Monday Motivator #26 2025-26

 Interesting, brief video on the power of tone, and your face is the remote control.

How to add tone to your voice. 

(It pulls up on Facebook, but you don't have to have an account, just click the x to close out of the log in if it pops up)

Monday Motivator #25 2025-26

The secret of your future is hidden in your daily routine.

—Mike Murdock

What Routine Will You Create?

I keep having the same conversation with educators. It goes like this:

 

Me: How’s your year been going?

Educator: It’s going.

Me: What’s something that brings you joy?

Educator: Ummm…

 

After a pause or a little chitchat, the educator tells me a version of this sentiment: You know, I’m tired. I’m not sure why, but it just seems like I’m exhausted before I even begin.

 

I understand. When stress mounts, fatigue settles in. It’s easy to look around life and blame the circumstances. We might think that if our supervisors communicated sooner, we wouldn’t be so tired. Or if the weather would just warm up, we would feel better. Circumstances can be stressful. I’m living in a season of circumstances outside of my control that feel heavy and unfair. 

 

What I’ve recognized is that although I cannot change the circumstances, there is something I can control that will change the load I carry. I can control the routines of my day.

 

We all have routines that stack together throughout our days. Perhaps your school day begins with checking email and reacting to each message. Before you know it, the halls are full of students, and you jump up to quickly post the day’s learning target. You dig out the materials for the day and rush a greeting to some students. You forgot to grab a cup of coffee, so you rush to the workroom. The announcements begin, and your day continues down this path of reacting to one moment after another. 

 

This is a routine many of us tolerate.

 

By contrast, I think about Tammy Mulligan’s morning routine. She arrives in her classroom and turns on the SMART Board, opening the morning’s agenda for students to see. She organizes the day’s materials, making them accessible for students. She has plans to meet with two or three students who need extra phonics or fluency practice. Students come in and read the morning message, preparing for the day. Tammy finishes the tailored phonics practice as the morning announcements begin. The day starts with intention and joy. 

 

This is a routine we can create.

 

The quality of our days depends on the routines we create or tolerate. If you’re feeling overwhelmed and fatigued, rather than wishing you could change your circumstances, consider a routine you could create. I was having a difficult time focusing on the most important tasks of the day, so I created a routine to end my day. I place three sticky notes on my desk and write the three most pressing tasks to complete the next day. When I arrive at my desk the next day, I know exactly what to do. 

Ruth Ayres
Editor in Chief

https://choiceliteracy.com/big-fresh/

Monday Motivator #24 2025-26

 

Supporting Perseverance in Our Students: Before You Say ‘Keep Going,’ Pause to Consider

“Just keep swimming.” This popular quote, which Dory chants in the movie Finding Nemo, is often used to remind students to keep going with something that gets difficult, to push on through and to persevere. Yet, is this message enough to inspire our students to stick with something when it gets challenging?

My daughter recently expressed an interest in learning to braid. While playing with her doll collection, she shared her vision of braiding the dolls’ hair as they sit in salon chairs. She proceeded to watch as I braided one doll’s hair and secured the hair tie so she could see it. A few minutes later, I could hear the frustration in my daughter’s voice as she tried to braid another doll’s hair. Before the words Keep going left my mouth, I paused to consider what she needed to move forward. She was invested in learning to braid and had an example of a braid in sight. Was she aware that I was there to assist her in the learning experience? Did she know that there are other materials she can use to practice and learn the braiding technique?

All too often, our students get stuck. They look to us for guidance and support in removing the stickiness from the experience before they give up. When we observe our students giving up and hear the frustrations, before saying the standard Keep going!, pause, look around, and ask yourself these questions:

Do our students…

• have a purpose? Do the students know their why for engaging in the task?
  • If so, ask them to say it and have them write it down. 
  • If not, prompt them to consider the reasons why the task is important and meaningful to them in their life. 

• have a vision? Do the students know what they are working toward? How will they know they have successfully achieved the task?
  • If they do know, encourage them to create or print an image of the vision and post it in their work environment.
  • If they don’t know, work with them to collect and display options of what the vision could look like and ask them to choose one. Then have them post it in their work environment. 

• have a mentor? Do the students have someone they can look to for guidance, feedback, and advice? Someone who will be their accountability buddy and provide frequent check-ins?
  • If so, help the student schedule times and co-create action steps for sharing with the mentor throughout the process. 
  • If not, help the student find someone who is knowledgeable in that area and accessible for support throughout the process. 

• have a variety of options? Do the students have additional tools and materials, techniques, and strategies available for them to use when one way doesn’t work well or when they get stuck?

• • If so, invite the students to consider these materials and list these techniques and strategies in a central location for easy access.
  • If not, help students gather additional materials, strategies, and techniques. Watch videos online to see how others are engaging in the task differently. Interview others with experience and collect ideas for revising the approach to the task.

Yes, my daughter had a purpose for learning to braid—to braid her doll’s hair. Yes, my daughter had a vision for achieving the braid—the model braid on the doll.

Does she have someone she can look to for guidance, feedback, and advice? Noticing that she didn’t follow through with asking me for support with another trial of the braid, I encouraged her to reach out to me or her grandmother as she continues learning how to braid.

Does she have additional tools and materials, techniques, and strategies available to use when one way doesn’t work well or when she gets stuck? She kept trying to braid the doll’s hair but was frustrated that there was too much hair to work with. If you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you’ve always got. This saying reminds us of the importance of trying new ways, new tools, when a challenge arises. So together we thought of other materials that would work for learning to braid—string, rope, pipe cleaners—and we gathered them in a central location of her workspace. 

Observing our students on the verge of giving up and hearing the frustrations muttered from their mouths is hard for us as educators to witness. Our automatic response might be to support the students with words like Keep on going and You’ve got this. But what if those words are not what they need to hear? Before saying the standard Keep going!, pause, look around, and ask yourself these four questions to respond with greater intentionality and impact on their perseverance. And if you answer Yes to all four questions, then by all means cheer on the student—Keep going, You got this,  Just keep swimming!

https://choiceliteracy.com/article/supporting-perseverance-in-our-students-before-you-say-keep-going-pause-to-consider/

Monday Motivator #23 2025-26

 

New Teacher’s Guide to Motivation & Engagement

by Curtis Chandler · Published 01/11/2026 · Updated 01/29/2026

I still remember the first time my mother made tater-tot casserole. She loved new recipes and poured her heart into it as she browned the beef with onions and garlic and then folded in the sour cream, soup, and colorful vegetables.

She then hand-arranged the tater tots in perfect, military rows and blanketed them with grated cheddar cheese before placing the dish in the oven. It was a labor of love.

However, her enthusiasm didn’t transfer to my plate. I just sat there, poking at the odd combination of textures and smells. To me, it was just a strange, unappealing mixture. I pushed it around with my fork, unwilling to engage with the meal she had worked so hard to create.

This scene plays out daily in classrooms across the country. We pour our energy into refining learning experiences, yet we’re met with blank stares or “disengaged” sighs. The hard truth is that instructional design is only half the battle (Huang, Muhamad, & Nawi, 2025); if we don’t understand the internal mechanics of student motivation and engagement, even our best-laid plans will stay untouched on the plate.

The “Fuel and Vehicle” of Learning

While often used interchangeably, motivation and engagement describe two different parts of a student’s learning experience. Understanding the distinction helps us identify whether a student lacks the “spark” to start or the “tools” to keep going.

Motivation represents the “why” behind a student’s behavior, serving as the internal “fuel” or drive that initiates the desire to learn. This internal spark typically stems from two distinct sources: intrinsic motivation, which is a genuine, personal interest in a particular learning task, or extrinsic motivation, which is the desire to obtain a specific reward, such as a grade, or to avoid a negative consequence (Lai, 2011; Ryan & Deci, 2020).

Engagement, on the other hand, is the “vehicle,” or observable process and behavior that results from motivation. It encompasses the intensity and quality of the student’s involvement in a learning activity, which can manifest as behavioral (e.g., participation, effort), emotional (e.g., interest, belonging), and cognitive (e.g., deep thinking, problem-solving) investment (Reschly & Christenson, 2022).

Understanding the distinction between motivation and engagement is essential. Put simply, motivation is the fuel – the underlying desire to act – while engagement is the vehicle moving, or the act of involvement itself. When approaching learning tasks, students can have a tank full of fuel without the car moving.

Because of this, effective learning requires a dual approach: teachers must not only provide the “why” to spark student motivation but also carefully design the “how” to keep them actively engaged. For a quick reference, the table below outlines key aspects of motivation versus engagement.

Moving from “I Can’t” to “I Will”: Building Student Confidence and Purpose

Students often experience low motivation when they feel a task is too difficult or when they don’t understand why the work matters. To support them, we can use scaffolding to break down complex assignments into manageable steps and provide direct, clear instructions on the strategies they need to succeed (Graham et al., 2012).

Beyond clear instruction, we can boost engagement by (1) showing students the “why” behind their work by connecting classroom lessons to real-world goals and interests; (2) giving specific feedback that shows students exactly how to improve, and (3) whenever possible, providing autonomy and choice in topics, materials, and how they demonstrate learning.

At its core, motivation is about a student’s belief that they can succeed. This is why we must help them attribute their “wins” to things they can actually influence, like the work they put in and the tools they use (Weiner, 2000). When we link success to specific actions – like saying, “Your focus on the rubric really shows in this draft” – we give them a roadmap for next time.

You might also point out their problem-solving process by saying, “I noticed you tried a different approach when the first one didn’t work. That seemed to have really paid off.” We can also help our students view mistakes as temporary detours and empower them to move past the “I can’t” mindset and develop the persistence needed to grow.

Student motivation is largely driven by an interaction between a student’s behavior, their environment, and personal factors, such as self-efficacy, or their belief in their own ability to succeed at specific tasks. Educators can build their students’ confidence by providing “mastery experiences,” or frequent success.

This can be accomplished by breaking complex assignments into small, achievable sub-tasks, ensuring students feel frequent success early on. Educators can also use modeling to narrate their own thought processes through “think-alouds,” making the invisible mental work of a task clear and attainable (Graham & Perin, 2007). (Also see Laura Robb’s “Using Teacher Think-Alouds.”)

Designing for Connection and Control

Students enter our classrooms with different mindsets that dictate how they handle challenges. While some are driven by a desire to master new skills, many are focused on simply finishing a task, earning a specific grade, or avoiding the social “risk” of looking incapable (Dweck & Leggett, 1988).

To shift this focus toward true learning, we should design assignments that value progress over perfection. By allowing for multiple attempts and revisions, we teach students that learning is an ongoing journey rather than a one-time event.

Creating this safe, low-stakes environment is essential because when students feel socially and emotionally supported, they are more likely to engage in “academic risk-taking,” such as asking for help or trying a difficult strategy (Rimm-Kaufman et al., 2014). This shift helps students move past the fear of failure and toward a sustainable habit of persistence.

Research also suggests that students are most naturally motivated when three basic needs are met: autonomy (feeling in control), competence (feeling capable), and relatedness (feeling connected to others) (Deci & Ryan, 2000).

We support these needs in our classrooms by offering meaningful choices such as letting students pick their own research topics or choose their preferred presentation format –  and by providing a clear, structured path to success.

Additionally, we can foster a sense of connection through collaboration and authentic assignments (like projects that impact the local community) to help students feel their work has real-world value. When these needs are met, motivation shifts from simply “doing it for a grade” to a genuine, internal desire to learn.

Serving a Lesson They’ll Want to Finish

Just as a perfectly prepared casserole requires more than just high-quality ingredients to be enjoyed, effective learning experiences require more than just strong instructional design. By distinguishing between the “fuel” of motivation and the “vehicle” of engagement, we can better diagnose why a student might be hesitant to take that first bite of learning.

When educators prioritize a student’s need for autonomy, competence, and connection, we move our learners beyond “pushing food around the plate” and create an environment where they are eager to participate and persist.

As we step into our classrooms tomorrow, remember that our role is part chef and part coach. By scaffolding difficult tasks and celebrating the “wins” found in the process rather than just the final product, we build the confidence students need to move from “I can’t” to “I will.”

When we provide learners with both the spark to start and the tools to keep going, we help each of our students move one step closer to becoming self-directed learners who view every challenge as an opportunity to grow.

Illustrations

Google Gemini. (2026). [Cartoon clipart of a boy poking at a tater tot casserole while a smiling woman in an apron looks on]. Generated using Gemini 3 Flash from https://gemini.google.com
Google Gemini. (2026). [Cartoon clipart of a car being fueled up with motivation]. Generated using Gemini 3 Flash from https://gemini.google.com
Gemini. (2026). [Cartoon illustration of a female teacher using a thought-bubble “think-aloud” to model mental processes for teenage students] [AI-generated image]. Google AI.

References
New Teacher's Guide to Motivation and Engagement Curtis Chandler • MiddleWeb • 1/11/26
Deci, E. L., & Ryan, R. M. (2000). The "what" and "why" of goal pursuits: Human needs and the self-determination of behavior. Psychological inquiry, 11(4), 227-268.
Dweck, C. S., & Leggett, E. L. (1988). A social-cognitive approach to motivation and personality. Psychological review, 95(2), 256.
Graham, S., McKeown, D., Kiuhara, S., & Harris, K. R. (2012). A meta-analysis of writing instruction for students in the elementary grades. Journal of educational psychology, 104(4), 879.
Graham, S., & Perin, D. (2007). Writing next-effective strategies to improve writing of adolescents in middle and high schools.
Huang, Q., Muhamad, M. M., & Nawi, N. R. C. (2025). Impact of instructional design on students’ critical thinking and engagement in online English reading classes: mediating role of motivation and moderating role of language proficiency. Frontiers in Psychology, 16, 1644126.
Lai, E. R. (2011). Motivation: A literature review. Person Research’s Report, 6, 40-41. Reschly, A. L., & Christenson, S. L. (Eds.). (2022). Handbook of research on student engagement (pp. 3-24). New York: Springer.
Ryan, R. M., & Deci, E. L. (2020). Intrinsic and extrinsic motivation from a self determination theory perspective: Definitions, theory, shedding light on organic processes and clinical applications. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 61, 101860. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cedpsych.2020.101860
Rimm-Kaufman, S. E., Larsen, R. A., Baroody, A. E., Curby, T. W., Ko, M., Thomas, J. B., ... & DeCoster, J. (2014). Efficacy of the responsive classroom approach: Results from a 3-year, longitudinal randomized controlled trial. American educational research journal, 51(3), 567-603.
Weiner, B. (2000). Intrapersonal and interpersonal theories of motivation from an attributional perspective. Educational psychology review, 12(1), 1-14. 

Monday Motivator #22 2025-26

Creating Habits of Effective Classroom Practice

Download available here

Monday Motivator #21 2025-26

 

5 Things I’ll Remember When I Feel Unmotivated

by MiddleWeb · Published 07/25/2023 · Updated 09/04/2023
https://www.middleweb.com/49323/5-things-ill-remember-when-i-feel-unmotivated/

By Sarah Cooper

At the beginning of last school year I found myself in a bit of a funk. Usually teaching is a high point in the thick of the administrative work I do, and the 8th graders’ energy buoys me. But for whatever reason – the pressure of other responsibilities, coming into our first “normal” year for a while, or not spending enough time prepping – I felt I was seeing students through a fog.
For me to keep my sanity as a teacher, this could not continue. If I lost my zest for teaching, I would be reckoning with losing a big part of my sense of self.
Slowly, over December and into January, with deliberate steps each day, I recovered my joy. I remembered that lesson planning didn’t have to feel like a slog and that the minutes could fly by in class if I got swept into the flow with my students.
So how did I wrench myself through this transition? Gradually, sometimes haltingly, remembering some of these mantras – which I hadn’t forgotten but found hard to implement that first semester.

1. Connect individually each day with each kid, even briefly.

After doing a survey where I realized a handful of kids weren’t feeling my commitment to knowing who they were and how they were learning, I turned up the volume on my connection.
Generally I say hi by name to each 8th grader as they come in, and often goodbye as they leave, but I added more smiles and checked in with individual kids about how they were doing – even about something silly like what they were looking forward to eating at lunch.
I also remembered to share what was happening with me, just a little bit – what was giving me energy or what was on my mind.

2. Laugh together.

The one element I’ve kept from Zoom teaching is a daily pair-and-share chat. This usually takes the form of a simple question, such as what students are excited or not excited about for the weekend.
As I was trying to come back to myself, I spiced up these prompts, even when I didn’t feel like being lighthearted, and the answers ended up boosting my mood.
Some questions that ignited students’ brains in a different way included: “What temperature would you be today if you were an oven, 0 to 500 degrees, and why?” and “Which animal do you feel like today?” and “What has gone better than expected for you this week, even something super small?”

3. Embrace the mess.

Recently I’ve been teaching in a new room that has nice light and space but doesn’t always feel the coziest. Last year I started with two-person tables in rows because this seemed the most logical way to arrange the furniture. One day in December, though, we moved the tables into a big rectangle for current events discussions. The kids loved it because they could look at each other more, and a quick survey said they felt more of a sense of connection. I never moved the desks back.
Was it noisier? Yes. Did we lose a couple minutes of “productive” class time each day because of this new configuration? Likely yes. Did I feel more connected because I could walk around the outside or the inside of the square? Absolutely.
And, when we were working on a project, I encouraged the kids to sprawl around the room. This is what I missed during Covid – that middle school sprawl that still facilitates learning and creates a buzz.

4. Never underestimate middle schoolers.

This principle is so basic for me. I’ve spent my whole career, it feels, telling people how much these tweens and young adolescents are capable of. So what happened? Did I forget? Did post-pandemic gaps in writing and reading skills trip me up?
I don’t know. But as students worked on projects during second semester, I remembered how much they understand, how many strengths they have, and how much they can teach me (even something small like clicking at the top right of my browser to find which tab is playing video or audio).
For one research project I gave a slew of written directions – on finding and taking notes on reputable sources – that I thought would overwhelm the kids. The research was hard work, especially for some of the students who approach learning in unconventional ways. But I was so overcome by their dedication at the end of one class that I said, “I’m so proud of you.”

5. Find a way to love your students.

Two years ago I wrote a piece for EdWeek about advice I would give to new middle school teachers. But last year, I almost forgot it myself.
I had more students than usual who came into class a little off the wall – quirky, unusual, figuring out the world in their own distinctive and wonderful ways. And yet I realized as I worked to connect more: I wasn’t seeing them. I wasn’t looking enough for all the ways to love each one of them. To appreciate how one kid doodled video game characters every day while still paying total attention to what’s going on – and another raised their hand anytime they perceived an injustice, whether current or historical – and another approached every history research topic as if it were a Big Data analysis.
And the things I love about all of them: how they cluster before the bell, and spread out during class, and lean into and out of each other as they talk and wonder and grapple. Ultimately, really, how I was lucky enough to be in the room with them as they’re growing up.

Giving yourself love and grace

In Gholdy Muhammad’s soul-affirming book Unearthing Joy: A Guide to Culturally and Historically Responsive Teaching and Learning (Scholastic, 2023), she emphasizes a similar message: “This work starts with love – loving yourself, being yourself, being kind and gentle with yourself, and showing yourself grace as you carry out this work.”
What was missing for me at the beginning of last year was not just demonstrating love toward my students but accepting my missteps as I tried to do so. What’s different now is that I’m trying to show myself more grace in the trying.