Teacher/Blogger

1. “What Great Teachers Do
Differently TODAY AT THIS
TIME??? ”
WANT TO KNOW???

2. Great Teacher KNOWS
HOW TO BLOG!!!!

4. How to Motivate
Students: Top 12 Ways
• 1. Praise Students in Ways Big and Small
• Recognize work in class, display good work in the classroom and send positive notes home to parents, hold weekly awards in
your classroom, organize academic pep rallies to honor the honor roll, and even sponsor a Teacher Shoutout section in the
student newspaper to acknowledge student’s hard work.
• 2. Expect Excellence
• Set high, yet realistic expectations. Make sure to voice those expectations. Set short terms goals and celebrate when they are
achieved.
• 3. Spread Excitement Like a Virus
• Show your enthusiasm in the subject and use appropriate, concrete and understandable examples to help students grasp it. For
example, I love alliteration. Before I explain the concept to students, we “improv” subjects they’re interested in. After learning
about alliteration, they brainstorm alliterative titles for their chosen subjects.
• 4. How to Motivate Students: Mix It Up
• It’s a classic concept and the basis for differentiated instruction, but it needs to be said: using a variety of teaching methods
caters to all types of learners. By doing this in an orderly way, you can also maintain order in your classroom. In a generic
example for daily instruction, journal for 10 minutes to open class; introduce the concept for 15 minutes; discuss/group work for
15 minutes; Q&A or guided work time to finish the class. This way, students know what to expect everyday and have less
opportunity to act up.
• 5. Assign Classroom Jobs
• With students, create a list of jobs for the week. Using the criteria of your choosing, let students earn the opportunity to pick their
classroom jobs for the next week. These jobs can cater to their interests and skills.
• Classroom Job Examples
• Post to the Class blog
• Update Calendar
• Moderate review games
• Pick start of class music
• Watch class pet
• Public relations officer (address people who visit class)
• Standard class jobs like Attendance, Cleaning the boards, putting up chairs, etc.

5. • 6. Hand Over Some Control
• If students take ownership of what you do in class, then they have less room to complain (though
we all know, it’ll never stop completely). Take an audit of your class, asking what they enjoy
doing, what helps them learn, what they’re excited about after class. Multiple choice might be the
best way to start if you predict a lot of “nothing” or “watch movies” answers.
• After reviewing the answers, integrate their ideas into your lessons or guide a brainstorm session
on how these ideas could translate into class.
• On a systematic level, let students choose from elective classes in a collegiate format. Again,
they can tap into their passion and relate to their subject matter if they have a choice.
• 7. Open-format Fridays
• You can also translate this student empowerment into an incentive program. Students who
attended class all week, completed all assignments and obeyed all classroom rules can vote on
Friday’s activities (lecture, discussion, watching a video, class jeopardy, acting out a scene from
a play or history).
• 8. Relating Lessons to Students’ Lives
• Whether it is budgeting for family Christmas gifts, choosing short stories about your town, tying in
the war of 1812 with Iraq, rapping about ions, or using Pop Culture Printables, students will care
more if they identify themselves or their everyday lives in what they’re learning.
• 9. Track Improvement
• In those difficult classes, it can feel like a never-ending uphill battle, so try to remind students that
they’ve come a long way. Set achievable, short-term goals, emphasis improvement, keep self-
evaluation forms to fill out and compare throughout the year, or revisit mastered concepts that
they once struggled with to refresh their confidence.

6. • 10. Reward Positive Behavior Outside the Classroom
• Tie service opportunities, cultural experiences, extracurricular activities into the curriculum for
extra credit or as alternative options on assignments. Have students doing Habitat for Humanity
calculate the angle of the freshly cut board, count the nails in each stair and multiply the number
of stairs to find the total number of nails; write an essay about their experience volunteering or
their how they felt during basketball tryouts; or any other creative option they can come up with.
• Motivate Students Beyond the Classroom
• The idea of cash incentives is a timely yet controversial topic, so I’d like to look at this attempt
to “buy achievement” through a different lens. It seems people are willing to dump some money
into schools, so let’s come up with better ways to spend it.
• 11. Plan Dream Field Trips
• With your students, brainstorm potential field trips tiered by budget. Cash incentive money can
then be earned toward the field trips for good behavior, performance, etc. The can see their
success in the classroom as they move up from the decent zoo field trip to the good state
capitol day trip to the unbelievable week-long trip to New York City. Even though the reward is
delayed, tracking progress will give students that immediate reward.
• 12. College Fund Accounts
• College dreams motivate athletes; why not adapt the academic track to be just as tangible for
hard-working student? One way is to keep a tally of both the cash value and the potential
school choice each student has earned. As freshman, they see they’ve earned one semester at
the local junior college. By second semester of junior year, they’re going to four-years at State
for half the price. By graduation, watch out free ride to their dream school.

8. IN USING THE NEW
TECHNOLOGIES