Intrinsic Motivation: How To Build On It, Not Kill It

My friend, Aimee Buckner Haisten, author of Notebook Know How and Notebook Connections once said to me, "When a colleague, parent, administrator, or student enters your classroom, he/she should know immediately what you value."

When you enter our classroom, you won't find charts with stickers or stars to signal who's read the most pages or is winning the contest for best spelling. You won't find papers with grades marked in red with the highest scoring papers hanging on the wall. You won't see rules posted anywhere or those "teacher supply store" motivational posters and quotes. You won't find supplies hoarded in individual desks, and a teacher's desk is nowhere to be found.

Why? I'm not a teacher who believes that students are motivated by points, grades, money, contests, fear, or any kind of extrinsic factor. What do I believe in? I believe in children and I work my hardest not to kill the intrinsic motivation students naturally bring with them to school. We can't ever force a child to be motivated, but we can create democratic, collaborative work spaces that stimulate curiosity, invite choice, and honor the children who live and learn there every single day.

I begin every year setting up the classroom with guiding principle #1 in my head and heart: Build On Intrinsic Motivation, and then allow the room to grow with the children from the first day of school. Below are a few pictures of our classrooms (both primary and middle school) over the past few years.....
It's a privilege to learn from my students and be intrinsically motivated to be a better teacher because of them.

And as Phyllis (my fabulous principal and friend) says...
To the possibilities of this next month of writing and learning from writers everywhere!
AM

Slice of Life Day 1: Guiding Principles

For the 2010-2011 school year, I decided to take the year off from the classroom---so that I could write and be a newlywed. In retrospect, neither the writing nor the marriage worked so well, but I did have one grand opportunity that year. I was able to do some part time literacy consulting work with my friends at the Developmental Studies Center in Oakland, California. These educators and friends helped me to truly realize the power of both the academic and social growth of the child and the impact of intentional teaching around these two areas of development.
I’m back in the classroom (with sixth graders this year) and continue to learn from these wise and thoughtful colleagues at DSC, along with countless other amazing educators across the country so that I may give my students the best care and instruction I have to offer. I have embraced DSC’s guiding principles to do just that—guide me in the right direction when the pressure, the tests, the scripts, the scores, the mandates, “the pile-it-on, more is more” mentality weigh heavily on me. Here they are. Six key principles to help me to always do what’s right for children:

1. Build on Intrinsic Motivation
2. Build an Inclusive Learning Community
3. Integrate Academics with Social and Ethical Learning
4. Set up the Learning Situation so the Students do the Thinking
5. Provide Academic Rigor and Accessibility
6. Advance Teacher Practice

More tomorrow about how these principles have come to life in our classroom this year…

As my wonderful principal, Phyllis Faust, says to us every day…
To the possibilities……
Xoxo,
AM

Happy Slice of Life Eve

Ruth Ayers and Stacey Shubitz, at Two Writing Teachers have challenged us to begin a new habit.....writing every day for the next 30 days. They say it takes 30 days to build a habit. I am so not into habits like this because I more often than not...okay....all of the time...don't EVER develop the habit. Sort of like the "I'm going to have a P90X body and eating the chocolate cake on day three" kind of habit. 30 days is a dang long time to do the same thing over and over and over. BUT, I have to admit that Ruth and Stacey are right. This writing challenge is important. It's important for my students. It's important for my growth as a teacher and as a person. It's important that I learn to recognize that my own writing and my own life have special meaning and that I will learn tons from the online community of writers participating along with me in this challenge. It's just important that I suck it up and do it. If I want to be the writing teacher my students deserve, then they need a teacher who's doing exactly what I expect them to do every single day: WRITE.


Before I begin I have a confession. I'm a procrastinator. I do everything at the VERY LAST SECOND. If I don't absolutely HAVE to do it, I won't. I will choose to do something else....like organize the shoes in my closet....throw out the experiments in my refrigerator, read twitter and re-tweet for hours....make a to-do list of all the things that I won't do until the VERY LAST SECOND. I do everything I can do to avoid writing.

So tomorrow, I'll begin to develop this new habit....of writing when I really don't have to(or want to)....when there's no deadline...no one counting on receiving my draft....no one waiting to hear a response...no one wondering why in the world that girl hasn't finished her work yet....posting my "slices of life".....defined by Webster as this-slice of life

I have no clue what I'll post from day to day, and I think that might be the reason I feel butterflies and a bit of anxiety over not knowing what I'll say....This has got to be the feeling my 6th graders feel constantly. Wow. I'm already stepping into their shoes so it will help us all in the long run. Thanks, Ruth and Stacey, for pushing us all to do this.

One more thing.
Honestly and regretfully, I do have a draft of something that's due first thing in the morning.....so my slice might be that last minute article draft for a possible future professional journal publication. It'll be scary to put it out there for others to read, but, oh well. Here goes.....

Happy Slice of Life Eve!
AM
#slice2012

Amid The Destruction, Poetry Stands

This picture, one taken only a street away from a dear friend’s house, is one of many telling the story of the tornado destruction in my school community of Trussville, AL.

I’m awakened at 3:00am Monday morning to the television, radio, and tornado siren warnings….and it felt like the April 27th all over again. Tornadoes feel all too common in AL these days, and as my students entered the classroom yesterday, their stories of loss and destruction filled the room.

Thanks to our amazing principal, Phyllis Faust, who leads our family of teachers and learners every day, our students feel safe and encouraged because they know they have a school family to embrace them not just in the good times, but the tough ones as well. Those students who were able to attend school yesterday showed strength and saw past the sadness and the destruction. They offered encouragement and hope to our “family”, those friends and community members who lost possessions, homes, and loved ones--not with monetary donations, or clothing, or supplies…..but with poetry.

Ralph Fletcher’s poetry book, A Writing Kind of Day, and his mentor poem, "Poetry Stands", reminded us all that poetry has the power to heal wounds, and when everything else around us falls apart, poetry stands.

Below are a few examples of poems written by my sixth graders to lift the spirits of their friends and community members. (first drafts written in a 47 minute class period, I might add ☺ )

These young writers believe that words do have the power to heal, and amid the destruction in our community, poetry stands.



Branden’s poem

Wesley
Don’t feel bad
Lots of people understand
Mrs. Faust calls us a family
For one simple reason
If one of us goes in
Then we all go through it
I know this day was grim
I know this day was tough
But I also know
We can get through this together
As one big family
On January 23 and beyond


Empty by Sadie

Pain will one day be an old enemy
It embraced us tightly
Yes, the silent tears in my heart remain
The feelings of fear and loss
I’m afraid of my shadow,
Alone in a quiet, dark room

But light shines through
A light of hope
Faith covers my wounds
Peace overlays a destroyed town

And again I hear comforting sounds
Birds chirp.
Angels sing.
Today’s a new day





Noah’s poem

You have feelings of fear and loss
But friends are here to protect

Destruction has happened
Loss has come

You are a part of this city
And we will all help

Be brave.

Remember
Happiness rules
Where fear can’t go.



My January 23rd Dream

I rest in a night of sleep
Pushes and nudges
Awaken me to the feelings of
Fear and loss
I fly to the window
Not seeing life
The tv is blaring
Weatherman

It takes a while
Until I realize
The faint sound of the alarm


The rain
The thunder
The lighting
The wind
Drained the sound
Of the noise I remembered
Not too many months before

The signal
That destruction and debris
Would be all that’s left

Until the sun begins to rise
January 24, 2012.

Lessons in Photography and Keeping Your Mouth Shut

In November I had the privilege of sharing my sixth grader’s nonfiction writing and my thinking behind this work with a wonderful audience of colleagues…and with co-presenters Linda Hoyt, Ellin Keene, and Seymour Simon at NCTE in Chicago. (Yep. You are so very correct. O. M. G. is what I thought when Linda called and asked me to present with them…three literacy mentors and superstars I tend to stalk at professional conferences.

So here’s the story that leads to every other blog I will post in 2012...

I was the last to speak in our presentation at NCTE, and after I finished, Ellin opened the floor for questions. Heart still pounding from nerves and adrenaline and feeling pretty proud that I didn’t make a fool of myself, I sat up a bit taller in my chair than I was sitting before the presentation began. Armpits were soaked and my ears were red, but I was feeling good.

I look out into the audience, and this nice lady in an orange shirt raised her hand and asked, “Do you take all your photographs?”
This is where pride and confidence get in the big fat way.
I quickly answered her with a strong, “YES, I take all my pictures!”, thinking to myself that she was impressed with my iPhone 4 skills and the photos imbedded into the slides of my presentation.
This is when I quickly feel a Linda Hoyt elbow in my side and the kind, emphatic whisper in my ear of “she’s not talking to you……”

Mmmm. Hmmm.
I quickly realize that, OF COURSE the question is for Seymour Simon, PROFESSIONAL PHOTOGRAPHER who takes the majority of the photographs for EVERY SINGLE PHOTO ESSAY he writes!!
Remember the “I didn’t make a fool of myself” feeling?
Yeah.
Well.
That’s gone now.

Graciously, Seymour answers the lady’s question and explains… (God knows what because I was so beyond embarrassed I didn’t hear a word he said and was plotting my crawl under the table to die)
Seymour finishes his answer and then I babble like a fool and get a strong, “JUST SHUT UP!!” from the author of over three hundred amazingly crafted, beautifully photographed nonfiction books for children.

Just. Shut. Up. Great advice from a great man, writer, and photographer.

So since that embarrassing November moment, “shut up” has been at the forefront of my mind. Just shut up. It's critical to let the kids do the talking and the thinking….and make it my job to listen, photograph, videotape, and write about every second of learning that is taking place.

My blog posts from now on will be one of those iPhone 4 photos that captures a pivotal moment in the learning, thinking, and growing of this classroom of sixth grade readers and writers....and the learning, thinking, and growing of this sixth grade teacher.

So now when I’m in doubt about what to do to help my students, I’ll embrace the smart phone and shut up.

To learn more from these wonderful writers, thinkers, photographers, and people, visit their websites below.
Linda Hoyt
Seymour Simon
Ellin Keene

:),
Ann Marie

The Room Grows with the Children: Thoughts From an Inconsistent Blogger

The last time I posted (yep, that would be the first week of school back in August), I started a "Setting Up the Classroom Series" of posts. I should know better. Note to self: Never start a series of anything the first month of school and never promise to do more than you know is ridiculously impossible. I will say that you can expect me to blog about the cool things that kids do and the fun literacy work I'm fortunate to be a part of, but it will only get posted on those early mornings with coffee when I put my butt in the chair and just write. Here's to more mornings like this!

It's the end of September, and I'm reflecting on my six weeks with a group of sixth graders...a group that I will have to give back to their real teacher on October 17th. It's been a gift and a pleasure to teach and learn with these kids over the past weeks. It's been especially fun to see the room (and their writing and reading) grow right before my eyes.

I've found that children only become invested in the work we ask them to do when it's meaningful, connected to their lives outside school, and co-created with them. As we finish our first writing study, we look forward to sharing our work and commenting on the work of the writers in Tony Keefer's fourth grade class in Ohio. Check out their class website and give these young writers a new audience!

Below you'll find photos of our classroom anchor charts and kids working--a visual representation of their thinking and growth over these past six weeks.

As my friend and principal, Phyllis Faust says,
To the Possibilities of This New Day.....
love,
AM

Setting Up the Classroom Series....

It's that time of year when we think about setting up our classroom for new groups of readers, writers, mathematicians, social scientists, and problem solvers. Over the next few weeks, I'll be sharing some ways to organize classrooms that will support students in both their academic and social growth. So, for the next few weeks, my blogging will be about my 10 for 10 list of picture books and ways to set up our classrooms for our students.

Below you'll find the link to a blog I wrote for my friends and colleagues at Developmental Studies Center. It's all about setting up the meeting area in the classroom to create that central location for reading, writing, thinking, talking, and problem solving.

The Meeting Area: An Invitation to Read, Write, Think, Talk, and Problem Solve

love,
AM