This document discusses ways to increase motivation and engagement among teachers and students during the COVID-19 pandemic. It notes that many teachers are overworked, enjoying their jobs less, and considering leaving due to pandemic challenges. Student engagement has also dropped significantly. The document provides strategies administrators and educators have used successfully, such as focusing on positives rather than negatives, giving teachers time back through tools like Istation that save on planning, and showing appreciation for efforts. Providing data and resources empowers teachers to help students succeed. Giving students ownership over learning also boosts motivation. Blended learning tools can gamify lessons and track engagement. Motivating teachers ultimately benefits student achievement.

1. Outlook 2021:
Motivation and Engagement
Teachers and Students Are Struggling.
Here’s How to Turn Things Around.
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2. Teaching has never been easy—and
with the onset of COVID-19 these
challenges have only been exacerbated,
pushing more teachers to the brink.
According to a new report, 77% of
educators are working more hours than
a year ago, 60% enjoy their job less, and
59% do not feel secure in their school
district’s health and safety precautions.
Approximately 27% say they are
considering leaving their profession,
retiring early or taking a leave of
absence because of the pandemic.1
At the same time, students are also
struggling with motivation and
engagement. Whether learning is
in-person, remote or a hybrid of both,
school is not the same as it was in early
2020. Subsequently, student engagement
has dropped precipitously. In a recent
survey of K-12 educators, 92% of
schools reported an increase in
student disengagement.2
96%
of K-12 educators are very or
extremely concerned about
teachers’ social-emotional health
60%
of K-12 educators have seen an
increase in teacher turnover in
the last nine months
77%
of K-12 educators say motivating
students is the top instructional
challenge this year
Source: Whetstone
Despite these tough circumstances, many
administrators and educators have found
creative and empowering ways to lift both
teacher and student motivation to drive
greater engagement—and ultimately,
greater academic success. Their ideas and
stories are captured in this playbook and
can be put to impactful use now. They are
also timeless ideas that can be applied
well beyond today’s challenging teaching
and learning environment.
Here are 5 ideas to get you started.
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3. Focus on the Positives, Not the Negatives
Motivating teachers and students starts
at the very top with a school’s leadership
team. Numerous research studies found
that leadership has a significant impact on
teacher motivation. It’s also been shown
that creating a supportive environment
is essential for teachers’ motivation, job
satisfaction and retention.3
As Dr. Andra Penny, the principal at
Cottonwood Creek Elementary in Coppell
Independent School District, notes, “It’s
trickle down from the word go.”
Changing her own attitude and trying to
be more upbeat has had a critical impact
across the entire school. “When I made
the switch and started refocusing on what
we can do, not what we can’t do, it made
a difference in the whole school. It was so
profound, it was crazy,” she recalls.
Fran Jones, a kindergarten teacher at
Hertford County Public School District,
agrees that leadership has a key role to
play. “They motivate us from the top,” she
says, mentioning how her superintendent
recently told her he was proud of her
and how having that affirmation come
from the district level made an impact.
“In this virtual environment, it has really
motivated all of us to work together,”
she says.
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3

4. For teachers, a lack of time is one of their
biggest challenges—and so it’s also one
of the best ways leadership can help
them out. Time can be “given back” to
teachers through small gestures like an
administrator offering to cover recess
duty or by giving teachers time-saving
resources and tools they can use.
“It gives them breathing time and shows
that you care. I don’t have a lot of money,
so I can’t do trips or gifts, but I can give
them my time,” says Dr. Penny.
In the Eagle County School District, the
use of Istation—an e-learning program
for English, math and Spanish— has been
embraced by teachers not only for
its effectiveness, but because it saves
them so much time.
“They really enjoy using the teacher-
directed lessons. They can look up
the lessons they want to teach on
any topic, any standard or any core
instruction—and they can even search
according to the Lexile or Quantile
level,” says Deborah Gregory, an Istation
ambassador for Eagle County School
District and a bilingual reading specialist.
“They can also use the teacher station
inside of Istation for the presentation of
a lesson, which is already planned out
and high quality. It really cuts down on
planning and researching.”
I don’t have a lot of money, so I can’t do trips
or gifts, but I can give teachers my time.”
Dr. Andra Penny, principal at Cottonwood Creek Elementary
in Coppell Independent School District
Give Time Back to Teachers
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Gregory also notes that this year teachers
don’t have as much planning time due to the
pandemic and the need to spend so much
time cleaning their classrooms. Having access
to research-based scripted lessons that
provide everything needed to teach a lesson
has helped teachers whose planning time has
been cut short.
Another aspect of Istation that has been
helpful is the ability to quickly and easily
monitor student progress. “Having that
ongoing monthly progress monitoring piece
has been huge. We were doing it previously
through one-on-one assessments with
students and it took up so much instructional
time,” says Gregory.
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5. Another key factor in increasing
motivation is showing that you notice
and appreciate teachers’ and students’
efforts and validate their work. And,
the best part, showing appreciation
doesn’t cost a dime.
“Sometimes it’s just a sticky note stuck
on a door jamb saying, ‘I noticed you
took Cynthia’s recess duty today’ or ‘I
appreciate that you stayed late after
school to talk to a parent on Zoom,’”
says Dr. Penny. “If they know you noticed,
it brings them so much joy. When I go into
the classroom and every note is on their
bulletin board or stuck where they can
see them, I know it means something.”
Appreciation also goes a long way for
students. When they achieve an academic
goal, such as advancing from one level to
the next in reading or math, showing you
notice their efforts can greatly impact
their motivation and engagement.
Gregory talks about how her district
has used certificates as a positive
motivation for students when they
pass a level in their Istation program.
“We use certificates to congratulate
students for small successes when they
meet individual goals, improve their ISIP
scores that month, or when students
meet their recommended usage on
Istation and are progressing through
their instructional path. It’s a fun way to
be creative and to motivate students to
improve continually.”
Look for Opportunities to Show Appreciation
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5

6. 6 Simple Ways to Boost Teacher Motivation
1.FIND JOY IN SMALL THINGS
Finding joy and sharing that joy with
your teachers amidst the day-to-day
chaos and intense demands can go a
long way in boosting morale. This can
be as simple as giving out a small piece
of chocolate to brighten someone’s day
or sharing teachers’ achievements with
everyone on staff.
2. HAVE A SENSE OF HUMOR
Making small jokes and finding
laughter where you can helps
boost everyone’s motivation to
keep working hard.
3. GIVE TEACHERS A FEW
MOMENTS OF PEACE
Cottonwood Creek Elementary
designated a “Zen room” where
teachers can enjoy an ambience of
music and quiet and get a cold drink
and snack to unwind, rejuvenate and
feel cared for.
4. TAP YOUR PTO AND
PARENTS FOR HELP
Whether it’s asking the PTO or
parents to bring in a special meal
for teachers, snacks or other ways to
help, you can stretch what you can do
further when you ask for help.
5. ADD SMALL SPECIAL
TOUCHES TO THEIR DAY
Sometimes small gestures can
make a big difference, such as
putting a nice, scented soap in
the teachers’ bathroom.
6.GET MORE GREAT IDEAS
FROM SOCIAL MEDIA
If you still want more ideas for
boosting teacher morale, there are
a number of Facebook groups you can
join—such as the National Association
of Elementary School Principals,
School Principals, Administrators,
Counselors Networking Group
(USA), or state-specific principal
association groups—where other
educators are posting what they’re
doing in their schools.
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7. Give Teachers the Tools to Succeed
4
Everyone wants to be successful in their
work. Giving teachers access to student
data and effective teaching resources
empowers them to be successful.
Gregory believes that having a well-
researched and effective learning resource
combined with robust data and reporting
capabilities has really motivated both
students and teachers. “I feel like Istation
allows me to have 10 other teachers in
my classroom differentiating for each
student’s need and instructing them,”
says Gregory. “It allows us to have small
flexible groups and do interventions
using the teacher-directed lessons
while other students are engaged in
their differentiated curricular paths of
instruction in Spanish, reading or math.”
For Jones, she says that real-time data that
connects assessment to instruction is key.
Having her students take assessments in
Istation not only gives her instant insight
into how her students are scoring, she
says, but allows her to provide actionable
feedback to students. The in-depth
reports have also been helpful for her
and other teachers to understand why
students might be struggling.
“A student would score on tier five one
month and then tier two the next month,
and the teachers didn’t know why,” says
Jones. “So we started going into their
Istation reports, and then we would see
things like they were speeding through
and realized if they’re doing that on their
assessments, maybe they’re not taking
their time in other places too.”
It’s also been helpful that the Istation
reports can be shared with other teachers
and administrators. “The assistant
principal can go in and know exactly what
I’m talking about,” says Jones. “We also
started to take the reports and compare
them to other assessments that the
students were taking so we could see how
they matched.”
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8. Give Students Ownership Over Their Learning
5
For students, a big aspect of motivation
and engagement with their learning is
understanding their own progress. At
Hertford County Public School District,
teachers’ enthusiasm for data on student
progress has trickled down to the
students as well.
“We noticed a trend where, as the
teachers started to understand the
reports in Istation, the students were
also getting excited. The students were
starting to want to know what their
reports were,” says Jones.
Gregory also notes that having a tool
like Istation that provides so much data
has been tremendously engaging for
students. “I have data meetings with
students and that really helps them see
each domain of a subject and if they’re
progressing overall or not. In addition,
it gives them their percentile compared
to the national normative sample, so
they can see how they’re performing
compared to other students at their
grade level,” says Gregory. “Students
really get excited and they have
ownership over their learning. It makes
it more meaningful to them.”
Students really get
excited and they
have ownership
over their learning.
It makes it more
meaningful to them.”
Deborah Gregory, an Istation
ambassador for Eagle County
School District and a bilingual
reading specialist
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9. 4 Ways Student Engagement Skyrockets with Blended Learning
1.GAMIFY LEARNING
Students who are educated with
challenge-based gamification have
raised their performance by up to
89.45% compared to those who only
have received lectures.4
“They seem
more engaged and they don’t see
Istation as learning. They see it as a
game and I think that’s what keeps
them going,” says Gregory.
2. BUILD ROUTINES
Whether students are learning in
person or remotely, having a sense
of normalcy and consistency is
important. At Hertford County Public
School District, for example, the kids
do Istation every day at the same time
—whether it’s an in-person or remote
school day—and this helps establish
consistency even when things are
constantly changing.
3. TRACK ATTENDANCE
Using digital blended learning
tools makes it easy to see whether
students logged on, how long they
participated and if they’ve “zoned
out” and aren’t actively engaging. This
allows teachers to track attendance
for remote students and get a clear
understanding of how engaged
students are with their learning.
4. PROVIDE EQUAL
OPPORTUNITIES TO LEARN
Making sure students who elected
to go remote are included has been
an ongoing challenge at many
schools that have the option of
in-person. Blended learning tools
provide an opportunity for all kids
to learn in the same way, whether
remote, in-person or hybrid.
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10. Engagement and
Motivation are
Key Drivers of
Academic Success
The challenges facing administrators,
teachers and students aren’t going away
any time soon. And there will continue to
be time pressures and other challenges
even after COVID-19. This means that
keeping teachers engaged in their work
will continue to be critical. In fact,
motivating teachers is one of the most
important investments leadership can
make to drive better academic success—
because a motivated teacher motivates
and engages students as well.
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11. Give Teachers
More Insight for
Powerful Growth
Istation’s powerful online reporting
site helps teachers implement multi-
tiered systems of support strategies,
prioritize critical interventions and
improve educational outcomes for
reading, math and Spanish literacy.
Istation’s enhanced teacher dashboard
automatically prioritizes and presents
the most relevant information along
with enhanced data insights, suggested
content and recommended resources.
Plus the ISIP Data Dashboard included
with the new Power Path student
experience lets students set goals
and review progress alongside their
teacher, boosting excitement and
keeping students motivated to learn.
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12. Sources
1
“The Hidden Impact of COVID-19 on
Educators: Rising Health Concerns,
Lower Risk Tolerance and Benefit Gaps,”
Horace Mann, December 2020.
2
“COVID’s Impact on K-12 Teaching
and Learning,” Whetstone, accessed
February 2, 2021.
3
“Principal Leadership Style, Teacher
Motivation, and Teacher Retention,”
Willie E. Williams, Walden University,
2018.
4
“The Effect of Challenge-Based
Gamification on Learning: An
Experiment in the Context of Statistics
Education,” Nikoletta Zampeta Legaki,
Nannan Xi, Juho Hamari, Kostas
Karpouzis, Vassilios Assimakopoulos,
International Journal of Human-Computer
Studies, Volume 144, December 2020.
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13. Named “Online Learning Innovation of the Year” by EdTech
Breakthrough, Istation is recognized as a compelling distance
learning solution for reading, math and Spanish literacy.
Based on scientific evidence and comprehensive research,
Istation’s formative assessments, progress monitoring,
adaptive curriculum and teacher resources help measure
growth and introduce new skills in school and at home.
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