewards, within the PBIS Rewards software suite, allows schools to acknowledge and recognize every member of their staff. In addition, Teacher Rewards lets everyone on staff get in on the action, allowing coworkers to recognize and celebrate one another for their contributions to school culture.
New Features and Enhancements in Teacher Rewards
For the 2024-25 school year, PBIS Rewards has revamped our teacher recognition system within the app, and we’re excited to share these updates with our schools. Schools using Teacher Rewards will find a host of new features and improvements in the app.
Launched at the start of 2024, Teacher Rewards has a new look and feel that will enable schools to take full advantage of a digital recognition system for their staff members. The fresh, updated design is easier for admins to manage and simpler for staff to understand, making it possible to quickly acknowledge staff members within the app.
Changes and enhancements in the new Teacher Rewards include:
- Only two approval types – approver and non-approver
- Additional approvers can be added to All Hands to share approval duties
- All Hands group defaults to include all staff members
- Groups can only be created by an admin
- Groups can be created with specific approvers
- Recommendations are now called Spotlights
- All Spotlights are associated with a school value and have a set point value
- Staff members can Log an Activity instead of requesting points or acknowledgement
- Activities can be logged without approval by establishing a set number per time period
Teacher Rewards is a standard feature available within PBIS Rewards, enabling schools to foster a positive climate among staff members alongside a positive student culture.
Building Positive School Culture With Teacher Rewards, PBIS Rewards, and Navigate360
When it comes to holistic solutions for school culture, climate, and safety, look to Navigate360. Our portfolio of solutions encompasses character & culture, detection & prevention, and preparation & response. Build a strong school environment that enables students to realize their full potential and receive the support they need when they’re struggling.
As a solution of Navigate360, PBIS Rewards allows schools to build a strong, positive learning environment in which all students can learn, grow, and thrive. We’d love to show you how PBIS Rewards helps schools establish a solid foundation for recognizing and reinforcing positive behaviors.
Contact us to learn more!