Many educators have reported that COVID has negatively impacted student motivation, with 80 percent of them saying that their students are less motivated now. As educators it is part of our job to figure out how we can motivate the unmotivated. At BrainZones™ we believe that nobody wants to fail. Failure is typically the result of underlying problems at school or at home. Students give up for many reasons, but more often than not they are “pushed out” factors, meaning they stem from school related issues and a belief that failure is imminent. Therefore, it's crucial that we find ways to improve student confidence, motivation, and effort, especially in these challenging times.

We are Marcey and Debbie and we created BrainZones in response to the dysfunctional and violent teaching conditions we were facing. We knew what we were doing wasn’t working and refused to accept lock-up rooms, physical restraints, and failure as the status quo. However, the extreme disrespect, coupled with emotional and physical brutality of the job had to stop. BrainZones (BZ) was born out of desperation, for ourselves and our students. We knew if we didn’t learn a new way, the cycle of violence and failure would continue.

In this post, we will be sharing three practices that we used to improve student confidence, effort, and motivation. These strategies have been tried and tested in our classrooms and have made a significant difference for our students. By sharing them with you, we hope to inspire and encourage educators to try new methods and make a positive impact on their students' lives.

1. Create Content

Overview: Have students write new lyrics to the chorus of a popular song.

• Vote on the song from a shortlist you provide, or from a student generated list that you pre approve.

• Group students in twos or threes, each group rewrites lyrics.

  • Lyrics need to support one of the following topics

    • hard work pays off

    • the power of believing in yourself

    • learning from mistakes

    • determination and persistence

• Class votes - you can’t vote for your own. Praise everyone for their effort and take a minute to discuss and role play expectations if your lyrics do not win. Explain, part of life is learning to navigate disappointments. Praise students who handle this well.

  • Make copies of the winning lyrics and post them in your room.

• Use the music and begin practicing your new song. Do it at least once a day and remind/discuss the reasons for repeating daily.

  • What we think about we bring about - explain you are creating a new dialogue in their head, one that believes in working hard.

  • Repetition creates stronger brain networks and its crucial to build networks filled with positive affirmations.

• As long as its working, keep doing it. When enthusiasm wanes, it’s time to move on.

2. Do Overs

Research supports giving students the opportunity to improve their grade is motivating for them. Student work, in the form of homework, quizzes, tests etc. are assigned to reinforce and measure learning. Providing feedback is proven to enhance learning and achievement. However, it may also require personal encouragement and one to one support, because students need to believe in their ability to succeed and improve. The goal is to be a coach, not a critic. Once a student has corrected the assignment it is important their grade reflect their new learning and effort.

Although repetition can be frustrating for all of us, we have to keep in mind - students are our purpose and our mission. And, perseverance is a life skill we must develop and foster. It is always helpful to share what many famous and successful names in history have to say about failure and persevering.

1. "Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts." - Winston Churchill

2. "I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work." - Thomas Edison

3. "Success is stumbling from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm." - Winston Churchill

4. "Failure is the opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently." - Henry Ford

5. "Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall." - Confucius

3. Build Positive Self-Talk

Despite the mountains of evidence supporting the benefits of positive self-talk, schools seldom take advantage of their ability to influence how students talk to themselves. In order to address this issue, we utilized two techniques: the first was a call and response exercise, while the second involved repeating a mantra both aloud and silently.

This is an example of the call and response we used.

• Teacher: “You are”

  • Students: “The Best”

• Teacher: “You Can”

  • Students: “Do This”

• Teacher: “We Will”

  • Students: “Succeed”

Students love to do this, it uplifts moods and attitudes, it generates feel-good emotions, and it captures attention. Evidence suggests that, beyond making people feel good, the experience of positive emotions such as joy, happiness, and contentment holds numerous social, intellectual, and physical benefits for the individual (Fredrickson, 2001; Lyubomirsky, King, & Diener, 2005).

Positive self-talk, typically doesn’t just happen. We need to provide the language for students to use. We need to teach them how to notice the negative voice in their head and give them the words to replace them. Following are examples of a few positive mantras for students.

• "I can't do it YET, but I will."

• "The more I practice, the better I'll get."

• "It may not be easy, but I can do it."

• "Small efforts daily add up."

• "I can learn to do anything I put my mind to."

These mantras emphasize perseverance, consistent effort and practice, determination, self-belief, and the power of believing in yourself. It nurtures a growth mindset emphasizes the importance of effort.

Lastly, research supports using third-person self talk to to build self-control skills. We typically think of self-control as relating to behavior, however, it can also relate to our thinking and mindset. For example, pause randomly while teaching, or while students are working independently and ask students to silently say, [Name] can stay focused, or [Name] can do this, or [Name] is the best.

In conclusion, we can improve student apathy by inspiring confidence and effort. The effectiveness of these strategies, for your classroom, can be measured with a quick percentage of before versus after - track percentage of homework turned in, track percent of Ds and Fs. But remember, for change to occur, a daily investment will be needed.