The days of the carrot and the stick are long past. Modern classrooms look to self motivation as we seek to actively engage students in their personal educational goals. So what does that look like?
- demonstrating by sharing your personal goals for the classroom as well as for yourself as the teacher-leader
- setting classroom goals with student input
- guiding students to set and record personal goals for their assignments, their behavior, etc.
- including students in evaluating their progress for their goals
- explaining that failure to meet goals does not mean failure; it means it’s time to reset/modify goals to be more timely and realistic
- setting new goals as old goals are met; learning that goals are stepping stones to greater and greater successes throughout life, not just a one-time classroom exercise.
- celebrating new learnings and goals met or exceeded