Motivational+Ideas

Placement 1:

My teacher used a great method for motivation. Every Friday students had to complete all of their work from the week. If students had fininshed their work then they were able to attend Fun Friday. I feel like her Fun Friday was still engaging and educational. The only time they really were not "working" was during morning work. Students were able to play games in the classroom or play on the computer. They would still do regular math for Shine Time. For centers, the students were able to have one last time to finish work they had not completed during the work. Then students would go to their regualr specials and then students came back and did their spelling and reading test before they went to lunch. Once students came back from lunch, Fun Friday began. My cooperating teacher would find an activty that went along with the reading theme of the week, she would make the activity hands on and more active than just doing a worksheet. For example, the theme of the week was Ants and the students were also working on math word problems. So the kids each got a pretzel stick to act as their log. Then they were give chocolate chips to act as the ants. Mrs. Absher would give each student a math problem (5+3). The student would get their chocolate chips and place five on the left side and three on the right side. This activity was a great way for students to visualize the problem and the students remained focused. From what I have seen, this idea has been very successful. Students have been working faster and have stayed on task during the week just so they can attend Fun Friday.

Another great motivation idea was writing the word COMPLIMENT on the board. Whenever the students were quiet in the hallway or if the students were good at specials and another teacher gives them a compliment, a letter would be crossed off the word. Once the entire word was crossed off, students had a COMPLIMENT party. Mrs. Absher gave the students a list of rewards (pajama party, eat lunch in the classroom, or extra recess) that would keep them motivated. The students would get to vote on their reward. This was school wide so this wasn't something Mrs. Absher only did, but I thought this was a great idea!

I feel like students are truly motivated, especially when they finally realized they don't get to participate until they are finished with all of their work from the entire week.

My cooperating teacher didn't have much motivation do you mean going on while moving from task to task. Sometimes she would say "I love the way Caroline is waiting patiently to begin our next activity, Caroline will you move you clip up." Once the students clip made it to the very top, there was no reward, so I don't really feel like this strategy was motivation for all of the students.

Placement 2:

For placement 2, I feel like my reinforcer menu was the biggest motivation for those kids. (details are in classroom procedures)