“Professional Satisfaction” has a large realm of a variety of things that can be counted as what causes one to feel satisfied as a professional. This satisfaction is powerful and will impact the classroom more than we can measure. Teachers need to find their “Professional Satisfaction” so they can make an impact in their classroom of students on a daily basis. Teachers have a myriad of reasons of why they fall out of the profession and need to focus on captivating their audience.
As a teacher in the classroom, the satisfaction can range from relationships with children to guiding the child to adulthood. It can range from challenging ones self with teaching through trying new ideas to participating in decision making in educational matters. Teachers have a myriad of reasons why they are a teacher and the 20 year experienced teachers know that income is not the motivational factor.
It is agreed upon by many surveys that “Teachers satisfaction continues to decline”, according Strauss in The Washington Post. Many surveys ask if income is the problem and the majority of teachers say yes it is. In Bishay’s article in Teachers Job Satisfaction: A Study, most of the younger teachers aren’t satisfied with the pay. Yet, most teachers over 45 years of age are satisfied with the pay. The older teachers don’t focus on the pay and focus on other positive benefits to satisfy them. If the teacher is satisfied it will show up in the classroom, like Burgess, Teach like a PIRATE, states in one of his titles “Mediocrity doesn’t Motivate”. As teachers we must be motivators.
The art of motivating must come from deep within a teacher in order to engage students’ into learning when they don’t want to. Teachers need to keep abreast of their field to engage the students on a daily basis. Burgess makes a great point about people “. . . love their job because they are committed to be great”. This challenge, to be great, brings a satisfaction to the professional. Teachers need to keep themselves challenged, which in turn will satisfy them, in turn would motivate the students to want to be apart of the excitement. Teachers need to raise the bar so their peers will step up to the challenge and revolutionize their schools for their students. “Professional satisfaction” plays a huge role in the classroom and the teachers is the leader who models a commitment to be “great” so the students in turn will want to be great.
So, Professional Satisfaction does play in the effectiveness of all classrooms. As Teachers, we need to challenge ourselves to be great in our field, great in our presentations and take that risk of failing. Students need this model so they will learn to fail and try again to perfect their tasks. As Burgess put it, “We have to find our own personal drum and play it.” We need to model risk taking with our students so they will find their drum and play, in other words, be willing to fail their way to success.
References:
Burgess, D. (2012). Teach like a Pirate: Increase student engagement, boost your creativity, and transform your life as an educator. San Diego, CA: Dave Burgess Consulting.
Strauss, V (2013) U.S. teachers’ job satisfaction craters report. The Washington Post. Retrieved September 11, 2015, from https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2013/02/21/u-s-teachers-job-satisfaction-craters-report/
Richmond, E (2015) Teacher Job Satisfaction Hits 25-Year Low. The Atlantic. Retrieved September 11, 2015 from http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2013/02/teacher-job-satisfaction-hits-25-year-low/273383/
Bishay, A (1996) Teachers Job Satisfaction. A Study. Retrieved September 11, 2015 from
salbyrd12 
Sally- That is a good point that teachers need to find their satisfaction so they can make a difference in the student they teach. I think I am one of those teachers. I am satisfied with the pay. But I didn’t go into teaching for the pay, I went in because I liked working with kids and wanted to make a difference in their lives.
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Playing our own drums…every teacher is different and plays in their own style with their own differing approaches. I love Burgess’ drum analogy. It is so true. I found a lot on teacher dissatisfaction information when researching this week, as well. It is tough how stressful our profession can be, but when we work as a community within our schools we can help each other to complete our tasks.
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