Reinforcing+Effort

Educational Strategy: Reinforcing Effort Reinforcing student effort is an important part of creating success for students. Here are some ideas that make the process easier.

A class archive of previous projects and their outcomes can be a motivational tool, especially if real students document their efforts and publish them for others to learn from. Using a digital video camera, students can record the steps they took to complete a difficult or challenging task and post the video in the class archive. Students get a sense of accomplishment both from successfully completing the task as well as from sharing their stories with others. In turn, later students are inspired to follow through so they can post their story for others to learn from.

Another suggestion from [|Focus on Effectiveness] to keep students on track is to create an effort log. Have students search for images that represent effort to them. Using [|Picasa] from Google is an easy way for the class to organize and display images. Displaying the images on a class website and at the start of class on the screen / smartboard can serve as a visual reminder of what is necessary to achieve success.When the teacher senses that motivation may be lacking or that the student is struggling a quick review of the images can provide encouragement and direction.

Technology Resources:
 Digital Camera—to archive success stories; [|Flip video cameras] are available for less than $150.00 [|Google Sites] —to publish success stories, and visual reminders of effort, free [|Picasa] —to organize and display visuals found and created by students Smartboard – to project visual representations of effort for entire class.

Photo Credits -- Life routine – act 2 by []

=Educational Challenge =

Getting students to see the connection between their individual level of effort and their level of success can be a challenge. Recording success stories on the video camera makes the connection explicit and provides a template for later students to follow.