Welcome to The Flourishing Teacher’s Field Guide. Sit back, grab a cuppa and soak up some life-changing content!

We believe that teachers are blooming brilliant beautiful beings and deserve to be valued, supported and celebrated.

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This week, we’re thinking about why teachers lose their passion for the job and, more importantly, how you can get it back!

Let’s go…

I Forgot Everything I Loved About Teaching

If you’ve lost your teaching mojo, then you need to hear this…

I can guarantee that no one doubts your impact and the quality of your work. If you’re a teacher, then you are, by definition, a superstar, and I’ll have words with anyone who says otherwise!

The problem is, if you’re the kind of teacher who spends their days giving their energy, creativity and knowledge to others, there’s a good chance you’ve forgotten just how awesome you are.

When that happens, you forget why you’re teaching and you start to lose your passion. All those other things overwhelm it.

That’s certainly what happened to me a few years ago.

I was at the bottom end of senior leadership at the time, which meant:

In the end, I totally lost my motivation. I was so stressed out by all the things I had to do that I forgot why I wanted to do them.

I began to resent the job. Even though, in my heart, I knew this was still the right profession and that I really enjoyed working with students, I found it hard to get out of bed in the morning with a positive mindset.

It wasn’t until I made some fundamental changes to the way I lived and worked that I recaptured that spark and got my motivation back.

Did the long hours change?

Nope.

But the way I thought about them did, and that’s what counts.

Here’s how I did it…

Impact, Passion & Balance: The Keys To Staying Motivated

Here’s the thing.

There’s so much about our work environments that we can’t change. It’s not practical, or it’s not within our power.

And much as that might frustrate us, we kind of need to accept it.

If we don’t, we’ll spend our working lives sitting with resentment.

But accepting that can lead us to a different kind of understanding… that we have the power to change the way we respond to the things our schools throw at us.

That’s at the heart of what we do at Marigold - we focus on the individual and help them make lasting personal and professional changes rather than institutional ones.

So, here are three strategies for staying motivated and marvellous that took me from a burned-out teacher to a fired-up one!

1. Remember The Impact You Have On Your Students

You won’t always see it, but your positive impact on the students you teach (and on the pupils in your wider community) is immense. The problem is that the tangible outcomes of your brilliance don’t always manifest themselves until years later, so it’s easy to lose sight of all the good you do.

I found that it was much easier to deal with the hard days when I developed strategies that reminded me of all the good I’d done. Here’s what I did:

• Over my career, I’ve had lots of thank you cards and letters from students, staff and parents. I’d always kept them shut away in a file but decided to get them out and read them through at the start of every term. I pinned the really meaningful ones to a board above my desk as a daily reminder that what I do matters.

• I teach a largely vocational subject, which means that pupils will often end up going into the industry and forging careers in my sector. By keeping in touch with them and watching their success, I remind myself of the value of the education I gave them. It also inspires me to give the same level of effort to my current students, knowing that some of them may be inspired to go down the same professional path.

• In reality, I teach kids how to manage at life. Reminding myself that for some pupils, I’m their safe space, their guide and the only one who really sees them is humbling. When I’m feeling unmotivated, I do my best to remember the good I do and will do in the future. And that does more than get me through. It empowers me to make a difference, even if it’s just for one child. That’s enough for me.

Bringing positivity, value and inspirational content to our students is why we do what we do, so don’t be afraid to celebrate it, remember it and refer to it when the going gets tough.

2. Remember The Passion You Have For Your Subject

I went into teaching because I genuinely loved my subject. I wanted to stay connected to that world, work with young people and, hopefully, inspire the ones who felt the same way about what I taught.

In my 18+ years as a teacher, that love hasn’t changed. What did change was that my focus quickly shifted from my subject interest to the day-to-day demands of teaching.

I kind of forgot that my love for my subject still underpinned my teaching career.

Once I found ways to reconnect with the industry I’d come from, I found a new energy to my teaching. I could dip into the passion I’d forgotten about, learn new things, engage with changes in the sector and pass those things on to my students.

That meant reconnecting with organisations and individuals I’d lost track of, becoming active again as a practitioner and changing what I taught to reflect contemporary advances that were meaningful to me.

It took time. Time I didn’t think I had. But it was 100% worth it.

3. Find Some Personal And Professional Balance

I know. Achieving a professional and personal balance is challenging when you’re a teacher.

And what’s worse is that people continually tell you to achieve a balance that feels impossible to find.

But…

Balance is relative and rooted context. I’d got to the point where I had very little balance between my work and personal life, so just a small change was enough to make a big difference.

So I joined a brass band.

One night a week, I went out and met new people, used my brain and body in a different way, was creative, social and immersed in trying to improve the quality of my playing.

I’d made a committment to that band, and they held me to account. I went to each rehearsal, even if I knew tomorrow was going to be a busy day. I rearranged my workload to take account of this behavioural shift, and even though that squeezed my time at other points in the week, it was worth it.

For those few hours, I wasn’t a teacher. I didn’t think about work, and I wasn’t worrying about lesson plans or marking. I was in the moment, and for me, that kind of mindfulness was invaluable.

It made me a better teacher, a better husband and a better father. And very slowly, it made me a better musician!

It’s amazing how building just a little more balance into your week can fire up your ability to work with purpose and energy, especially if you feel like you’ve lost those essential qualities lately.

It’s Time To Flourish

We’re called Marigold Teachers for a darn good reason.

Just like marigolds sustain and nurture the planets around them, great colleagues and managers support and inspire the staff around them to thrive.

They’re your staff room marigolds.

They’re the colleagues you turn to for advice. For positivity. For solutions rather than problems. For a shoulder to cry on. For cake.

And they’re the kinds of colleagues we always aspire to be.

Be Careful: The Language We Use About Ourselves Is Powerful

We adore Kate Hinton. She’s a no-nonsense, genuine advocate for teacher wellbeing who teaches us a lot about how to support the teachers we work with.

And this post nailed it.

Our language defines us, and Kate knows it. Check out her writing below, and give her a follow here.

Don’t Miss Our Podcast Launch On 3rd December

Starting a podcast is a bit scary… but we’re doing it anyway!

On December 3rd, we launch the Marigold Teachers Podcast. It’s full of chat, guest interviews, and actionable advice.

Quite frankly, it’s gonna be better than finding a working photocopier at 8:30 in the morning.

So, to get you in the mood, here’s a quick preview of Rebecca and David talking about what exactly we think it means to be a marigold.

We’ll give you a preview of the podcast in the next issue, along with the links to subscribe to the channel.

Just like this newsletter, it’s totally free.

That’s Nearly It For This Issue…

As always, thank you for reading and subscribing.

But more than that, thank you for the thousands of unseen, unappreciated things you do for your school community every day.

Thank you for taking responsibility when no one else did.

Thank you for giving more than you had to give.

Thank you for believing in that child.

You make a difference, whether you believe it or not.

If you’re questioning the value of your career and need a positivity pep-talk, here are the key takeaways from today’s issue:

In next week’s issue, we’ll delve more deeply into the podcast, share our goals and give you a sneak peek into our thoughts on toxic positivity!

Until then, remember, you’re more than your marking, your lesson observations and your planning.

You’re you. And that’s all you need to be.