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The Facts About Motivating Students
Featured Author:
Julia G. Thompson
A graduate of Virginia Tech, Julia is the author of several books for teachers. Her newest book, First-Year Teacher’s Survival Guide, Second Edition, was released in July 2007. She is also the author of Discipline Survival Kit for the Secondary Teacher. In each of her books, Julia presents classroom-tested ideas, activities, and strategies designed to make each school day a successful one.
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Julia G. Thompson
21. A positive relationship with their peers can be a powerful motivational force for many students regardless of their age.
21. True: Students of all ages work best in school when they feel as if they are a valued member of the group. Teachers who harness the power of positive peer pressure report that it is a sure way to generate good will, engagement, and cooperation in a class.
22. It is possible to create a negative environment by praising students too highly and too often.
22. True: In order for praise to be effective, it should be sincere and well-timed instead of flattery. If students are praised for the wrong things or for effort alone, they grow to doubt their own skill and ability.
23. A risk-free classroom is almost impossible to achieve in high school and the middle grades.
23. False: Any classroom can become a place where students are encouraged to take those important intellectual risks that allow them to make the necessary leaps that create learning. The creation of a risk-free environment should be one of the most important priorities on any teacher’s “to-do” list.
24. Girls are easier to motivate than boys.
24. False: Gender does not play a significant role in motivating students to be engaged in their work. Finding the right motivational techniques for each child is more important than gender.
25. The best way to motivate and challenge students is through a careful combination of a variety of motivational tools.
25. True: Teachers who use a wide variety of techniques, strategies, and tools to motivate their students find that they have much more success than those teachers who rely on only one or two methods. Try to use as many different approaches as you can to reach as many students as you can.
neilkelvin
27 days ago
298 comments
Thanks a lot for all these tips. Teaching can be the most challenging, frustrating, scary, inspiring, rewarding and amazing job and sometimes we need to be kind to ourselves and recognise that we can’t be everything to everyone all the time. We need to give ourselves permission to relax, to sometimes fail, to have another go, to not be perfect everytime. Who better to know this than other teachers. Your article will really helpful for me to motivating students.
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abdulhameed
3 months ago
4 comments
thank you so much for motivating tips. in the quiz i did not understand the term Risk free class room please let me know what is .I want power full motivational tools that can help me become a motivator for my students .thank you again your website is doing a wonderful job for teachers
bohemiotx
3 months ago
24 comments
This was a good test. For example, sometimes parts of an objective exam are better with T-F than multiple choice with five possibilities. I'm reminded of subject-verb agreement and irregular verb parts of grammar tests.
juvelyn
5 months ago
8 comments
Thank you so much for the facts on motivating students. It will really guide me on dealing with my students. but I still want to know more about the different motivational tools that can really help me become an effective teacher. Thanks again.
lancetope
5 months ago
2 comments
Risk-free classroom:
When the environment/culture of the classroom, of all the students and the teacher in it, empowers students to take academic and personal risks.
Academic risk taking puts students and their identities on the line; it is mainly an introspective challenge. At the time of risk taking, students are aware that they are taking a risk, but the classroom alleviates the pressure or propels the students to act along the top levels of the DOK or Bloom's Taxonomy openly in front of his or her peers. A lot of action in the classroom occurs because of this. This is probably the hardest to do when teaching students through textbook readings and chapter questions, only.
Personal risk taking is similar to academic risk taking, but instead of exploring something intellectually challenging, the student shares with the class something troubling, a problem he or she faces. Sometimes a student does this to feel support, but a student also takes this risk to hear different solutions to the problem at hand. Unknowingly, the student taking a personnel risk presents the class with a problem, like a teacher, which causes the students to explore the top levels again.
Personal risk taking is a huge community builder in an already stable classroom. An unsupportive classroom rarely sees these risk occur. Believe it or not, you can model this. Sharing personnel troubles with the students and listening to their suggestions can jump start this process in your room.
In a truly healthy risk-free classroom, students behave well. Good behavior helps establish and maintains the pinnacle risk-free classroom.
butterfly_bebie
6 months ago
38 comments
Thank you for this quiz. I find this very helpful to affirm my strengths and weaknesses.
sunger
7 months ago
12 comments
what is a "risk-free" classroom?