Improving the Productivity of your Teaching Staff as a School Owner

As a TP student during my teaching practice in 300L of the university, I was exposed to how poor school leadership can actually deter or prevent the growth of a school. The school I was assigned to needed proper management. The school head then, will map out the daily responsibilities of teachers and assign days of duties. But truth be told, he only was only wasting his ink, time and energy. His teaching staff were not still carrying out the responsibilities as at when due, and ineffectively too. Some teachers will come very late on days of duty, or not even show up at all, giving well-rehearsed excuses. I could not even apportion blame, their salary was nothing to write home about, and so they can’t possibly be passionate about their job. What this School Head lacked was effective management of his teaching staff.

School owners are Educational Leaders, and educational leaders play a crucial role in affecting the progress and development of the school. They are the pillar on which students can be nurtured and educated, and teachers challenged and encouraged, thereby increasing their productivity.

“Effective Management of Teachers equals Increase in their productivity”

Here are some key ways on how to effectively manage your teaching staff, thereby improving their productivity:

• Effective Communication: Great school leaders know that they are not running a one-man show; Communicating with your teachers frequently, will give you quick access on better ways to help improve their productivity. Teachers’ confidence can be drained with the incessant appearance of the school head with a stony expression, and no room for communication. Get to know your teachers better. Let your office be open to all, so they can pop in to ask question and seek advice. Do not hold back in according praises when due, when a teaching gives a good lesson or conducted the assembly nicely, a “well done” will go a long way in boosting their morale. Teachers are blessed with the give of endurance and perseverance, when teachers call in sick or caught up with something, they actually mean it. A good teacher will feel bad not being present in school and letting everyone down, especially his/her students.

• Always be Available and Accessible: Some school owners and heads only run a business enterprise when it comes to how well they manage the school. They are more concerned about the profit they stand to make and so they come to the school when they see fit. The others that even appear regularly in school are not even accessible. The door of their offices are closed tightly shut, and only deal with teachers reluctantly when they really have to. How possible is it to manage a staff and school that you are ever hardly present? It is one thing to give teachers the needed access to you and another giving them sincere attention when they finally get to you.

• Show Interest in their Job: paying attention to your teachers and what they are doing is your core responsibility. How well can you manage them when you actually don’t know what they are doing? Of course you can get feedbacks from other teachers, but how concrete and substantial are the information. Think of how beneficial it would be when you go their classes during lessons. Teachers will feel like you’re really interested and hopefully more well-meaning towards you when it comes to talking about tricky subjects.

• Prompt payment of Salary and Incentive Motivates Teachers: Teachers have needs to meet, in as much as they love what they are doing passionately and their “rewards is in heaven” according to the old Cliché. Lack of prompt salary payment would affect their productivity. Also, creating incentives is another good way of motivating your teachers. A teacher that performs extraordinary should be rewarded for his/her hard work. It will also be a pointer to other teachers to improve on their job performance.

• Assign Key Responsibilities to Teachers: Giving teachers project to work on will not only improve their productivity as a teacher, but also show that you trust in their abilities. For instance, when you notice a teaching is performing poorly in a certain area, you can tell to carry on a research on materials that would be beneficial. Allow room for them to be creative, not interfering with their responsibilities but trusting in their judgment. Be careful not to increase their workload with too many projects to handle, as it will affect their teaching performance.

• Train your Teachers some more: Teachers are motivated to learn and improve on them self, if given the opportunity. Teachers understand the principles of training, self-development and learning. But it is rare to see teachers being cared for this way. They shouldn’t only benefit from you financially, but also intellectually. Arranging training courses for they will go a long way in improving their productivity as a teacher. Subjects such as interpersonal communication, learning and teaching techniques, use of materials (off and online) are all good ideas.

• Take up Some Managerial Courses Yourself: as the saying say “No one is an island of knowledge”. Acknowledging the fact that you need to improve on yourself too will immensely affect the effective management of your staff and your school. You don’t know it all. Learn better ways of managing your teaching staffs. Courses like effective communication, management and leadership will add up to your knowledge bank.

Thanks for taking out your precious time to read this article to the end; it shows my write up was relevant and beneficial to you.  Please leave a comment, and I will appreciate it if you share the post, remember sharing is caring.