First day of the school year - how will you hook students' interest?

[motiv8r]

Hello everyone! :waving:

My name is Erik. I am not a teacher - I actually am hoping to hear from teachers.

How do you sell your students, on Day One of the school year, the value of what you're teaching? In other words, do you somehow appeal to their self-interest and talk about the payoffs they personally will experience?

I'm hoping to compile a set of compelling "sales pitches" that parents and teachers can use. The sales pitches' purpose is for children to try harder at school, or at least to not hate the schoolwork so much.

Imagine starting the first day of your class by introducing yourself and then telling the kids what selfish reasons they have to learn the subject you're teaching. Alternatively, you could give it to them as a printed handout which they would read while you check attendance. That's how I'm guessing a sales pitch should be delivered.

My goal is to think of ways to motivate students to really make an effort to learn the material. Hopefully they will keep trying when the assignments get tedious or difficult, rather than do the minimum effort or give up entirely.

When I was in school, I did the work, but it felt like a long senseless march. I just think it would be nice if future students didn't feel like they were being put through a bureaucratic machine. It would be great if they had more of a sense of hope and purpose beyond "this is required, so I have to tolerate it". :shootme:

Thank you all for any replies you make. Have a great summer!

[SS Rocks!]

I teach sixth grade social studies in a middle school. It is a big transition for students.

I don't do or say anything super special to motivate my students on the first day. There is so much going on in their heads and around them on the first day of school that I doubt much of what I say will really stick or make a huge impact. They just need to be helped to feel a little comfortable with all the transitions they are going through (first day in a new building, switching classes, new teachers, new classmates, being a small fish in a big pond, etc.).

What I do is a basic "get to know you" activities and show kids a PowerPoint overview of the course I teach with a few interesting facts to get them thinking, for example, "did you know that worms were a big reason for making China a successful civilization?" Later in the year they find out that it was silk worms.

Motivation, I find, is best built throughout the year. You can't rally the troops on the first day and expect them to still be motivated on day 100.

[Clearly Canadian]

I teach grade 7 and 8 social and language arts, and the trouble I have is usually with kids who ask why do we have to learn about social studies and history? I start with a 'Did you know' video I found on youtube, and it pretty much outlines how times change in jobs, language etc. The best line though is towards the end. I don't have it quite right, but it goes something like this. "You can't fix a problem with the same thinking that created it." Einstein. So I use it as a spring board for what are the problems, what was the thinking that created them, and what kind of new thinking can we use to help solve, avoid or at least lessen them. That way I try to bring historical issues to current day, and "hook" kids into seeing the value of knowing the past.

[Boxcar]

I really like that quote. I think it is quite profound and am borrowing it to use with things as well.

[Booky]

Eric, if it were my class you were coming into and you asked me that question (and I would hope that you would) I would answer you by saying that you are in the class for yourselves and that all of your selfish motives could be met one day if you diligently attended all of mine and your other teachers' classes throughout your time in academia. I would go on to tell you that you will have to work hard and ask questions so that you learn as much as possible and that if you do NOT do this, nearly all of the things that you will later want for yourselves and your loved ones will probably not be available to you. I would explain that if you do not first become educated and learn to live gracefully in the world of men and women, that your conversations will never touch, move and inspire others to make the world a better place to live because chances are that you will not be part of conversations like that in your life. My final "selling point" would be that only by following this selfish path through your school now and hopefully further - through the annals of higher education will you have the possibility of taking the even higher path that can and often does lead to enlightenment. I wouldn't bother so much explaining what that is but I would tell you that once you start getting there you will finally be rid of all your "selfish motivations" and that your life will be much more meaningful and enriching than you can possibly imagine now. When were through with our little chat you would realize that by staying in my class and learning what I have to tell you about during our year or quarter together you will also take a step toward that end and that if you did well with it that you would be a better person for it... as would I... for having the honor of teaching you during that time. That is what I would want to tell you.