Motivational+Ideas

Motivational Ideas
 * Small Rewarding: Students love to be rewarded for something they have done. Teachers should at least acknowledge the students deed or give them something small (a small piece of candy). This small token will make the students want to achieve the goal the teacher has set.
 * Encouragement: Students need encouragement from their teachers. This will hopefully start to build the students intrinsic drive to do well.
 * Allowing the Students to have Control: Students like to have control over things and it makes them feel more empowered and willing to do better. The teacher does not have to let the students control everything in the class, but just allowing them to choose their assignment from a list instead of just having one choice.
 * Having Classroom Jobs: Allow a student who has done well in class to be the “personal assistant” of the teacher. Most students would enjoy having this job and would work toward being the child chose for this position.
 * Teacher’s Attitude: The teacher’s attitude can greatly affect their students. If a teacher is caring and has a good attitude, the students are going to be more motivated to do well on their work.
 * Positive Discipline: If you have a discipline system where the students understand the consequences, that are understandable for the action, then the students will hopefully be motivated not to do the undesirable actions.
 * Have your Students understand that you are the Teacher: Younger students will want to please you. You shouldn’t have to play the “buddy” of your students to make them do what you want. If you have the students understand that you are the adult, they will respect you more.
 * Reward System: You can have a classroom reward system, where the students earn tickets, stickers, etc., and once the students earn a set amount of tokens they are allowed to do or purchase something.
 * School Wide Reward: The whole school can participate in reward system. Each class can earn a token and with the class who earns the most in a given time or when a class reaches a certain number, the whole class can be rewarded.
 * Make Learning Fun: If you as the teacher make your classes enjoyable, the students will do better. They will want to do better if they can tell that you are making your class fun.
 * Change Up the Style of Lessons You Teach: Instead of teacher the same style for every lesson, worksheets or straight from the book, change. Your students like doing a variety of activities and you may see better turnout from your students.

All of the above motivational techniques used in my placement this semester. I observed four different teachers and they all have a different technique that works for their students. What works in the younger grades may not work in the older grades. The entire school likes the reward system for the school. Every child works to do well for his or her class and the whole class benefits from the system. I like reward systems, but I do not believe they need to be the only thing that is used in the class. Students like rewards and are willing to work for them. If your students are motivated throughout the school day, then your school year will go much better. Both the teacher needs to instill a sense on motivation in their students and the students need to have a sense of motivation in themselves.