Encouraging Positive Behaviors

My biggest motivation for doing well in school was earning good grades. My parents were influential in this, even though they told me that they would not be upset with my grades as long as I tried my best. So it would seem like I would have no motivation from my parents to do well in school. Well, I wasn't willing to risk being grounded or yelled at by bringing home poor report cards so I went with the good student route.

When I started high school I was in geometry class as the only freshman in a class of all sophomores. Now these weren't just random sophomores who didn't know me; I was in Algebra I with most of them when I was in 7th grade, and a couple I had known since elementary school.  The day after we took our first test we walked into classroom and noticed something was different: there was a sheet of paper on the front bulletin board behind the projector with the title Honor Board that listed the names of students who earned A's on the test and their numerical grades. At first I was excited to see my name on the sheet at the top of the list, but then I second guessed myself asking if I really wanted to be targeted as the "smart freshman" in the class. However, when I got to my seat my two friends who sat around me were highly encouraging of my success and so I wasn't afraid to flaunt my abilities thereafter. The other students in my class were also motivated to get their name written on the Honor Board after each test.

During my sophomore year my chemistry teacher would award the students in each of her classes who earned the top 3 grades on the test with $3 giftcards to Starbucks. Now while I wouldn't ever do anything like this to motivate my students, especially because it could get to be quite expensive, it worked in my class because we were all in the obsessed-with-Starbucks phase even though the vast majority of us did not drink coffee.

I believe that competition between students is a big motivator for students to do well in school, and it quite possibly is the biggest motivator. Thus, having something like an Honor Board in my classroom will (hopefully) motivate my students to want to do well in class.  I greatly dislike the use of negative reinforcement (punishment) to motivate students, because I think that often it will have the opposite effect and cause students to be even more withdrawn from classes.