Post Spring Break Motivation!

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Post Spring Break Motivation Tips
​It seems like yesterday that we were planning to have some rest and relaxation, a fun trip, or get ahead on some work, and now, Spring Break 2023 is over. This is one of the most difficult times for college students to stay motivated and keep working to successfully complete the semester, so here are tips to keep your students motivated and productive. 

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Grab Their Attention
Capture their attention in a different way than you have started the previous class meeting, week, or module. Tell them an interesting story, a great joke, or surprising information about you, the topic, or discipline. You might ask them to engage with each other or you through a game or screencast of their work, and then post their work to a shared whiteboard space such as Jamboard or Explain Everything. Another way to grab their attention is to insert a surprise somewhere in the middle of your lesson or module, such as a photo from the New York Times Learning Network's “What’s Going On in This Picture” or the National Geographic Photo of the Day. The in-person or virtual discussion could allow your students to apply concepts in a different way, and reflect on the visual from a content or current time perspective.

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Mix Things Up
Sometimes we need and want structure, stability, and security. At other times, we are getting bored and disinterested in the routine, so we need to add spice and mix things up. How about flipping some time and asking students to connect a new tech tool to the class content, or search for an answer using ChatGPT? You could demonstrate Genially, an all-in-one digital tool that enables users to create interactive presentations, animated infographics, games, and more.

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Keep It Real
It is a good time to let students know how this information is relevant and applicable to their daily lives, work, and career.  Be explicit in connecting what students are learning with when, why, or how they can use this in the world beyond the classroom. Of course, it is also important to let them know where they stand in the class and what is needed to be successful the rest of the semester. You may want to invite professionals to join your real or virtual classroom to demonstrate how what you’re teaching matters in the world or work. Engage your students with get-to-know-you-better activities. Many interactive polling tools, like Mentimeter, enable you to poll your class about their interests and instantly display results.

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Get Them Talking
Try this conversation strategy for physical movement and social engagement. Create an inside circle and an outside circle of students, where each person is in front of or behind someone in the other circle. The inside circle group is then told to turn and face their outside circle group partner. Provide a prompt for the pairs to discuss (for example, “What are strategies to make small talk?” or “Why are relationships so challenging when we all want to connect with others?”) and set a time limit for each partner to share a brief response to the question. Students then take turns listening to their partner’s response. Then, the outside or inside circle moves so they have different partners and a different prompt to talk about. The process continues on to talk about a variety of topics and partner with everyone in the class. For live-online classes, assign pairs of students to breakout rooms and give them a short amount of time (one to two minutes) to share their ideas with their partners. Then you can randomly assign them a new partner using a new set of breakout rooms. With online classes, assigning students into different pairs or small groups to discuss different questions can allow them to have discussions with a variety of people in the class.

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Motivate Them
When students believe they can succeed and feel positive about their achievements and potential, their confidence increases, and motivation improves. Clear directions, useful guidance, and consistent formative feedback help students know what is expected and how to make progress. Share tips about how to keep going in your class and finish the semester strong. Reminding your students that you are in their corner and want them to be successful makes a difference.

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Share Your Ideas
For upcoming Tech Tuesdays, we will be calling on you to share your experience and examples. If you cannot wait to share, please contact us at [email protected] and [email protected].
Your Faculty Liaisons, Jen & Vanessa