Student Motivation — Put down that cookie and read on!

As the holidays approach, many of us throw our typical eating habits out the window and start a week or two of reckless (and delicious) overload. For breakfast I had a bowl of fiber cereal and several of those sugary candy orange slices. That counts as a fruit, right?

Pretty soon I’ll surely come to my senses and make a New Years resolution to eat more healthfully. I know it’s good for me, but it is always hard to keep up my motivation to stick with it.

While you enjoy that second helping of pie this winter break, remember that even for grown ups it’s sometimes challenging to make a habit of doing what you know is good for you. As you begin a new semester with your students in January, try borrowing a few ideas for motivation from the healthy lifestyle New Years resolution to support the habits that lead to success in your classroom.

• Celebrate results. When students complete their work or study effectively for an assessment, try writing them a note, sending an email home, or catching them for a quick conversation to reinforce the connection between their hard work and their classroom success.

• Help students set incremental goals. If a student ended last quarter with a poor grade or many missing assignments, take a few minutes to work with the student to set a few achievable goals for improvement – perhaps moving up a letter grade, writing down the homework assignment each day, or coming in for extra help once a week. You can always set new goals once the student makes progress.

• Exercise with a friend. You might be tempted to skip your trip to the gym, but probably not if you know a friend is meeting you there. Help students find a homework or class work buddy – someone to check in with a couple of times a week to compare notes on how they’re managing their work. Peer accountability takes very little time on your part and helps form positive bonds for your students.

• Lead by example. As students move through the grades they are increasingly responsible for their own time management, but those skills are rarely taught in class. Share with students how you manage your own work – do you make a to-do list and check off each item? Come to work half an hour earlier to get a head start on busy days? Block out time first thing Saturday morning to work and then reward yourself with an activity you really enjoy?

• Use easy external motivators. A few years back I tried a weight loss program that I tracked on-line. Every time I lost 5 pounds, a little star popped up on my profile. I didn’t necessarily do the work of losing the weight just to get the star, but I honestly felt great whenever a new one appeared. No matter how old (or cool) your students are, they will still like recognition for their work. Consider using a star chart in class for students who complete their homework or come prepared, or write a note of recognition to give to a student who is making progress. As you clean up the holiday aftermath at your house, consider making a classroom prize box. I used to have one filled with things like discarded fast food kid’s meal toys, a free Frisbee I got at a concert, little lotions from hotels, a calendar from my bank, etc. When students turned in their homework they could put their name on a slip of paper in a bucket and every Friday I drew a name for a trip to the prize box. My eighth graders loved it, and my non-teacher friends and family started saving their desirable clutter to refill my prize box.

Have more motivational ideas of your own? I hope you’ll post them here!

– Claire Lambert