Speaker 1: So, have you ever had a student tell you that they're bored? Or better yet, have you ever had a parent tell you their child is bored? Well, my personal thought, and this may be controversial, but boredom of a child is more often due to a lack of motivation, and boredom is a symptom of motivation. Welcome to the Ignite Your Teaching video podcast, where we help elementary teachers to make good teaching easy again. I'm your host, Patti Firth, mom of three, wife, and experienced classroom teacher, who's made it my mission to help other teachers establish efficient routines, find effective solutions, and deliver engaging lessons over at madlylearning.com. So, are you ready to ignite your teaching? You are not bored if you are always finding something to do. You are often bored because you lack the motivation to find something to do. There is a hundred things I could be doing when I'm bored. I could be doing my laundry. I could be going shopping. I have the ability to just get in my car and go on a road trip. But I'm bored because I lack the motivation to make the decision to do any of those things. Well, the same is true for students in our classroom. When a student is bored, is it because they lack the motivation to do something else, to do something more? Now, if we are in a classroom where students are told they can't do more, they can't do something else, they can only do exactly as designed by the teacher, and they finish it and they have nothing else to do, and they're literally sitting there because they don't have anything to do and they're not allowed to do anything, then yes, they would definitely be bored in that situation. And that is a matter of the conditions of the learning environment, because they are not given the ability to do anything else, even if they had the desire and the motivation to do it. This is where we draw the line for where boredom becomes the choice of the student, providing the conditions are set and we know exactly what we want, exactly that there are no limits that a student can explore and dig deeper and do more, and we encourage it. As long as we have the ability, we know that we are encouraging students and providing them the options. The choice to take us up on those options has to be in the hands of the student. This is where we draw the line for where boredom becomes the choice of the student, and this is where we need to build the motivation of students to do more. But how do we build the motivation in order to get our students to, and this is where we need to build the motivation to explore the curriculum, explore the learning, to explore their own interests and ideas, and to do more than the basic expectations in our classroom. To simply not just go through the motions every day, but to actually take charge and ownership of their own learning. And to do as much or as little as they need to, but we want them to be in this sweet spot of they are doing stuff that challenges them every single day, because that challenge is where learning happens. So how do we build that self-motivation? We want students to be self-motivated, to do the work that is going to keep them engaged and challenged, instead of sitting back and doing the bare minimum, because they are totally checked out every day. I find this to be one of the biggest struggles for myself as a teacher, is to build the motivation in an unmotivated student, into how to encourage them to be more motivated. One of the areas that I've typically helped to combat this first is writing. Writing has always been the area that I have found students to be the least motivated in. So how do I combat that? In my Ignited Literacy program, we use choice, and we allow students to explore their own voice and have the choices in what they want to write. And they choose every single day what they want to write, what they're going to continue to write, what they're going to write new, they pick the form they're going to write in, they experiment with it, they play around with it, even if I haven't necessarily taught them front-loaded all of the information. I allow students to explore. I want to write a biography. Okay, well, we've done a survey of what a biography is. We've sort of covered it briefly, but if they want to know what a real biography is, they are going to have to be curious. They're going to have to do the work to learn what a biography is. The basic steps of what a biography does not need a six-week lesson. It's a three-minute YouTube video that covers the basics of what a biography is, enough that students can begin to experiment with it, because that's really what we're doing, is experimenting with writing, and then refining, and reviewing, and revising, and learning as we go. I'm a big proponent, especially in writing, of the learning as we go. We learn, we are doing in the process of us learning. Because I do that, because students have, they are 100% the owner of the task that they are doing. I'm just there as a coach. I just help coach them through, give them some tips, help structure, have them do some guidance work. I'm not the leader in the writing program. I'm the coach. And because I do that, my students are motivated to write. Not all of them at the same time. Some of them take longer to find that motivation than others, but eventually students begin to be motivated for what they're doing and what they're writing, because they're in charge, because it's relevant. So how do I carry that through into other things? Well, some of the things that I've looked at is some of the problems with student motivation are specifically lack of interest. When the work that we're doing in class isn't interesting to the student, if it's not relatable to themselves or their life, they just don't see themselves in the things that they're learning. They don't see how they are connected. This happens so often in social studies. There's a lot of things I can teach in social studies, like government or about historical fights or wars or situations, communities, parts of the country they've never been to. I can teach about social studies in a very factual based way, but I can also teach about those exact same things in a very relevant way. I can talk about how the historical event has impacted today. I can tell them the story. Kids love stories. So tell history through story, through the story of the people, through the struggles that they went through, because that's relatable to students. Students are going through struggles today, just like students went through struggles 200 years ago. I can teach them the story of the history, which makes it immediately more relatable than just teaching about the facts. I can teach about the facts in the context of that story with a character, with a main protagonist and an antagonist, and I can tell them that story and they are eating the words out of my hands because they're interested. It's now relatable because they can see connections. They can see how it is, what is happening. They can see the injustice of it all. Kids are so in tuned to things that are just and unjust. So the minute you can bring in elements into your social studies or your science where there is some injustice happening, they are ready to go. They are hooked. So let's make the learning that students are doing relatable so that they're motivated to pay attention, so that they're engaged in what they're doing. We want that little bit of controversy every once in a while. I often will read on social media, Facebook groups and threads about how boring it is to teach, say, government or geography. We can bring a little bit of controversy. Tell them the reason our Western provinces have borders that are straight lines. Tell them the reason the Haudenosaunee have settled along the Grand River and are no longer an upper New York state. That geography, that historical context, the reasons that we created borders and why we have them, the reason we wanted a railroad that connected Ontario to BC. There are stories that are there. And if we tell them that and we tell them the bit of controversy that comes into play, we talk about the controversy between Quebec and Ontario. We talk about the controversy between Western provinces and central Canada. We talk about the controversy of different political topics where there has been injustice. We know people like talking about politics. There is entire huge sections of TikTok that are all about politics. The news spends a ton of time on politics. We know people want to hear about politics. Kids are the same way. They want to hear about that controversy. They want to hear about some just injustice that has happened and how things are solved. So use that as the hook to help make sure they're interested and find some motivation in paying attention to what you're doing. Make sure that there's some opportunity for personal connection. We can build motivation with students when they feel connected. We often see that when they see themselves in their learning, when they see that there's a purpose for why they're learning, have you asked your students what their goals and aspirations are? What do they want to be when they grow up? What do they want to be able to do? We need to be able to link the things we're doing in our classroom to the things that they want to be. We need to draw their attention as to why they need to learn about things. I myself have had students over the last couple of years, what do you want to be when you grow up? What are your goals and aspirations? I want to be a YouTuber. I want to be a gamer. Cool. So then they tell me, well, I don't need to, why do I need to know how to write a paragraph? I'm going to be a YouTuber. Okay. So let's look at the format of a paragraph. We have an opening, we have some facts, we have some opinions, and then we have a conclusion. Tell me about the structure of a YouTube video. Well, you've got a hook, something that draws your watch, your listener in or draws your viewer in. Then we're going to tell them some information, probably three or four things, that magic three, and then we're going to end it and tell them it's over. We're not just going to abruptly stop the video. We're going to create a conclusion at the end that probably summarizes all of the things we said in the video. That's exactly a hamburger paragraph. When we teach essays, we teach the same thing. We teach a newspaper article, we teach the same thing. The stuff we're teaching in class is the same thing that that YouTuber is going to need. They're going to need to know about art, about layout. They're going to need to know how to write a show note. They're going to need to know how to write a description, how to pick keywords. Well, you won't know how to do keywords unless you can summarize. All of these things, we need to relate to our students' goals. They need to be able to see why the thing that they're learning is relevant, and there is relevancy to the things we're learning. We're not so disconnected in what we're doing in class to what they want to be doing. However, they don't see the connection because they only see the tip of the iceberg. They only see the Mr. Beast or the top YouTubers just putting up content, and it looks easy, and it looks effortless. Where below the iceberg, they probably have editing teams, and planning, and a whole layout for what they need to do to create a video, but they don't see that. They don't see that process. We need to draw their attention and make sure that stuff that we're learning is relevant. We need them to understand that if they want to be a video game developer, that being a video game developer is so much math. It's all about math. It's high-level mathematics, or it's graphic design. And that graphic design still has elements that they need to be doing in class. They still need to be able to do a layout. They need to be able to tell the story. They need to be able to see what people want to see. All of that piece. We need to know what our students' goals are, what their aspirations are, what their expectations of themselves are. We also need to know what the expectations of their parents are of them, because if they are not motivated because they don't see that there's a purpose in school, we need to show them why there is a purpose, what skills they need in order to do the thing they want to do. Why do they need to learn this? And it's not always just because, well, it's what they're told, but there is, and we need to align that purpose with who they see themselves as being. What do they see their future self? How do they map it out? Now, some of the problems here is when students don't have a future map. They have, they don't see the possibilities or the potential. And this is difficult for students that are in families that may be struggling, that may not see the potential. Their worldview may be limited because they only know what they know. And we need to use this as an opportunity to explore different options that their world needs to expand so that they can see the different types of things that needs to happen. Now, maybe this is simply, we just need to bring back the job fair where we bring in, you know, all of these different people that have different jobs so that they can see that there is different potential for learning and what they can and can't do, because there's some things they're just not aware of. So we need to open their mind and open their world to their possibilities, because inside that is where they find motivation. They find motivation, they start working towards goals because there is a reason to. So we need to give them a reason to, we need to give them a purpose for why they're doing the things that they're doing. And it needs to go beyond that surface of, well, there's a purpose, you know, you'll need this for high school. No, they need this just in general in life. And how do we, but it's not just that they need this and we're telling them that, but they need to know. They need to have a goal. They need to have a plan, place they're going, some place that they want to be, what they want to do, that there is potential and they have the potential and they're not limited. So there's so much misconception and ties and they're all tied up sometimes in some of their own parents' baggage about what they can do and what their potential is and what they, who they will be in the future. So we need to open that up so that they can find the motivation and the reasoning as to why they need to do some things in class. We also really want to look at their confidence. This, this is tied into that potential piece a hundred percent. If they feel that they're not good enough to do the things that they want to do, they're not smart enough, they're not strong enough, they're not able to do those things, then we need to help to build that confidence. We can do that through feedback. We can do that through modeling. We can do that through just shining a star on something they're not recognizing that they're good at. When was the last time you told a student randomly, you're really good at something? Not because you're marking them, not because you're giving feedback, not something academic. What was the last time as a teacher you said to a student, you know, I really like how well you do that or how well you just lighten up a room or I like that you're always holding me accountable. Or you're really strong at coming up with an answer really quickly. Like there's so many different things that students do on a regular basis, those learning skills, those soft skills that we don't spend enough time complimenting them. One of the one of the feedback I often am giving when I get to this point in the new year that I one of the things I get to in around February with students is they've started to learn a little bit more about themselves as writers. And it's at this point that their voice really starts developing and saying things like, do you know that you're really creative? Do you know that you have a really strong voice? Like I can tell it's you in your writing. You are uniquely you. I really like how funny you are. I really love the characters you come up with. You realize your characters have really great personalities like that because you did something right. Giving students those compliments, that feedback is invaluable to them and they eat it up. The fact that you see them, they just want to be seen. And when you let them know that you see them, not just you're there to mark their stuff, but you see them as as a person, you've noticed them, you've noticed something that maybe they have somewhere inside themselves that they don't recognize, but they do. They see it, but they don't know. They don't really put a voice to it. And then you see them and you tell them you see them. It's impeccable. It's amazing what that does for a student, how that changes. You are such a leader. When you do that, do you understand how important that is to your peers? I have seen kids change and start living in their truth, start living in their strength because something was recognized. They start leaning into that skill instead of just sort of flopping back and forth between different personalities because they don't really know who they are or who they want to be and they're just trying to fit in. Embracing who they are at their core and acknowledging it is so important to build their confidence, especially in this pre-pubescent, pubescent time where they literally are trying to figure out who they are. And to have you say a wonderful compliment really helps to build their confidence and in turn affects their motivation. Now, the other thing we need to do is to keep kids motivated. That is our responsibility as teachers is to keep things interesting and to not be boring because we can be boring. And while a student is responsible for their own feelings of boredom, we are not in control as a teacher how a student feels. That's on them. And there are things that they can do to help them move past that and to not be bored and to find the motivation. However, as teachers, we also have a responsibility to not be boring humans too. To not lack the motivation to try different things. We need to try different things. We need to try painting, even though it's probably one of the most boring things. Even though it's probably one of the most challenging things to do as a teacher. We need to stop avoiding things that might be harder and we need to find some motivation to just try it, to trust that we have classroom management skills and that we can organize things. It's not necessarily sometimes about our students not being able to handle it. There is a factor in that. But how can we manage the classroom in ways that allow us to take more risks, to have more fun? Have we tried an escape room? Have we tried collaborative tasks? Have we tried group work? Have we tried presentations? Have we tried, like, what are we trying? Are we doing the exact same type of activity for five hours a day, five days a week, or are we mixing it up? Even if it fails, it's not going to fail every time. It's probably going to fail the first time you try it. It's probably not going to work out so well because you're figuring out how you're doing it, what you're trying. It's OK to fail. Fail, fail hard, like have a lesson flop. I don't actually mean fail and like, you know, have the class go into chaos, but have a lesson flop is not a bad thing. I have lessons flop all the time and it's totally fine. But my goal is to keep it interesting, to keep kids motivated, to figure out what it is they're doing, to try to create different types of lessons and different types of experiences to keep them on their toes, because that's fun for me. And I want to have fun, too. And I want to be motivated to try different things. And if I'm just standing up in front of the class, lecturing, giving them work, having them answer questions, having them sit quietly in their desk all day long, I'm bored. So I don't want to be bored. So I want to try new things and I want to do different types of tasks and change it up every once in a while, even if I know it's going to flop maybe the first time, it's probably not going to flop the third time I try it. So I'm just going to keep going and the tenacity that it'll be fine, it'll work out. I'll learn something from it. They'll learn something from it and we'll try it differently next time. Might as well. And that really helps to foster that growth mindset. Like we want our students, when they're motivated, they're not discouraged by failure. They're encouraged by failure. How do we embrace that failure? Well, that's that growth mindset piece that's coming back. When students are not afraid to fail and they're not, they're failing, not failing because they just don't do the work. That's a different type of failure, but they're trying and they get it wrong. It's OK to get it wrong. So we want to encourage them to be, to embrace getting it wrong sometimes. We don't want to embrace them just avoidance or just not doing it or sort of calling it in and sort of giving us the bare minimum. That's the lack of motivation that we're trying to avoid. So we don't want them to stop trying because they're afraid of getting it wrong. Because then they're just going to fail before they even get out of the gate, like we want them to be OK with getting things wrong and taking those risks and that really embracing that growth mindset. But in the same token, we have to create a classroom culture in our classroom that it's OK, it's safe to be wrong. That we're not going to be made fun of if we're wrong, that we're not going to be told we're stupid if we're wrong, that it's OK to be wrong because when you're wrong, you learn something from it. You learn to do it differently. When we have a lesson that just goes the wrong way, we learn something different about it. Where did we go wrong? How do we do something differently the next time? That is, as humans, how we learn is by being wrong and then figuring out how to not be wrong again. So when we embrace that growth mindset and then we have a positive classroom culture that is built on mutual respect, that is built on the idea that we are a community and we support one another and we have established connections with each one of our students, they know us, we know them, we know who they are, we know what motivates them, we know what makes them tick. When we have that positive classroom culture, when we built the relationships between the students in our classroom so that they can support one another, when we do that. Then we have and can build motivated students and we're not going to necessarily have 100 percent of our students motivated to do 100 percent of our tasks 100 percent of the time. That is an unrealistic expectation. But can we build the momentum of motivation with our student group? We can just start with five or six kids that have motivation. It's often contagious. So if we can get that ball rolling, if we can motivate a few students or have a few students embrace being a motivated learner, that motivation is contagious. So when we embrace it, when we support it, when we encourage it, encourage it. Other students will catch on and they'll begin to be motivated, too, because these are their friends and we're also working with that group contagion where if all of your friends are doing it, you want to do it, too. So we can create that culture, that system where a few students are motivated and the other ones join in. And eventually we start picking up speed and more and more students are motivated learners. And then we can focus on the handful of students that are really struggling with that motivation and try to figure out why. Is it a confidence problem? Is it a connection problem? Is it an interest problem? Is it a learning problem? All of those things we need to do, but we need that motivation to get that ball rolling. We need to keep our kids motivated so that they are engaged in what they're doing. It makes teaching and learning so much easier when you're teaching a group of motivated students.