Five Methods to Motivate Students Immediately
By Scott B. Freiberger
Let’s face it: This pandemic life predicament has been rife with remonstrance. If your school year has seemed much like a muddled mixture of deep sea shark cage diving, high-altitude halo jumping, nighttime free-falling in a plastic neon jumpsuit, and hiking New York State’s Devil’s Path in cocoa cotton and dark green denim, you’re not alone. Suddenly, obtaining access to fitting technology, securing heavy scientific and tremendous technological know-how, as well as setting new schedules has seemed essential. Not only logging on, but also tuning in free from flat frenzy has been a dire devoir. How can educators continue to whet students’ appetites for standards-based educational sustenance? Here are five methods to motivate students immediately.
1. Turn Ambition into Ignition!
Goal-setting for students is a critical component of the educational experience. Research reveals that unmotivated students crave guidance, meaning, and responsibility. To spark interest and make learning more lucid, students need to fathom the “what” and “how” to sharpen sapience.
· First, provide a concise checklist, a list of goals students should strive to achieve by the end of each lesson and/or by the end of each week.
· Next, create an educational road map for students to arrive at achievement.
· Then, summarize each lesson at the end of instruction to make learning more lucid.
· Finally, swing into celebration and make the study scene more swaggering.
Setting goals will help students to focus on vital vocabulary, key concepts, and main ideas, promote the development of resilience, and sustain inner support. Maintaining momentum with realistic, attainable goals should also increase students’ sense of ownership, self-empowerment, and savvy to successfully navigate classroom expectations.
2. Recognize with Rewards
Scholars generally appreciate praise, and this is an especially potent intrinsic motivator. One fun educational website provides a virtual rewards chart in which driven students carry a football across a virtual field. When they cross the goal line, they win a reward! If students are learning remotely, try digital stickers. Students can also receive rewards via Class Dojo, which may include a homework pass, extra time for arts and crafts, or allowing students to select the music for classroom activities. Turn it up, shake it out, and let them dance! Google also offers an array of digital choice boards to both engage and inspire.
3. Fashion New Feedback
Screencastify or Flipgrid may provide pertinent opportunities to post courteous, insightful comments and expanded answers. In addition, Padlet is another kind of productivity software that helps make learning fun and supports myriad file types, from spreadsheets and selfies to Spotify. Even post-pandemic, online learning tools may help improve classroom collaboration, enhance communication, and instill confidence by creating opportunities for students to get creative and “click,” provide immediate feedback, and improve the overall learning experience.
Imaginative images and sui generis sayings on prerecorded photoplay may also help pique heedfulness. The idea is to inspire innovation. With the right technology, instructors deliver timely, effective feedback with the power to achieve greater learning. Regardless of your ritual, ensure high-impact learning by referencing goals and remaining specific. Guide students with specific “glows,” or what they did well, and targeted “grows,” or how they could improve, and remain cognizant that every child needs a champion, and children learn more from people they admire.
4. Parents as Pertinent Learning Partners
Parents are pertinent learning partners for their children’s education, and keeping them informed should not get lost in the pandemic writing pad. Pinging parents with pertinent information helps teachers ensure that scholars are on track to complete work at home and submit work on time. Involved parents could also help ensure children are rewarded when they meet measurable classroom goals. If students are struggling, parents could also offer myriad insights as to why, and suggest strategies for strengthening instruction. Finally, parents should receive recognition for their sustained support during this trying time.
5. Saying Goodbye? Provide a Wi-Fi High Five!
Contacting Shimmering Careers, an outstanding San Francisco-based career consultancy, as well as viewing vivid videos published by Madeline Mann, a successful human resources professional, have been crucial to my career development. Ms. Mann, an inventive LinkedIn savant, ends her vivacious videos by connecting with viewers in a unique way, by offering an uplifting, “Wi-Fi high-five!” This same singular saying could certainly resonate with hybrid or remote students, as well. Especially now, learning does not have to remain entirely rote and terribly tedious. Infuse educational technology and make the most of our evolving, singular circumstances. Above all, continue to empower students in this new learning environment, where they can still feel a sense of connectedness, determination, and purpose.
This article also appears here.
BIO
Scott Freiberger, a passionate instructional improvement coach and ENL specialist with school building and district leader certification, is honored to be the 2018 TESOL International Teacher of the Year. Twitter: @scottfreiberger
