Inspire Your Students

Bob Sullo appeared at the Wyoming School Improvement Conference this week and presented eight keys to inspiring students. These eight keys included:

1. Be enthusiastic
2. Eliminate fear
3. Minimize coercion
4. Eliminate external rewards for learning - This was quite a conversation piece and not everyone agreed this was necessarily the right way to motivate students. Sullo maintains (and Alfie Kohn would agree) that external rewards focuses people on the reward and not on the learning itself. Interesting discussion.
5. Build positive relationships - not only with the teacher, but with the subject itself.
6. Create relevant lessons
7. Create realistic expectations
8. Create a need-satisfying classroom.