How to motivate students and people in general

Tonight I came home curious. 

I had a pretty fun day in the classroom and lots of learning happened. But when it came to plain old work, doing projects that they weren't too excited about, there was no motivation almost at all and everything became a distraction and almost nothing got done. So I got to thinking because as usual as a new teacher I was in above my head and not sure what to do. A wasted half hour isn't a big deal in the grand scheme of the Universe especially because we were having fun and chatting about all sorts of things. But it got me thinking, as the year progresses, how can I motivate my class to do the hard work of learning?

I have been falling in love with podcasts recently, especially with a bunch of 9 hour drives each way back and forth from Regina. So the first place I looked was for a good teaching podcast that might have some good advice. I found "The cult of Pedagogy" and listened to episode 37 about how to motivate your students. She had 5 main questions to ask yourself about areas that can really increase student motivation. Here are the notes I took. 

Motivation 

1. Good relationships provide safety for students to take risks. Lack of connection makes them less likely to try. Be aware of the value of relationships. Take active steps to get to know them. "You've got to connect" book and "the best kept teaching secret" about dialogue journals. Just chat two minutes a week with each student about something other than school. Keep track of it. 

2. How much choice do your students actually have? Providing choice is a major factor in motivation. Long term authentic creative projects are a lot easier to give choice in. 

3. Are you relying heavily on carrots and sticks? Rewards and punishments to motivate students. Extrinsic reinforcement can be motivating for an easy task, but for tasks that require creativity and complex thought it actually reduces motivation. Vs trying it just because it is interesting and challenging. We need to truly, deeply motivate them. Try to focus on its inherent interest and value as a challenge. "The first ten are easy and I want to see how many of you can conquer the challenge of the last two. They are a lot tougher. They will be challenge but I believe you have what it takes."

4. Do your words contribute to a growth or fixed mindset? Students are motivated to continue at a challenging task if they believe they can get better at it. Don't ever tell them they are smart. Tell them specific moments they've worked hard. Focus on things they can control. Don't tell them they are a good writer.

5. What are you doing to make your content relevant to students lives? When they believe they are doing something authentic and meaningful and how it can help them they will be more motivated. 1. Plan it and then say it, explain why an issue is relevant today. Be explicit. 2. Add in more reflection, ask them how is it relevant? Lower performing students do better. 3. Design tasks that end with a public product. It naturally motivates students to work harder. 

I found it sobering. A few of them like number four I think I was doing pretty well on. But others I realized I was way off and it was likely a contributor to some unmotivated students. Obviously students are also fully responsible for their own motivation level and choosing how they want to interact with the classroom environment, but the teacher definitely plays an important role as well. It also reminded me of what motivates me. I love choosing what I want to do and what I want to learn and then really going for it. When someone is really controlling about what I do and learn I automatically lose respect for them and am much less likely to listen to what they would have me do. If a professor or teacher cares about me as a person I will work way harder in their class. So I saw the validity right away in what she was saying. I think my biggest flaws as a teacher are I just want to jump in way too fast and solve everything for everyone, and sometimes I care more about the content than about the students. So just talking to each student 2 minutes a week about something random other than school seems like a really doable and helpful goal and first place to start. 

These same principles can work in our own lives too. How good of a relationship do we have with ourself? Do we like to spend time alone with ourselves? Do we laugh at our own jokes? If we can build our relationship with ourself we are more likely to be motivated to learn and improve ourselves. How do we lead ourselves? Do we use sheer grit and willpower to force ourselves to do something or do we give ourselves lots of good choices and then pick the best one? One option is a lot more sustainable in the long run. 

These principles can also help others. I mean, throughout history huge wars were fought simply for the cause of freedom. So being able to have a choice is a very motivating factor. To do anything we are also much more likely to do it for the people we love and who respect us back. So if you want to be influential, and motivate others the best things you can do is be someone who loves authentically and gets to know people, give people freedom, or at least multiple good choices that they can choose from, give them opportunities for their own intrinsic gain and not any external punishments or rewards, and finally speak to people about what is important to them. We may have just seen how important that is in this last election. 

Anyways, those are some of the things I have been pondering as I try to help my class develop their own intrinsic motivation, maybe it will be helpful to you as well.