Building relationships and creating a effective learning environment is the key for motivating learners.

1. How to Motivate Learners While
Changing Culture
Bobby Dodd
Principal
Gahanna Lincoln High School
2016 NASSP Digital Principal of the Year

2. Why Motivation Matters
1,000,000
24,000

3. Students Have Expectations
• Students have expectations just like
we do as adults.
• Problem is, their expectations are
different than ours

6. Learning Goals
• I can explain the importance of student
motivation and how using different
techniques in presentation can change
culture.
• I can explain and illustrate to others how to
motivate students by using different resources
that improve student motivation.

7. Relationships

8. 3 Questions to Ask About
Relationships
1. Do you know your students?
2. Do you care about your students? I
mean, really care about your kids.
3. Are you on the learning journey
with the students?
• My recent blog post about
relationships

10. Mindset
“Classes that teach students to
equate their intelligence and
worth with performance will
stifle the desire to learn and
make students afraid of
challenges.” – Carol Dweck

11. Growth Mindset
• Performance needs to reflect skills and
effort, not intelligence or worth
• Create a culture in your school and
classroom of this.
• Take some time (maybe 1 day every 2
weeks) and read an article on Growth
Mindset with class. Have an open
discussion and see what students think.

12. Growth Mindset
• Try giving “Incompletes” instead of “Zeros”
• Too many educators give grades and mistakes
are seen as the value of student worth
• For example, look at athletes….
– After a loss, they don’t see the loss effecting their
potential to get better

14. Growth Mindset
• Focus on practice and formative assessments
– Argumentative Writing Strategies
• 3 Level Strategies
• Let students talk it through
– Pre-Tests can be valuable
• See what students know
• “Create a culture of learning, not a culture of
earning.”

15. Students Voice and Choice
• “When students are given the
opportunity to make the
learning experience their own
they care more.”
- Larry Ferlazzo

16. Students Voice and Choice
• Give students power
– Choice for Assessments and Choice for HW
Teachers who open up their assessment choices will
usually see failures go down.
Focus on: “Do the students know how to apply what
we are doing? Can they apply the goal?”

17. Student Voice and Choice
• Let students decide the topics for projects
• Make projects around areas that connect to
kids

18. Feedback
• Solid, meaningful feedback is a sign of caring
• Getting feedback from students is important
• Use the term “goals”, not “standards”
• Make feedback:
– Frequent
– Consistent
• EX) Grade something and hand it back
• How informal is this?
• Where is the personal connection?
• Kids can see right through this.

19. Use Technology
“Go Where the Students Are”
• Twitter (storytelling, reminders, highlights)
• Instagram
• Snapchat
• Tellagami (tell a story)
• Screencast-o-matic
• Canva
• Formative Assessments (Kahoot!, Padlet)

20. Make it Competitve
• Create competitions in class
–Have students compete against
each other
–Active engagement and Debates in
class

21. Bring in Relevant Guests
• Skype
• Google Hangouts
• Live