Student Teaching Week 3: Student Motivation and Incentive

Wow! I can not believe I will start my fourth week of student teaching tomorrow. This experience has been flying by. This week was big for my students because they were allowed to begin actually working in the shop. I have two students in particular who absolutely love to weld. Seeing these students come down to work extra during their study hall, and witnessing the excitement they bring to the class is extremely satisfying as a teacher.

However we all have our struggles. My freshman are currently working on their prepared speeches. This is progressing very slowly mostly due to a lack of interest in my opinion. On friday, we did a short impromptu speaking exercise that the kids really enjoyed. Volunteer students were given a random topic to speak about for 30 seconds. If they said uh, um, or any other utterance like that, they were disqualified. Through this activity, I learned that my students love to compete. This week I am planning on incorporating more of these types of competitions, possibly making a three day long "Speak Week." I am still putting pieces together for this contest.

https://memegenerator.net/instance/64813861

What incentives do I use? Maybe a pizza party? A team Trophy? Sheetz gift cards? I clearly have some more thinking to do on this upcoming week. I've often heard it said that teaching is as much an art as it is a science. I look forward to continue refining the art.