intrinsic motivation Archives

28 Oct 2019

Screaming at Kids, Comparing Students, and Creating a Self-Sustaining Classroom | Q&A Show

How do you handle the noise level in your classroom and get your students attention without screaming? What do you do about students who just refuse to study for tests? How do you create a self-sustaining classroom? We answer these and more in this first Q&A show! EPISODE NOTES In this Q&A show, we discuss (timestamps included): 0:51 - What are the top three books that guide you in building a self-sustaining classroom culture?8:37 - As a first year robotics teacher, do you compare one class with another as a way to motivate students? In Brazil, if one class is falling behind another, it's common to…

Are Classroom Games Contrary to Intrinsic Motivation?

In my first year of teaching, I played games as a review activity several times, usually for math. I did table vs. table, boys vs. girls, white shirts vs. blue shirts, etc. A few things happened that made me avoid games as a review activity for a while. I found that everyone would depend on the fastest problem solver for the answer. They either disregarded their own answer or didn’t try altogether. I thought “maybe I should have everyone come to a consensus and they all have to write down the work in their journal.” That turned into slower paced students…