Driving to work Monday, I heard a commercial produced by the State of Florida talking about the profession of teaching. This is great! Anyway we can get the word out that about teaching as a career choice, the better. But are we doing enough? Here are some more suggestions I have to help the teacher shortage (please read Part 1):
1) I know this is the obvious one, but raise the salaries! We are investing in children who will one day be valuable members of the working society. It goes without saying, the better our teachers, the better the final product.
2) Incentives for teacher who continue their own additional education. This can be in form of a bonus or tuition reimbursement.
3) Direct recruiting of teachers from other states. While this is a very proactive recruiting technique, it can be done with professionalism. Let’s face it, if you live in another state, you probably are not even thinking of a Florida teaching career. What if you got approached and found out the tremendous benefits of joining the teaching workforce in Florida. People love change, but most don’t know what is going on except in their own backyards. (Colleges recruit teachers like this all the time). Target the best teachers in all the other states and bring them to Florida!
4) Wouldn’t a well done, memorable Super Bowl commercial promoting teaching in Florida worth trying? Tie the commercial to a website and if we can recruit 2,000 teachers with this commercial, it would pay for itself. It would cost the state 1,250.00 per teacher.
While some of these ideas are interesting, the real way to get quality teachers is by very sound and proven recruiting techniques. Fortune 500 companies and schools should approach recruiting employees exactly the same. The better candidates you hire, the more profitable the company.
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