Top 5 Ways Your School Can Energize You in 2025

With the school year just beginning, there are high hopes from teachers and administrators that this will be the year we see a return to normalcy.

ThinkFives thought this would be a good time to ask teachers what schools and leadership could do to help energize you more. Support from leadership and appropriate resources are important in creating and fostering a culture of positivity at school.

ESGI and ThinkFives polled hundreds of teachers to find out what schools could do to support and energize teachers. Here are their Top 5 answers.

Maybe this is a great list to forward to your administrators!

Promote Self-Care

Promoting self-care was mentioned by many teachers we surveyed. Many teachers shared how difficult the last two years have been and how they wish they could focus more on their own emotional and mental health. SEL (Social Emotional Learning) is now part of many curriculums and as several teachers said, it should be part of a teacher’s professional development as well.

Comments from teachers:

• Brain breaks / encouragement for Faculty
• Have an exercise program in Fall, painting in Winter, yoga in Spring
• Check in with me personally to see how things are going
• More team building exercises
• More breaks built into our schedule
• Hold positive PD sessions
• Workout classes through the school!
• Additional support and resources for teacher’s mental health balance
• Incentives that would earn some type of self-care services or products

Understanding These are Difficult Times

Schools and administrators need to recognize the emotional toll the last years have had on teachers. We must also acknowledge the number of colleagues who have left education or retired. One teacher recommended that principals should be meeting with one another to discuss challenges and consider ideas for rebuilding communities.

Comments from teachers:

• Allow for more collaboration time with colleagues
• Ask us to choose instead of mandating curriculum, services, etc.
• Don’t put extra work on teachers right now
• Get keynote speakers who can provide encouragement and empathy to how hard we work 
• It is time to suspend lesson assessments and district observations
• Remember to take things off of my plate, not just keep piling on them

Pay Me More

While the previous two categories may only be applied to this year, “Pay me more” is something that would probably make it on the list every year.  But it is interesting to note it’s not just about the pay.  There are a lot of other perks for teachers that leadership would consider. 

Comments from teachers:

• Try a free lunch from time-to-time
• I’m at the top of the ladder and can’t get a raise unless I retire.  Is there anything we can do about that?
• Better coffee in the breakroom
• Bonuses for the extra work we have to do
• Provide fun teacher treats — random drinks delivered or pick up a free lunch.
• Keep the soda machine open
• More days off during the school year

Provide More Support

On top of the benefits that the district can provide to teachers personally, there were a number of suggestions about resources that could help energize teachers. Most of these will provide a better learning situation for students, and that surely will get teachers excited.

Comments from teachers:

• Provide more supports like ESGI that give us more time to prepare hands-on lessons 
• Bring parents into the learning system as priority stakeholders
• Give us classroom aides for small group instruction
• Let us have a full planning period
• Get me the curriculum I want to teach
• Give me more planning time, more dress-down days
• Give me the gift of time
• Give us one planning day a month
• Hire enough teachers so there are no blended classes.
• Listen to staff concerns and give us extra funds for supplies
• Provide technology that works correctly

Provide Positive Acknowledgment

The #1 way schools and leaders can energize teachers is probably the one that costs the least: provide positive acknowledgement.

Given the long hours, the extra demands and the challenging working conditions, a little positive acknowledgement and encouragement can go a long way.

Comments from teachers:

• Be more proactive and positive
• Acknowledging the wins
• Continue with the positive motivation
• Share frequent praise/positive feedback 
• Give me feedback: Is what I’m doing good?
• Just recognize the good we are doing.
• Make sure we touch base at least once a week — communication is key
• We should celebrate teachers at individual school sites more often

Special Mentions

As we read the results of the poll at ThinkFives, we were also encouraged by the many positive things that teachers said about schools and leaders. Many schools were already energizing teachers. We thought we would share just a few of those comments as well.

• We have a sunshine committee that does extra special things for teachers and we appreciate it.
• We enjoyed the morale boosters like Spirit Week and Fun Fridays.
• We’re a small district, so everyone is like family. We have a great school and awesome leadership.
• Our school is really good at having random drawings for prizes to boost morale. 
• My district does a fantastic job providing funds and resources for all of us. 
• My school does a great job of energizing. We have plenty of prep time.
• My school is sending us daily encouragement emails for mental health.
• My school is doing a great job providing snacks and lunches to keep us motivated.
• Our principal and administrative team have done a wonderful job boosting faculty throughout the year.

What could your school do to energize you?