Monday, March 9, 2009

MoTiVaTiOn

How do you motivate students in your classroom? Are you more inclined to punish bad behavior or reward good behavior?

In my keyboarding classroom, students are given the "privilege" to play computer games the last 5-10 minutes of class based on behavior demonstrated. So far, no student has lost this privilege and I have seldom reminded them that it is a privilege. This has proved to be a great incentive for students.

3 comments:

  1. I am a fan of punishment for students at the middle school level. I have found that students don't care for incentives (or maybe I just don't provided good enough ones). So threatening with detention, and then disciplining with detention if they don't change the behavior has proven very beneficial.

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  2. Some positive rewards I have found successful with students at the middle level are competition and treats...its amazing how they love treats - no matter how small! Positive extrinsic motivation among high school students is less obvious; they definitely aren't as excited for Jolly Rancher or cookie as the middle schoolers!

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  3. I do think this is a great incentive to reward students but shouldn't be over done or they will not find it a "privilege" anymore. I think that rewarding kids with good behavior in a keyboarding class is good, because the rest of the students want to be playing games too; so I believe they will try and follow the students that are on good behavior!

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