What we call "motivation" in school is really a decision students make to invest in our classrooms. It's our responsibility to show students the value of investment and guide them toward behaviors that will support learning. In this guide, Robyn R. Jackson takes you step by step through the process of motivating reluctant learners--what great teachers do instead of relying on elaborate rewards systems or creative tricks to reach students who actively or passively resist investing themselves in the classroom. Here, you'll learn how to * Identify the classroom investments to ask for by considering the motivated behaviors you most want to see and ensuring that what you're asking for is specific, meaningful, observable, realistic, worth the effort, and small. * Create a classroom worth investing in by removing "demotivating" practice- and procedure-based barriers and giving students more opportunities for autonomy. * Understand and address students' resistance and respond with instructional strategies that minimize perceived risk and maximize immediate benefits. * Ask for and shape an investment by reaching out to students in a nonconfrontational way and providing a clear path toward motivated behavior. * Create a motivation plan that's tailored to the students you teach and designed to be effective in the long run. Note: This product listing is for the Adobe Acrobat (PDF) version of the book.

Some great teachers are born, but most are self-made. And the way to make yourself a great teacher is to learn to think and act like one. In this updated second edition of the best-selling Never Work Harder Than Your Students, Robyn R. Jackson reaffirms that every teacher can become a master teacher. The secret is not a specific strategy or technique, nor it is endless hours of prep time. It's developing a master teacher mindset—rigorously applying seven principles to your teaching until they become your automatic response: Start where you students are. Know where your students are going. Expect to get your students there. Support your students along the way. Use feedback to help you and your students get better. Focus on quality rather than quantity. Never work harder than your students. In her conversational and candid style, Jackson explains the mastery principles and how to start using them to guide planning, instruction, assessment, and classroom management. She answers questions, shares stories from her own practice and work with other teachers, and provides all-new, empowering advice on navigating external evaluation. There's even a self-assessment to help you identify your current levels of mastery and take control of your own practice. Teaching is hard work, and great teaching means doing the right kind of hard work: the kind that pays off. Join tens of thousands of teachers around the world who have embarked on their journeys toward mastery. Discover for yourself the difference that Jackson's principles will make in your classroom and for your students.

"They don't care about their education." "They are not capable of learning." "I can't work with them." "I can't get through to them." Just as you may have thought these things about your students, they, too, may have similar thoughts about you: "She doesn't care about my education." "He is not capable of understanding me." "I can't work with her." "I can't get through to him." While all students in your class, building, or school district need your support, the Black and Latino male students—the most underserved, suspended, and expelled students in education—need you to understand them as you support them so that they can thrive academically. In Becoming the Educator They Need, former professional athlete turned educator Robert Jackson reminds teachers and administrators that although "a great majority of all the stories in the news about Black and Latino males are negative," these young men—the most likely to be incarcerated, drop out of school, and become victims of homicide—need you to work through any biases you may have and internalize and employ the five core beliefs and mindsets necessary to best serve your Black and Latino male students, the six core values for teaching Black and Latino males, and the 11 characteristics of strong, healthy relationships and become the educator that these students need.

Students following directions, dutifully completing assignments, and quietly cooperating. For some teachers, this kind of compliance is a goal worth pursuing, but for you, it's not enough. You want real engagement—a classroom filled with students who ask intriguing questions, immerse themselves in assignments, seek feedback on their performance, and take pride in their progress. So even as you race to cover a demanding curriculum and address standards, you're wearing yourself out searching for the hooks that will inspire your students and make them eager to learn. It's not that you're not doing enough to motivate your students; it's that you're probably focusing on the wrong things. In this book, Allison Zmuda and Robyn R. Jackson explain the four keys to real engagement: clarity, context, challenge, and culture. Their smart, concrete strategies for improving classroom assignments, assessments, and environments will help you create learning experiences that are rigorous, meaningful, and rewarding for your students and yourself.

Jackson details what great teachers do to ensure students not only pass big tests but also become engaged learners, effective problem solvers, and critical thinkers.

Provides proactive learning support to enable teachers to give students the right kind of assistance and get those who are struggling back on track. Covers the steps of building a plan and provides all the strategies needed to support students before, during, and after instruction.

Creating lifelong learners is ideally what we, as teachers, desire for all students. We understand the values and rewards that come from acquiring a thirst for knowledge. Wanting children to see learning as a valuable tool is easy, but knowing how to instill that love, now that is a different story. That story is presented here, in easy-to-understand text and ideas, to guide students through the concepts of lifelong learning. Learning That Never Ends demystifies the concept of lifelong learning in a way that makes it easy and accessible for all. This work literally levels the playing field for any and all students to find success in life. Every idea, every tool provided comes from fifteen years of research and experimentation across socioeconomic levels and subject areas from elementary to college, in hundreds of classrooms. With the ideas from this book, you can empower all students with the qualities of a lifelong learner.