How To Motivate Your Students Using Awards

It can be difficult as a teacher to get your students motivated in class. You might manage to get them hyped up to a certain point over a project or two, but in general, the interest lags after a few days. There is another way to get your student interested and in a competitive mood and that is with awards designed specifically for them! Classroom awards are among the most popular for students and it is very easy to add them to your daily teaching life.

You can make up absolutely any type of award that you want, which is especially handy with young children. Inventing a fun award like Best Smile of the Week is the perfect way to get kids laughing and working harder.

Start by planning out several general awards such as Hardest Working Student, Most Helpful, Best Behaved, etc. These can be given out every week or month, as you see fit. Although you could have awards that are given out at the end of each semester, it is usually better motivation if you choose smaller time periods. This allows the children to compete more and they have more chances of winning. For this reason, you want to reward good behavior, so everyone will be doing their best to behave well and try harder at their work.

There are lots of different certificate papers available, you can choose one that goes with your theme. For younger kids, a certificate with balloons is fun, while older children will prefer a more professional look. The idea is to give out a certificate for all the awards at the end of each judging period. Hold a semi-formal ceremony, where each child is praised and called up in front of the class to receive their certificate. Have everyone clap for the winners and you can teach them a little something about not being sore losers as well.

If you want to take things a step further, include photos in your awards ceremonies. Take a shot of each winner with their certificate and for the next time period, that child has his or her photo hung on the bulletin board with the name of their award above the photo. Kids absolutely love being famous and this is a good way to cater to that interest. Make up fancy frames with the award names on top. You can make this a class project if you like and have all the children team up to decorate the photo frames.

Invent a special, unique award at the end of each time period, something like Best Dressed or Funniest Jokester, according to what you see fit. This is a good way to include the children who might figure they have no chance at winning a good behavior award, so they automatically try to be bad. These awards are one-time only affairs and should only be given to one child in the class.

Using awards to motivate your students is not a new idea, but it is one that has not been used enough. As you begin to incorporate it into your classroom routine, you are bound to see results.

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