Knocking it out of the Park for our Students: 20 Ideas to Inspire, Motivate

Thank you to all the Teachers who are Making School the Experience it Truly Should be

I wrote a post similar to this last month which I am sorry to say was motivated by frustration (I rarely let that happen … but sometimes it's hard not to vent a little 🙂 ). Today I am turning that around and turning challenging questions into inspiring ideas.

Every day you have multiple opportunities to do right by your students, to go out of your way to motivate them and give them opportunities to embrace learning. It isn't always easy, but it is essential if we want to be able to feel good about what we are doing. I have so much respect for full time teachers who keep the dream alive and model the types of behaviors we wish to instill in our students. We should all strive to be a positive influence for our students.

Here are 20 ideas that can help to motivate you to bring a new energy to the classroom and make more students enjoy their time learning.

1. Give your students opportunities to make choices about how they learn in your classroom.
2. Set the tone of respect by showing your students respect.
3. Model lifelong learning (if you aren't inspired to learn, why should your students be?).
4. Assign homework that provides students an opportunity to connect what they are learning to the world around them.
5. Figure out what you can do that would make you want to be a student in your classroom.
6. Give your students opportunities to make choices about how they demonstrate what they've learn in your classroom.
7. If a student demonstrates on an assessment that they don't understand something, give them opportunities to correct that and learn.
8. Do not just throw up your hands and say, “I have no choice … the system makes me to do this”. You do have choices and you make them every day.
9. Have fun teaching!
10. Afford students the opportunity to master what they are learning in your classroom.
11. Thank a student every day.
12. Look for ways to allow students to learn and demonstrate learning in a way that works for them.
13. Create opportunities to let students move and interact.
14. Embrace flexibility.
15. Create many opportunities for students to ask questions.
16. The homework you assign should have enough value to make it worth taking away a student's opportunity to do extracurricular activities, have a life, chill a little, or get enough sleep.
17. Make a point of getting to know your students.
18. Look for opportunities to make your students aware of the power of a growth mindset.
19. Give students opportunities to make choices regarding some homework activities (selecting from a range of options for example).
20. Help your students learn how to learn.

So what are some of the ideas I've missed? I know you are thinking of some. Go ahead, comment and share (please :))!