Motivating students is ongoing challenge that all teachers face, but now that it is the end of the school year this task becomes even more difficult for teachers to accomplish.

I teach 14 year-olds and this is the challenge I face everyday. In fact, as I stress in my classroom management course (www.Classroom-Management-Tips.com) student motivation is one of the key components in effective classroom management.

It is important for teachers to spark student interest at the beginning of every lesson…especially now.

Here are some simple teaching tips for motivating students:

1. Use critical thinking questions that don’t necessarily have a right or wrong answer and have the student support their argument.
(ex. Do you think President Truman was justified in dropping the atomic bomb to end WWII? Why?)

2. Use music to teach. (ex. I play the Bob Marley songs “Buffalo Soldier” and “Catch a Fire” before starting my lesson on the slave trade and the middle passage)

3. Use video. Not whole movies, but clips from movies can do a great job in motivating students to want to learn more about the topic. I use video clips at the beginning of lessons rather than the end to spark interest. Hollywood movies are great for this, but you can also use unitedstreaming.com to download short clips from documentaries.

4. Relate what students are learning to what is going on in the “real world”. This is obviously easier done with some subjects than others, but can be done.

5. Relate what students are learning to what is important to them.

6. Use technology…or rather, have the student use technology to learn. Have them create podcasts, videos, web sites etc.

*********************
If you’d like to learn more about teaching with a proactive approach to classroom management make sure to sign up for my free Classroom Management e-course @ www.Classroom-Management-Tips.com
*********************

Share