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I teach in a small K-8 school, (roughly 100 students). I'm the 5/6 teacher. It's a pretty rough school as far as motivating students. We are a bout 95% free and reduced lunch, serve two reservations and have a lot of transient students with a few highly motivated but frustrated students. The top students don't get the learning they would like because of having to move ahead so slowly as a class or disruptive behavior that is ignored by the office. Parents will ignore phone calls, mail, etc.
I've taught for quite awhile and it gets harder and harder to get pumped up for the new year to start.
Looking for ideas to help motivate and create a better learning environment for all of my students.
Seating, bulletin boards, homework, lunches, instruction...
I'd love to hear from any and all.
Thanks
Here's something to ponder over...the link was sent to me and all I have done is read over the site and watched the videos. Haven't seen it in a real classroom though. It's called "Whole Brain Teaching". There's also a forum.
Since you mention serving reservations are you bringing in any of the Native American culture and resources? That might motivate some of your students and there is lots of interesting literature.
Do a gradewide project on something very hands on. Here in NJ at some of the Newark middle schools they have had great success engaging students in grade wide projects like redesigning the school grounds to be a better natural habitat. Making simple drawings of the school, finding area of the grounds, making a budget etc, can be useful in math and includes everything from basic geometry to algebra. Technical reading as a skill can be learned by using resources on rain gardens, gardening, species identification keys. Formal communication skills can be learned by having the children write, revise and critique each others letters to local businesses looking for donations of supplies. History of agriculture and immigration (since so many immigrants bring in invasive or exotic species) was used in Newark as well. The skills and knowledge base gained for science are too long to list here.
The Newark kids were engaged from the get go as even the most disenfranchised kids were eager to get out of the classroom. The top level kids inherently gravitated to the leadership roles with more responsibility and had higher end challenges than the lower performing students.
It is a ridiculous amount of work for you. But it can be very rewarding. I know firsthand, I do yearlong projects with my students every year.
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