Retrieved from: http://i.imgur.com/6KTR7.png
When looking back at my previous education courses, there is one idea that seems to have been stressed a little more than others. Time and time again, we are reminded that we should not teach our future students the way that we enjoy being taught. Since EDUC4P19 is made up of fourth year university students, it is safe to say we have all excelled in our academic careers. We figured out how to “play the game” and have now put ourselves in a position to become successful adults.
With all this in mind, it is important to
remember that most of the students we will teach will not learn the same way we
do. In fact, there will be many students who will not want to learn at all. Motivating
these particular students may be a difficult task, but that does not mean they
should be ignored. Interweaving
Curriculum And Classroom Assessment touches upon this issue, stating that, “by
providing positive, supportive feedback with a focus on capabilities and
possibilities, students feel good about their accomplishments and are motivated
to work on their challenges” (Drake, 2014, p.22). Unfortunately, it is hard to
provide feedback when some students just refuse to do any work. That is why I
have decided to do some digging and find out how people are keeping students
motivated.
Retrieved from: http://www.pressherald.com/2015/09/09/bicycle-desks-motivate-math-students/
In order to ensure that students remain
engaged, China Middle School utilizes FitDesks (above), which are essentially bicycle
desks. They were originally installed as a way to help students become more
active, but teacher Joshua Lambert soon realized that they were actually
increasing productivity. He told the PortlandPress Herald, “Eighty minutes is a long time to sit in a math class. You can
just see them fidget, see them need to move. This makes a world of difference”
(McGuire, 2015). The FitDesks seem like a great short-term solution when it
comes to maintaining motivation, but not all classrooms can afford them and
students cannot spend their entire days pedaling away.
Another interesting resource I came across is Pocket Points.
This app rewards students for not using their phones in class. According to an
article from TechCrunch, “Academic buildings
on campus are geofenced by the company, and once inside a student can open the
app and successfully check in. Students then lock their devices and accrue
points for every minute that they stay off their phones while
remaining in class” (Tepper, 2015). Pocket Points has partnered with roughly
1,200 businesses, allowing students to cash in their points for real-life
prizes like free meals and baseball tickets. The app is meant for
post-secondary students, but with the amount that high school (and some
elementary) students are on their phones, I would not be surprised if a similar
service made its way into the younger grades.
The FitDesks and Pocket Points are two extremely innovative ways
to ensure that students are engaged, but I believe the best solution is a much
easier one. The focus of the above video is Cochrane Collegiate Academy
and more specifically, the amount of professional development its teachers receive.
The school was once in danger of closing, but it turned things around thanks in
part to Academic Facilitator Shana Oliver’s program for teachers. The video
states that, “Teachers who received at least 49 hours of professional
development per year could be expected to boost their students’ achievement by
about 21 percentile points” (American Institute for Research, 2007). Cochrane teachers
receive roughly ninety hours of professional development. One of the most
important lessons she continues to pass down to her colleagues is the
‘interactive learning non-negotiables’. These are things that Oliver feels
should be present in every lesson: essential question, activating strategy,
limited lecture and graphic organizer. By including these four elements in
their lessons, Cochrane teachers are ensuring that the students are
consistently engaged and motivated throughout the day. This has resulted in
higher test scores for the school and judging by the video, a more
student-friendly learning environment.
References
Drake, S. M., Reid, J. L., & Kolohon, W. (2014). Interweaving Curriculum and Classroom Assessment: Engaging the 21st Century Learner. Don Mills, ON: Oxford University Press.
McGuire, Peter. (2015, September 9). Bicycle desks motivate China Middle School students. Portland Press Herald. Retrieved from http://www.pressherald.com/2015/09/09/bicycle-desks-motivate-math-students/
Tepper, Fitz. (2015, September 10). Pocket Points Rewards Students For Staying Off Their Phones. TechCrunch. Retrieved from http://techcrunch.com/2015/09/10/pocket-points-rewards-students-for-staying-off-their-phones/
Nick,
ReplyDeleteYour educational blog topics are relevant and resourceful for modern educators. The question of how to motivate and engage learners is a widespread issue is today’s schools. You have successfully provided innovative ways to motivate students through your examples of Fit Desks and Pocket Points and have clearly explained the benefits of each. Your You Tube video really adds to your argument by providing insight on how a school community has used professional development as a tool to change the trajectory of a failing school. However, I think it would have been effective for you to introduce the video by writing a brief description about the message from the video and how it relates to what you are discussing in your blog post. I would have been interested to hear what motivates you as a student? Lastly, I liked how you added at the end that these innovative motivating methods will only be effective if the teacher is motivated. I also believe that a motivated teacher who carefully plans and sticks to his/her learning objectives will create exceptional learning experiences for their students. Great job!
Nick,
ReplyDeleteThe first thing I thought when I finished reading your blog was that the comparison between more unique resources and traditionally available resources was excellent. Sole dependence on the more unique resources such as the desks and apps that you mention would have led to the discussion of motivation in classrooms not being as deep as it could be. The inclusion of the professional development portion and video really adds depth to the discussion and provides educators with a good starting point of which resources to focus on. This is not to say that the inclusion of these unique resources detracts from your blog; on the contrary, it was very interesting to learn about them and to get a glimpse into what problem solvers are doing in modern education. The structure was also well done; first you explained the importance of student motivation then went on to outline ideas of how to keep students motivated. One thing that I would like to know more about is the professional development itself: what type of information or training is being brought to teachers, who does the professional development, and what is the standard amount of professional development in schools today? If 49 hours of professional development is the minimum goal, how much are teachers currently receiving? In the video there is an “academic facilitator” who discusses some aspects of these questions, but where do they come from? Is this a profession hired and provided by the school board similar to special education teachers, or are these academic facilitators the responsibility of the schools themselves? The facilitator in the video outlined one category of the professional development with the “non-negotiables” but I would be interested to learn about the others. This is not necessarily to say that your blog is lacking information, rather it was so interesting I can’t help but want to know more. These questions could perhaps lead into your next blog, or if you wished to go even further you could examine the effects of teacher motivation in addition to student motivation. Overall, this blog was a very interesting comparison of two different ideas for reaching the same goal, and I am very interested to see what you will be writing about in the future.
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ReplyDeleteI want to begin by saying I like the new layout of your blog! The colours in the background really liven up your blog and it looks like something I would want to check out. Also, I like the catchy title. It gives the readers something right away that really hooks them in to check out the blog. One thing that I would stay away from in the blogs is using course abbreviations. Should someone else come to check out your blog, by using the course title it gives them a little more information to explain what you are talking about. The resources that you used explaining how different schools keep students motivated were great! They were all very useful, as well as educational. For the layout, make sure that you are editing your work and that it is all the same font and sizes. I really enjoyed this blog and how you thought about yourself in it as well as incorporating 21st century ideas. Your blog ends with some great ideas. In moving forward, I think that it would be beneficial to expand on how to be a motivated teacher and how that reflects the students. Overall a good, interesting, and very informative blog. Great work!
ReplyDelete