The following guest post was written by Toby Rothstein Gruber, Eye On Education's Director of Professional Services and the moderator of Eye On Education's professional development webinars.

During our January 24 webinar, It’s All About MEE, presented by Dr. Barbara Blackburn, Barbara talked about practical ways to activate students’ intrinsic motivation, increase student engagement, and raise the level of expectations in the classroom.

Three key questions were raised:

• How do you help students feel more successful in your class?
• How do you add value to learning for your students
• How do you demonstrate high expectations for your students?

For those who missed it, you can view the webinar on-demand.

  

Our attendees had a lot to share about how they make their students feel valued and increase expectations. Here is some insight from webinar attendees, excerpted from the webinar chat.

• Build relationships with your students, show students that you care about them as a person and not just as a student.
• For group projects, do follow-up survey on how they think the group project went.
• Add value by reminding students where they came from (growth) or display it on the charts.
• Encourage students to acknowledge other students' input.
• The most successful routine in my 9th grade resource room this year is the Word of the Day.  Students brainstorm meanings/connections and add an illustration.
• Use a pencil as a microphone.
• I start each class with Press Conference. Two students were appointed last class to be the ones up front fielding questions from the audience. I stood at the back of the class and recorded points for good questions and good answers.
• I use a "speed dating" style to have students teach others about an artist they researched for a project.
• TAPPLE  = Teach ASK Pause Pick a non-volunteer, Listen, Elaborate.
• When a student answers incorrectly say; “Good guess, but that’s not the answer I’m looking for,” or "Good guess but I was thinking something else.”  This will encourage them to keep thinking.
• Providing rubrics to students ahead of time to discuss and understand the expectations
• Begin with the end in mind.  Create SWOT charts about current Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats.
• Occasionally sit down and be a valued PEER in a discussion rather than "the teacher."
• Begin each class with a quote of the day to encourage analysis & higher order thinking.
• This one received a lot of buzz….

For more ideas about how to motivate, engage and set high expectations in your classroom, view the entire chat manuscript through the on-demand webinar. 

I’ll end with this, as one of our talented attendees chatted, Value is what students enter with. Success is what they build up with!