Motivation follow up

After listening this morning to other educators' thoughts on student motivation, I realize that I haven't used student recognition to my best advantage. My two action items I'm going to try this semester:

•  Make sure students know that others are reading their blog postings. Even one comment allows a student to know that his or her work is being noticed. I'm going to see if I can't get some sort of cross pollination going with Patrick and Matt's students. 
• I also like the idea that Matt had of showing off one student's work at the beginning of each class. Perhaps I ask that student to show it off in front of the class.
  
• At the end of the semester I'm going to have the students from both last semester and this current one do a presentation in conjunction with the Common Reading.

So many things to do, but all worth it because my students really are great.

So.... Hey guys, if you're reading this, I SEE you.

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How to motivate

An easy way to motivate students is to be very clear on how different actions affect their grades. However, this tends to get compliance without spirit.

A better way in most cases is to not simply tell people what they need to do, but rather to explain  how a certain skill will benefit them in the long run. Stressing the benefits a certain action can create is much more inspirational.

(However, there is a great deal of truth to the old saying "you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink.")

Last note: Whatever you do, don't resort to motivational posters. They're the stuff shows like The Office are built on. Just google "motivational poster" and you'll be in a world of badness. Seriously.