It may be clichéd and trite, but it’s also true that teaching is one of the most satisfactory professions there is – you’re making a difference in the lives of ardent students, you’re providing them with knowledge and facilitating their desire to learn, and you’re a guiding force who makes a difference in their lives.

However, there comes a time in every teacher’s life when enthusiasm gives way to ennui, when dedication is taken over by despair, and when you become jaded and teaching becomes just another day at a routine job.

Success and satisfaction come to teachers only when they’re able to sustain their enthusiasm for the job on a long term basis, so if you’re looking for ways to retain your fresh approach to the job, here are a few suggestions:

• Continue to enhance your knowledge: When you teach the same subject from the same curriculum every year, there’s hardly any motivation to further your knowledge and broaden your horizons. However, this repetitiveness causes you to stagnate and stay in a rut that is difficult to get out of and which pulls you deeper into a quagmire as the years go by. You naturally lose interest in the job and look at it as a chore rather than an interesting profession. But when you continue to enhance your knowledge through the years, you remain as fresh and enthusiastic about the job as when you first started out. Keep up with the latest news in the subject that you handle and in other others that are linked to it, and continue to read and broaden your horizons so you can share your wisdom with your class.

• Keep up with technology: If there’s one thing that is bound to make you feel younger and more in tune with the times, it’s being tech savvy. Even if you don’t know the first thing about technology and you’re scared to learn, it’s time to put aside your fears and get down to accepting technology as an integral part of life that will help you move forward professionally and personally. There’s much you can do with technology on your side, so even if you’re apprehensive, start out slowly and on a small scale, and you’ll find that it’s not the unconquerable demon that you think it is. Once you get the hang of the basics, it’s smooth sailing all the way. And learn how you can use technology to add value to your teaching methods and make your classes more interesting.

• Find new and more interesting ways to handle classes: Teaching the same curriculum year after year could become a mundane and boring task, so for your sake and that of your students, find ways to introduce more interest and enthusiasm into the way you handle your classes. In general, change your methods a little to suit each new batch of students. This way, you find that teaching is still as challenging and exhilarating as it was when you were a newbie, and you also make each new class ardent and enthusiastic listeners and participants. A teacher’s satisfaction comes from their students’ responsiveness, so breathe life into your career and classes with innovation and interesting ideas for change.

• Don’t rest on your laurels: Find ways to move ahead in your profession instead of being content to stay on in the same position no matter how comfortable it is. When you find yourself becoming bored and losing enthusiasm for your job, it’s time to up the ante and try to get ahead. Going back to school to earn another degree or changing responsibilities at the institution you teach in are ways to keep your enthusiasm for the job and find personal and professional satisfaction.

By-line: 

This guest post is contributed by Bobbie Walker, she writes on the topic of Online BSN Degrees. She welcomes your comments at her email id: bobbiew862[@]gmail[.]com.

More Great Teaching Tips