ideas to improve student motivation

Tie service opportunities, cultural experiences, extracurricular activities into the curriculum for extra credit or as alternative options on assignments. Have students doing Habitat for Humanity calculate the angle of the freshly cut board, count the nails in each stair and multiply the number of stairs to find the total number of nails write an essay about their experience volunteering or their how they felt during basketball tryouts or any other creative option they can come up with.

With your students, brainstorm potential field trips tiered by budget. Cash incentive money can then be earned toward the field trips for good behavior, performance, etc. The can see their success in the classroom as they move up from the decent zoo field trip to the good state capitol day trip to the unbelievable week long trip to New York City. Even though the reward is delayed, tracking progress will give students that immediate reward.

College dreams motivate athletes why not adapt the academic track to be just as tangible for hard working student? One way is to keep a tally of both the cash value and the potential school choice each student has earned. As freshman, they see they ve earned one semester at the local junior college. By second semester of junior year, they re going to four years at State for half the price. By graduation, watch out free ride to their dream school.

If students don t find a course interesting, they are unlikely to expend the energy it takes to really engage with the material. Sparking this interest begins with instructors sharing their passion. Cassidy recommends constructing an enthusiasm statementto share with the students, which highlights how the instructor became interested in the field, what mysteries the course will unlock, and other items.

Dynamic classes start with a shared knowledge of who is taking the course. Instructors should get to know their students, and she shares techniques that are accessible even in a large class. For example, an instructor can use surveys, pre tests, or ice breaker games one of Cassidy s favorites involves asking everyone to simultaneously shout out something they can t live without. Chocolateis a popular answer, iPhonemay not be far behind.

Conducting pre tests can yield a lot of information about where students are starting in a course and also may indicate which students can be asked to teach, share, or explain some subjects in class. Cassidy tells of a student explaining digestion with the help of a T shirt labeled with different body parts to which she would point and explain while she ate and presumably digested a bite of food.

Cassidy explains how to use story, narrative, and other types of information to allow students to nibbleat new ideas and explore them in ways that complement traditional content based learning approaches.