Reading Review Part C: The Plot Thickens.....

So many times in the education world we want the "one right answer" to whatever challenge we face.  Unfortunately, many of the issues we encounter do not have an easy solution we can use.  That is something I have learned during my research into motivating students; there is no one way to do it that works for everyone all the time.  Case in point: I thought I had this engaging and differentiated lesson for my math class today using laptops and a cool game about capacity, working with small groups on the Smart Board, and playing with water and liquids to compare and estimate capacities.  It flopped.  Now, it could have had something to do with the fact our school assembly just prior to the math class went long and when I got the kids back to class they just needed to "let it all out" because I spent most of the class dealing with behaviors rather than working with motivated math students.  Perhaps it was simply a case of the "Monday blahs" after a long assembly and it was the last block of the day.  Perhaps the game I chose wasn't actually all that engaging after all.  I'm not sure, but it made me think about the article I found that describes in detail the games that kids get excited about, and are educational. (http://education.mit.edu/papers/GamesSimsSocNets_EdArcade.pdf).  Moreover, it is very relevant to my issues of behavior and motivation and what is great is that it discusses the learning outcomes in the curriculum that the game "covers".  Even though the outcomes are changing, I can always "cover my backside" knowing they relate to learning, not to mention being more enjoyable than a worksheet for most.  Some of my other resources were very straight-forward (do this, not that) while others had student examples and conversations with kids about their preferences and motivations that I found appealing.  There was certainly no shortage of literature (of the 5 I settled on, there were at least 10 times more I could have used from my searching) and many that I encountered had differing ideas about how to motivate reluctant learners, which was a key learning of mine as well.  Some were academic (scholarly journals) others more casual (blogs, facebook or twitter posts and links), but another one of my key learnings was not even in searching for resources, it was in chatting with my colleagues about my inquiry.  Our Kindergarten teacher is a former Librarian and I know her passion is with kids and learning and books.  To that end, I realized I should be talking with my colleagues and getting their informed take on how to motivate students. 

A couple of them pointed me to 2 new resources I had not even found in my search, but came highly recommended by them: "Teach Like a Pirate: Increase Student Engagement, Boost Your Creativity, and Transform Your Life as an Educator" by Dave Burgess, and "Mindsets in the Classroom: Building a Culture of Success and Student Achievement in Schools" by Mary Cai Ricci.  I ordered them without hesitation as I trust these colleagues and have seen the great teaching and learning in their classrooms.  Again, a key learning is that I do not need to go too far to find ideas and resources or people excited to work with me in my inquiry about motivating students.  I just need to have the courage to give new ideas a try, work hard to prepare and implement them, reflect on the results, and move forward with a deeper and more informed experience about my students and my practice.