My Teacher Site: Enhancing Classroom Communication

Wendy Says

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Motivate Your Students to Success

Teachers face many challenges in the classroom, and motivating students in our high-stakes environment is often at the top of the list. It’s difficult to watch a very capable child take on an “I don’t care attitude” or a child who struggles give up the fight to move forward. Understanding what is causing the lack of motivation is the first step to moving the child forward to academic success.

Begin by connecting with the child on a personal level to help improve his self-esteem. Inquire about interests, both in and outside of school. Ask the child what he likes to do or is good at. This not only shows that you care about them as a person, but that they are capable of success on some level.

What if the child doesn’t see his or her worth in anything specific? If he struggles in math, find some aspect of your current concept that he’s good at. If he is having trouble memorizing his multiplication facts, applaud him for having a good sense of numbers or for the facts he does have memorized.

Make sure your students see the connection between the classroom and the real world. The “why” is important in Common Core and in many new teacher evaluations. As adults, we balance our checkbook because we need to be accountable for our purchases so we can pay bills, plan for retirement, and take our family on summer vacation. Students need to know why material is important in the grand scheme of things so they see value in learning and retaining the information.

Some children require some extrinsic motivation. What’s important to the student? Lunch with the teacher? A brand-new pencil? A note home? Set a goal for the student and offer a reward to achieving the goal. About.com and Teaching Ideas have some great (free!) ideas for positive rewards, submitted by teachers like you. Use these to motivate your students to push themselves academically or to turn around troublesome behavior.

Creating a plan of action that includes the student, parent, teacher, and even the school principal can be a very powerful motivation tool. And letting the student know that all these adults care for and are concerned about him can be a motivation in itself. The plan can track the behavior that needs to change or the steps to achieve the desired goal.

Motivating students to succeed in today’s stressful educational system can be a challenge. Heck, as teachers we even have trouble getting ourselves motivated to put the best foot forward from time to time! But finding what works for your students and giving them the “why” will help both you and your students build on their strengths to be successful.