8 New Resolutions to Feed Student Motivation

There is no doubt that sometimes it takes a little bit of motivation to get back to work after a long holiday.  Even with goals and resolutions, it can be hard to get going.  It’s funny, the business of learning doesn’t seem like a chore at all to the very young.  They seem to be exploring every nook and cranny of their world, full of questions (sometimes many, many questions, sometimes questions that can really stump you).  So what happens?  Do we stifle those questions?  How do they go from curious and excited to bored and beleaguered? 

How do we keep that intrinsic motivation to learn alive?  What do we need to feed student motivation?

Why not resolve to:

1.        Develop curiosity.  How do you keep their curiosity going in the classroom?  Do you shut students down when they ask questions that are “off topic” or do you allow them to be curious and encourage them to find the answers and ask some more?   Don’t stress over every minute of precious instructional time that you won’t take time to smell their roses.

2.       Make connections to their lives and the world around them.  To some, this may seem like you are “getting off the track” but it actually is a great way to get kids thinking.  One minute you’re talking about prohibition, the next minute you’re talking about the recent legalization of marijuana in Colorado.  It is just that sort of “off the track” thinking that gets them juiced (could not resist the urban dictionary pun) and wakes up their thinking.  How do these two events relate to each other?

3.       Share your enthusiasm!  How do you sell your lesson or activity? As tough as outside forces make the teaching profession, there is just no time to be an Eeyore in your classroom! Start every day, every year, and every class, with boundless enthusiasm.  “You would not believe what we are going to do today!” “Wait until you see what this will lead to…” 

4.       Aim high—that is aim for higher order thinking skills.  Ask the right questions.  Huh?  (explain that) Really? (do you know this to be true?) and So (why does it matter?  So what?)” I always told parents at back to school night that their children were learning rigorous material,  and added “please don’t tell them!”   

5.       Infuse the magic of technology- Many of our students have infused the magic of technology in their everyday lives in a big way.  It should just be a matter of course in the classroom.  To quote George Courso in Inequity in BYOD “Technology should be at the point of instruction and be as accessible in learning as a pencil; it shouldn’t be an event.” 

6.       Provide opportunities for coopertition- I think the word coopertition was coined by someone involved in First Lego League.  Our students should be involved in activities where there is both competition (for some motivation on its own) and cooperation (which makes it more or less risky depending on the student)…either way, it is part of life and motivational.

7.       Mix it up- I know that classroom routines are a must, but that doesn't mean that your class is routine.  My classes were set up with a starter or a grabber (maybe a question, maybe a discrepant event, a short video, a word or two from our sponsor (yes, I do like to say a thing or two), and then a “cooperative exploration” – which was a fancy of way of saying “the day’s activities…could have been simple or complex, 10 minutes or 40, whatever. Structure was routine, class was not!

8.       Keep your sense of humor – I had a principal who started the year off with “if you’re not having fun, it’s time to get out” – of course there was a large percentage of the staff who thought that was a ridiculous statement, after all, education is a serious business.  But, what can I say? Middle school is fun!

10 Resolutions to Feed Your Enthusiasm

Although I think that many teachers write their New Year’s resolutions in July, for many winter break gives the opportunity to take a few deep breaths and dream!  I got an email from a friend just as break was starting; she had great hopes for reading some books, writing some curriculum, grading some papers, meeting for lunch, etc.  Just 5 short days later she was suffering from a cold and lacking all motivation.  She was dreading the end of vacation and pleading for “one more day.”  The New Year is a great time for a mind makeover.  

10 Resolutions to Feed your Enthusiasm

1.        Crank it up:  Take that one assignment and/or project and crank it up a notch by integrating technology.  Give your students a list of great web 2.0 tools and let them decide which ones will help them show what they have learned.  Ask your media specialist for help or check out this great livebinder “Web Tools for Teachers by Type” to get you started.

2.       Let go of some control.  Give your students a choice:  Let them pick the topic, assessment, tool they are going to use, or even their seat! 

3.       Give kids more responsibility:  for some odd reason my students were quite capable of believing they knew more than me about some things.  Let them be the expert in the room.  Do 5 minutes of “you teach me” at the end of each class.

4.       Try something new:  Figure out something new about a piece of technology that you own – your camera, tv, car, phone…..or try out twitter or Facebook, be cool in your own head.

5.       Tune into their feelings:  It is easy to jump on a kid sleeping in class, not hear the tone of others, not see the baggage they are carrying.  Tune into your students with an empathetic eye.

6.       Ask for help from a colleague. Go across the hall or go across the world.  Ask your colleagues for some ideas for the topic you are teaching next week and tweak them to your needs.  (and don’t forget to share back….just like those that use online recipes are always saying I LOVED that recipe but I substituted chocolate for bacon, nuts for peas and potato chips for lettuce). 

7.       Make it real:  tie in current events, look for youtube videos, make connections to your student’s daily lives. Ask:   Can you give us an example from the classroom?  Example from the real world?  Example from your life?

8.        Be ungoogleable!  Encourage thinking by asking the right questions.    Ask your students to:

Elaborate and clarify:  What do you mean by…?  Can you tell me more about…?  I wonder if…? 

Build on or challenge a person’s ideas:  What might be other points of view?  Do you agree?

9.       Get to the point!  What are you REALLY trying to teach?   What is the true essential learning? 

10.   Get your mojo back.  Reboot!  Clean your slate and theirs, have the students reintroduce themselves.  Reintroduce yourself and your 2014 expectations.  Dwell on things that “make your day.”

11.   Count your blessings:  for every one thing you NEED, give thanks for something you HAVE.

Okay, so I went one over!  What are your resolutions for this bright and shiny new year?

Getting Motivated

Looming over my head as I vacationed on the back of a Harley making a loop through the extraordinary countryside of Northern California was the deadline of making a one minute video on “Motivation and Learning.”  As we zigzagged along the coast, through the redwoods, to the top of a volcano, I could not help but wonder.  I wondered what those crops were, why there were cows on the top of a mountain, how those seals could be comfortable on those rough rocks.  I wondered about how all of those pears got pollinated (they self-pollinate), how they get from those trees to my grocery shelf, how the weather could change in the matter of a mile.    Then I realized that I was surrounded by the perfect example of motivation and learning:  curiosity.   It was not just me wondering, I traveled with a group of lifelong learners, they too were people who were inspired and awed by the vistas and curious about how it all came to be.  As we traveled, we asked questions, looked things up, and wondered out loud. 

We wanted to know more! 

Curiosity and enthusiasm are great motives for learning.  Can you replicate the motivation and inspiration that we felt in the classroom (can you say Harley field trip?)? 

 Here are a few things that you might try:

1.  Share your enthusiasm.  You don’t need to show them your online digital photo album of your summer vacation, but why not show them a picture or two and have them wonder with you?
2. Share their enthusiasm:  Let them share a photo (vacation or otherwise) that will make you wonder. 
3. Keep it real – I know field trip planning has gotten quite complex, keep the trip simple-just take your students outside and give them a two foot plot of grass to explore!
4.   Make kids wonder - As a science teacher, I had a number of “discrepant events” videos, demonstrations and activities that I used as grabbers in the beginning of a lesson.  For example- you can tri-fold a piece of tissue paper (we used to use the tissue that came in between the ink and the paper in a ditto master:).   Set it up like a chimney and light it on fire from the top-it will burn down and the ash will fly up.  Like a magic trick, it makes them wonder and ask “how did you do that?’ – a first step in critical thinking and developing the motivation to learn more.
   Technology now puts resources and learning at our fingertips.  You can use all sorts of media to get kids motivated and increase the learning by having the research tools in their pockets.

How do you get kids motivated to learn?