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"Learning is not attained by chance.  It must be sought for with ardor and attended to with diligence." - Abigail Adams

Staff Motivation Ideas

Sandy Roberts, writing in the May, 1993 issue of Exchange, offered "28 Fun Ideas to Motivate Your Staff."  Here are a few of these ideas:

*  Skills and Talents.  To foster staff awareness of others' skills and talents, have staff stand in a line according to their feelings about their ability in music (towards the front of the line represents they feel they have a strong ability in the area). Follow the line idea for abilities in art, science, circle time ideas, etc.  This allows the staff to know who to go to for support knowledge.

*  Back-to-Back Drawings.  Two people sit back to back.  One person is given a blank paper and a box of crayons.  This person is the receiver and may only say the words "go on" or "repeat."  The other person is given a piece of paper with a picture drawn on it.  This person is the giver and must give verbal directions to the receiver to enable the receiver to draw the same picture.  The giver may not say what the picture is, such as "draw a cat."  The giver must give verbal directions such as "draw a circle in the center of the paper" or "draw a triangle on the upper left part of circle." He must not say "draw an ear on the head."  If the receiver does not understand, she may say "repeat" - nothing else.  When the receiver has drawn the giver's direction, she must say "go on."  You'll find, when all is done, that the pictures are not the same.  It is impossible to place blame on who made a mistake.  Both people feel they did the best they could - listening and speaking; but communication is difficult and inexact.  

*  Inventing Games.  Ask staff to develop a few games to help get a point across.  Staff will discover that the best way to work on problems or concerns is to ask those they work with every day.  If a teacher is concerned that she gets easily frustrated and raises her voice too much, ask co-workers to develop a positive game that the whole group can work on together.  This will show support for co-workers and the concerned person will know he is not alone.  A game is also a good way to help with a problem in a fun, relaxed atmosphere with peers.

This article is one of 47 staffing articles in our publication, Staff Challenges which is featured in our web sale of the week.  To purchase Staff Challenges at a 25% discount, go to http://mail.ccie.com/go/eed/0355

In addition, the complete list of 28 Ideas can be found on our home page (at www.ChildCareExchange.com) where this article is presented today.

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