9 Ways to Keep Students Motivated in Classroom
Motivating students or encourage them for participation in class and other activities is not always an easy job. Only a good teacher can do it.
Here are Nine Methods that may work for you to keep motivating your students in classroom.
1 – Remain Positive
Yelling and threatening students is not an effective way to motivate. Remaining positive and focusing on achievement will motivate students and help to create mutual respect for each individual and for learning.
2 – Provide Opportunities for Success
Struggling students need to succeed in some small ways in order to be motivated to achieve in greater ways. Without lowing your expectations, find ways to allow these struggling students to succeed.
3 – Be Excited
The more excited you are about something, the more excited your students will be. If you find the topic you are teaching boring, so will your students, so find creative ways to teach the most boring lessons.
4 – Allow Students to Earn Rewards
Individual and whole class rewards can be a great motivation, especially when looking for appropriate behavior.
5 – Teach Teamwork
Have activities that your students can work on together. Group your students for simple projects such as finding a current event to share every week. Have your students work in teams on projects that enable learning through exploration.
6 – Public Praise
Make a habit of publicly praising students for achievement. You can even go as far as to create a certificate of achievement, have the student stand to receive the certificate and send it home for the child’s parents to display on the refrigerator.
7 – Appropriate Praise
Praise students appropriately. If you are struggling to motivate a child, be careful to not praise him for a non-achievement. Praise him for a job well done. Rewards and praise should not be handed out left and right, instead, they should be selective and appropriate in order to motivate your students.
8 – Teach Problem Solving Skills
Teaching your students to solve problems will allow them to be naturally interested in what they are learning. Providing opportunities for students to make mistakes and figure out how to accomplish a goal will make school more interesting, and thus motivate them to try.
9 – Provide Opportunities for Varied Experiences
Different children will succeed in different areas in their lives. Include opportunities for learning each of the multiple intelligences theorized by Dr. Gardner in 1983. This allows students to succeed in a variety of ways. The more success a student sees in the classroom, the more motivated he will be to continue to succeed.
Motivating students takes a little effort, but the reward is well worth the work.