Georgia Holleran - A Teachers Companion to Essential Motivation in the Classroom: Resources and activities to inspire and engage your students

A Teachers Companion to Essential Motivation in the Classroom

Teachers around the world have found Ian Gilberts classic text Essential Motivation in the Classroom an inspiring and provocative read. This ground-breaking companion to the book is a definitive one-stop guide for teachers who are looking for inspiration as to how his ideas can be put into practice in everyday classrooms. A truly lively and engaging resource, it scrutinises each aspect of Gilberts now famous seven keys of motivation and provides a wide range of practical ideas, activities and launch pads for discussion which can be blended seamlessly into your own lessons.

Taking as its starting point the right of every child to an inspirational education that develops their values, attitudes and skills, this book provides you with the means to unlock even your most challenging of pupils and will act as a springboard for visionary learning in the classroom and beyond.

Key ideas explored include:

goal-setting strategies

students own intrinsic motivations

preparing effective challenges

developing multiple approaches to learning

using physical activities to anchor learning

helping students to understand themselves better and be better prepared for the world today.

For teachers of pupils at all ages and stages, this book is easy to follow, easy to dip in and out of and conversational in tone and has the potential to be a game-changer for any teacher wishing to reinvigorate their pupils, colleagues and classrooms.

Georgia Holleran is an educational consultant, working across the curriculum and specialising in combining the worlds of business and education.

Ian Gilbert is an educational innovator, award-winning writer, entrepreneur and inspirational speaker, delivering training to schools and colleges in the UK and worldwide for his Independent Thinking organisation. He has previously published Essential Motivation in the Classroom (2012), 2nd edition, and Why Do I Need a Teacher when Ive Got Google? (2014), 2nd edn, both published by Routledge.

A Teachers Companion to Essential Motivation in the Classroom

Resources and activities to inspire and engage your students

Georgia Holleran and Ian Gilbert

First published 2015

by Routledge

2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN

and by Routledge

711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017

Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business

2015 G. Holleran and I. Gilbert

The right of G. Holleran and I. Gilbert to be identified as authors of this work has been asserted by them in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. The purchase of this copyright material confers the right on the purchasing institution to photocopy pages which bear the photocopy icon and copyright line at the bottom of the page. No other parts of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data

Holleran, Georgia.

A teachers companion to essential motivation in the classroom : resources and activities to inspire and engage your students / Georgia Holleran and Ian Gilbert.

pages cm

1. Motivation in educationHandbooks, manuals, etc. 2. Academic achievementHandbooks, manuals, etc. I. Gilbert, Ian, 1965 II. Title.

LB1065.H565 2015

370.154dc23

2014041919

ISBN: 978-0-415-74860-5 (hbk)

ISBN: 978-0-415-74862-9 (pbk)

ISBN: 978-1-315-79652-9 (ebk)

Typeset in Sabon

by Keystroke, Station Road, Codsall, Wolverhampton

Additional materials are available on the companion website at www.routledge.com/cw/holleran

For Mum and Mike

Contents

It was my first book. And it took me ages. I had been giving an after-dinner speech in a hotel in Torquay to a group of heads from special schools and Alison Foyle, who was on the lookout for new books to commission, approached me afterwards and asked if I had written a book and would I like to? The answers were: No and Yes, very much, where do I sign?

At that time I was loving the work of American educator Eric Jensen and I had seen his list of seven key factors that help create internally motivated learners. It resonated with my work with young people, helping them get themselves motivated to do well at school and well beyond.

One sheds ones sicknesses in books is something D.H. Lawrence once wrote about the writing process. They are also a great way of channelling your thoughts, ideas and passions to be master of them, to continue that quotation from Lawrence. Essential Motivation allowed me to set down years worth of reading, talking, thinking and general buzzing in a way that made it all not only manageable but also communicable. What I didnt want to create at that point was a how-to guide with photocopiable worksheets. I didnt want to tell teachers what to do and I still dont. Neither was it meant to be the definitive guide on motivation, hence the late change to the title to include Essential (the essence of). And I definitely wasnt putting out some sort of gospel, hence opening with the quotation I borrowed from Stephen Pinker:

Every idea in this book may turn out to be wrong, but that would be progress

All I was trying to do was share stuff with teachers that I thought they might find useful.

What I created over a decade ago seems to have touched many, many people, from Geoff Bartons glowing early review for the TES to the many teachers and head teachers I meet around the world who talk with such enthusiasm of the book, how their personal copy is dog-eared and full of Post-it Pads and notes in the margin, and how they buy copies for all their new staff each year.

Since its first publication, there have been numerous reprints and even a Spanish translation (Motivar para aprender en el aula Las siete claves de al motivacin escolar) which saw numerous e-mails going backwards and forwards between me and the Spanish translator as he tried to make phrases like bowling a googly comprehensible to a Spanish reader. The connection I now have with educators in Chile has proven that it is not only the words that translate but the ideas too, proving the ideas work with some of that countrys most troubled young people.

In 2013 I was asked to produce a new edition that allowed me to give the text a bit of a spring clean and update some of the references (apparently Manchester United used to have a manager called Alex something).