Blog #3
Motivating students is a key component of classroom management that must be administered early on in the schoolyear. "Discipline and motivation are two sides of the same sword. A motivated student is not a discipline problem, and discipline problems are caused by a lack of motivation. The problem for teachers is finding enough time, energy and ideas." (Haskitz). It is important to remember that all children are different and just as they require different learning styles, may require different motivation styles.
Some ways to motivate students are (Wagaman, 2008):
- Remain Positive
- Yelling and threatening are not positive. Focus on the positivesand achievements of each students by doing things like a "student of the week" bulletin board.
- Provide Opportunities for Success
- Struggling students need opportunities to succeed. Don't lower expectations, but provide ways that these students can succeed and feel motivated to participate further.
- Be excited
- If you're bored, they will be bored. Provide fun, interesting ways to teach students like a Jeopardy game to review for a quiz or test.
- Allow students to Earn Rewards
- Either by individual or whole class rewards, be sure the rewards are attainable. Individual behavior plans for individual students and a handful of marbles to fill a jar for whole class are two examples of rewards.
- Teach Teamwork
- Grouping students is very important, but be sure to group them accordingly for motivation and not so that one student does all the work while the other sits back and watches.
- Public Praise
- Do this often! You can print certificates, have them stand to be recognized, have "Morning Announcements" in your class of a "Sunshine Report" and can even send home their recognition so as to tell their parents of their accomplishments.
- Appropriate Praise
- Remember praise is for motivation, don't praise students for a non-achievement just to provide them praise.
- Teach Problem Solving Skills
- Allowing students the opportunity to make mistakes and correct them will make school and the topics more interesting, thus motivating them to learn.
- Provide Opportunities for Varied Experiences
- Study up on Gardner's Multiple Intelligences and try and incorporate different ones in your lessons so to catch all the different ways students learn.
School programs such as Achievement First concentrate on motivating students in order to get achievement results. The school focuses on the low-income schools and students that require extra motivation in order to learn. Their website (
http://www.achievementfirst.org/) provides hundreds of classroom and professional development resources found in their charter schools.
In an article on
http://www.reacheverychild.com/, Alan Haskitz gives an example of failed motivation. You can read the story by clicking the link below, found under references. One of the keys to motivation is making sure the students are interested in the motivation. His motivation for a struggling inner-city student avoiding the influence of gangs did not work because the student saw the motivation as a punishment. Haskitz goes on to say that it is important to make sure that there are shared values and parental support. There are many helpful links in his article on how to motivate parents, teachers, students, and others involved.
Motivation is key and it begins early. Start at the beginning, find what works, mix it up a bit, and stick with it. Don't be discouraged if you don't "hit the nail on the head" right at first. Try, try again!
Until next time,
To Charter or Not to Charter
- Lauren
References
Haskitz, Alan. Motivating Students. Reach Every Child. Retrieved from http://www.reacheverychild.com/feature/motivate.htm
Wagaman, Jennifer (2008). How to Motivate Your Students: Nine Motivating Ideas for Teachers. Retrieved from http://jenniferwagaman.suite101.com/how-to-motivate-your-students-a77615
