Motivation while nearing finals week
I find usually the last couple of weeks of my classes many students are just completely tired and ready for the class to be over. They have tons of papers, projects and group work and many of them seem drained. What are some suggestions to keeping up with motivation and helping them get excited about nearing the end of the class. Many of the students I work with just kind of have a get it over with attitude.
I've tried a number of things and being creative has helped, but generally students are difficult during this time period to get them really motivated.
I try to make it so that each of the assignments really builds upon the last one, and that way by the end, they are really making use of what they learned early on.
If they do start to lag though towards the end, I will just show them all that they have learned and the progress they have made and give some new examples of how beneficial it is towards their future career.
Hi Jennifer,
This is what I call cascading enthusiasm because it builds throughout the course. You have a great way of doing it because you are showing the students the progress they have made and the progress they will make. It easy for the students to forget how far they have come when they are bogged down in the middle of the course trying to complete the assignments and pass the tests.
Gary
I will make the end itself the motivation. There is only so much left, we have come so far, x weeks ago the things you know now you didn't. I try not to completely let my excitement of the quarter being almost over shine through but everyone looks forward to the end. It is a lot to do for students and the fact that they will be done is something to push for until the end!
Jennifer
I am going threw this now. I tried to use youtube.com to use as a visual my morning class enjoyed it, but my afternoon class did not respond.
