# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
These apps and websites can help teachers boost their productivity, personalize learning, and create lesson content.

Over the past five years, I've explored ways to integrate AI into my teaching practice-even before ChatGPT and other generative AI became some of the most talked-about topics in education. Every educator needs to learn about AI and how we can leverage this technology to benefit our students and enhance our own work. To best provide for our students, we need to understand how this technology will impact them and us. What better way than to explore new tools via AI in our teaching practice?

Why Educators Need to Understand AI Tools

Our roles as educators have continued to change over the years. With technology comes a bit of hesitancy, especially with something as powerful as AI. In our schools, we have to provide opportunities for students to learn about changing technology because of the impact it may have on their future. Not only can AI tools enhance creativity and productivity, but also they can provide educators with valuable insights into student learning and assist with some of the time-consuming tasks that educators have.

Even with all of the promises of AI, it is important that we take time to talk about artificial intelligence in our classrooms. Not only do we teach the content, but we serve as mentors, facilitators of learning and co-learners with our students, especially as we embrace these emerging powerful technologies. It's important that we help our students learn about the benefits of them and also show how to use these tools properly, responsibly, and ethically.

How AI Can Improve A Teacher's Job

Personalized learning: Educators can provide tailored learning experiences based on AI-driven analytics that provide valuable insights into student performance and learning trends. Using this data, AI can instantly adapt student learning materials. Teachers can then use this information to provide personalized learning experiences, adapting to each student's strengths, weaknesses, and learning pace.

Productivity and efficiency: Greater efficiency comes with AI as well. Educators are responsible for a variety of clerical tasks, such as communicating with students and their families, grading assessments, and providing feedback. Educators may find they spend more time on these clerical tasks rather than on teaching and working directly with students. The right AI tools can help to automate or streamline these tasks, which allows teachers to have additional time with their students.

Creating and supplementing content: Through AI-powered platforms, teachers can curate a range of educational resources. With generative AI in particular, teachers are able to create lessons, activities, assessments, prompts for discussion, and presentations simply by providing a short prompt with keywords.

7 education Tools that work

Here are seven AI-powered tools that will help teachers with personalized learning that enables them to become more efficient and save time that can then be spent with students. I have used each of these for my own personal writing and creating of presentations, and the amount of time they save by generating the slides alone helps me to focus more closely on the content. I also appreciate that the tools offer translation options and a variety of templates and other resources that are commonly used by educators.

The recently released Teaching with AI guide for teachers was created to help educators use ChatGPT in their classroom. The guide comes with several suggested prompts and includes explanations that clarify exactly how ChatGPT works and what its limitations are, and it provides reminders of the importance of verifying information and checking for bias. With ChatGPT 4, which is a paid version, there is greater accuracy and reliability of information than with the original version.

Creating and sharing these resources with our students leads to rich conversations about the benefits of AI and proper use of this technology for creating and learning. There are many more tools available for teachers to explore that can help with each of the key areas that I mentioned. Most important is selecting a tool to start with and reflecting on how it impacted your practice.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
7 AI Tools That Help Teachers Work More Efficiently

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
These apps and websites can help teachers boost their productivity, personalize learning, and create lesson content.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
The first day of high school is full of excitement and nerves for students and teachers alike. You can put your students at ease right away by enthusiastically welcoming them to your class and greeting them at the door with a smile, an introduction, and a handshake.

The first day will inevitably involve some logistics, like going over the class rules and reviewing the course syllabi. However, you can make your students' introduction to your classroom stress-free and positive by adding these fun first day of high school activities.

Would You Rather?

Help the teens in your class relax with a fun round of "Would You Rather," the game in which you pit two choices against each other. Sometimes the choices are serious; other times they're silly. Occasionally, neither is a good option, forcing students to choose the lesser of two evils.

Get started with these these Would You Rather prompts. Would you rather...

Live in the mountains or on the beach?

Be a famous author or a famous musician?

Have the ability to read minds or be invisible?

Spend the day at an amusement park or the mall?

Have a private jet or a fancy sports car?

Live somewhere that is always warm and sunny, or somewhere that is always cold and snowy?

After you ask each question, instruct students to move to one side of the room if they'd choose the first option and the other if they'd prefer the second.

If you'd rather keep everyone in their seats, provide students with different color choice markers (e.g. colored paper plates, paint stir sticks). Students hold up one color for the first choice and the other color for the second.

Two Truths and a Lie

Get to know your students and help them get to know each other with the classic icebreaker game Two Truths and a Lie. Tell the students to share two true facts and one made-up fact about themselves. After a student shares their facts, the other students should guess which statement is a lie.

For example, a student might say, "I moved here from California. My birthday is in October. And, I have three brothers." The other students then guess which of the three statements is untrue until the first student reveals that they are an only child.

You can start the game by sharing two truths and a lie about yourself, then go around the room until each student gets a turn.

Letter to Yourself

Begin the school year with this introspective activity. Invite the students to write a letter to their future selves. Provide a list of questions, writing prompts, or sentence starters and instruct students to answer the questions in complete sentences. Try some of the following:

I am wearing...

My best friend is...

What I'm looking forward to most this year is...

What is your favorite subject?

What are your favorite songs, TV shows, books, games, or music artists?

What are your hobbies?

What is your favorite way to spend your free time?

Provide envelopes so that students can seal their letters once they're complete. Then, the students should turn in their sealed letters to you for safe-keeping. Return the messages to the students on their last day of school.

Tell Me About Yourself

Get to know your students with an engaging questionnaire. Write five to ten questions-some lighthearted, a few thoughtful-on the board or provide a printed handout. Ask questions such as:

What is one of your favorite memories?

Are you an introvert or an extrovert?

What qualities does a great teacher have?

How do you learn best (examples: quiet environment, hands-on, listening, reading)?

If you could only eat one food for the rest of your life, what would it be?

Students should turn in their finished questionnaires to you. Use this activity as an opportunity to gain insight into their personalities.

Pop Culture Quiz

Take a break from the first-day-of-school stress with a pop quiz - a pop culture quiz.

In advance, create a list of 10-15 questions about current pop culture, from music to movies. Then, to begin the game, divide the class into multiple teams. Distribute paper and pens/markers or personal whiteboards to each team.

Stand at the front of the room and ask one question at a time. Give the teams time (30-60 seconds) to confer quietly about their answers. Each team should write down their final answer on a piece of paper. Once the time is up, ask each team to hold up their answer. Each team that answers correctly earns a point. Record the score on the board. Whichever team earns the most points wins.

Anonymous Responses

Create a sense of community and connection in your classroom through this activity. In advance, prepare one or two questions to ask the students. Here are some examples:

What makes you most nervous about the new school year?

What is one thing you wish everyone at school knew about you?

What is your biggest goal this school year?

Write your question(s) on the board, pass out an index card to each student. Explain that they should write down their answers without including their name, and assure them that their responses are completely anonymous (but that they will be shared with the group). Give the class 5 minutes to complete the activity. When time is up, instruct students to fold their cards once and place them in a basket or bin at the front of the room.

Once everyone has turned in their index cards, read the responses out loud. Many students may be surprised to find out how similar they are to their classmates. To extend the activity, moderate a brief discussion about the students' reactions to hearing their classmates' responses.

Teacher Multiple Choice Quiz

Give your students a chance to get to know you through a silly multiple choice quiz. To create the quiz, come up with a list of fun or surprising facts about yourself. Then, turn them into multiple choice questions. Be sure to include some funny wrong answers.

After the students have finished the quiz, go over the correct answers and have the students "grade" their own quizzes. This activity often generates fun, engaging discussions, as many students are curious to hear the backstories behind some of the facts you included on the quiz.

Classmate Interviews

Divide the students into pairs and pass out a list of interview question prompts. Tell the students to be on the lookout for things they have in common. Then, give the students 10 minutes to interview their partners. When time is up, each student should introduce their partner to the class using the information they learned during the meeting. Each presentation should include a fun fact and a newly-discovered commonality.

This activity is an excellent way for students to get to know each other. In addition, many students find it less intimidating to speak to the class about someone else rather than themselves.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
8 First Day of High School Activities to Get to Know Your Students

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The first day of high school is full of excitement and nerves for students and teachers alike. You can put your students at ease right away by enthusiastically welcoming them to your class and greeting them at the door with a smile, an introduction, and a handshake.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
10 STEM Education Trends to Watch in 2024

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
What’s trending for STEM education in 2024: sustainability, multimodal learning, career and technical education, digital literacy, and more.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
The best STEM podcasts from thousands of podcasts on the web and ranked by relevancy, authority, social media followers & freshness.

STEM Podcasts

Here are 80 Best STEM Podcasts worth listening to in 2024

STEM Podcasters

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
80 Best STEM Podcasts You Must Follow in 2024

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Keep up with Best STEM Podcasts List on the web featuring stem education, career in stem field, interview with professionals in stem field, women in stem, stem activities impacting the world, stem news, updates and more

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Why is Professional Development Important for Teachers? | Blog

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Professional development has a lot of value for educators. This post will answer the question “Why is professional development important for teachers?”

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
5 Benefits of Teacher Collaboration in Education w/ Examples on How to Promote It

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
See five benefits of teacher collaboration in education and some suggestions on how to promote collaboration in your school district.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Why – and How – Educators Learn Best from Each Other

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
What peer-to-peer learning looks like is different everywhere you go. But it’s powerful, no matter what shape it takes.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
4 benefits of an active professional learning community | ISTE

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
A professional learning community (PLC) is a team of educators who share ideas to enhance their teaching practice and create a learning environment where...

# data[].attributes.body
Publication article on AI and it's use in Family and Consumer Sciences classes.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
What To Do When Teaching Becomes Too Much

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Know what to do when teaching becomes too much by learning actionable tips to help you feel more organized, efficient, and centered, so you can thrive in your role as a teacher. Tune in to find out how to balance the needs of students and teacher tasks with greater ease and confidence.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
This episode of the Truth for Teachers podcast is for educators who struggle with anxiety and feel like you're just drowning in work. You'll find an encouraging audio message you can replay anytime you are feeling anxious.
I use the term "anxiety" loosely here to include those of you who have been clinically diagnosed, as well as those who just can't seem to shake that anxious feeling when you think about work.

I know from consuming so much audio content myself how much benefit there is to repeatedly listening to positive, encouraging words spoken into your mind and heart. There's nothing better when you're feeling anxious than hearing reassurance from someone who understands what you're going through, validates your feelings, and helps you work through those feelings in a practical, uplifting way.

Some of you might have a positive, supportive mentor or partner or therapist who encourages you on a regular basis and gives you strategies for working through your anxiety when it feels overwhelming. But not everyone does, and that might not be enough.

I wanted to be able to offer a sort of "virtual mentorship" and walk you through different aspects of teacher anxiety and help you figure out a new way to think about your work. So whenever you're feeling isolated, discouraged, and unsupported you can listen to practical encouragement and reassurance. And over time and with practice, you will be able to "retrain your brain" to think in ways that FINALLY create freedom from anxiety and overwhelm.

What follows is a special written and audio message which does exactly that. It's part of a set of digital tools that I created last fall, and it's called: Finally Free: The teacher toolkit for conquering anxiety and overwhelm.

Click to listen to one of the Finally Free modules on my podcast,

or read the transcript below

Be present and recognize the magnitude of your accomplishments, even when it feels like it's not enough.

When you feel like you're drowning in work and obligations and can never do enough, one of the most important things you can do is to recognize how much you are actually accomplishing already. That sense of inferiority or guilt or overwhelm can stem from thinking you're not measuring up to your own expectations, or others' expectations, and it seems impossible to try to do everything you "should."

I know that you are under tremendous pressure right now. You're feeling pressure to do more, test more, take more data, be more accountable ... and everything has to be done perfectly, starting right now.

My friend, please don't internalize this pressure! Be kind to yourself and show yourself grace. The weight that a classroom teacher carries is heavy enough on its own. Don't add to it by buying into the myth that you must be a super teacher, performing miracles at every turn, compelling all students to work on or above grade level simply through the sheer amount of energy and time that you expend.

What you do is miraculous, but it's not always measurable. And it doesn't have to be. Getting a student to open up about the hard times he's having at home. Supporting a child who doesn't speak English in making new friends. Instilling a love of learning in a student who hates school. Moving your class toward skill mastery in small, uneven steps. You're working miracles. You might not be recognized for it, but you are.

Showing up every day and giving your best as you work to meet the diverse needs of every student in your care is enough. You are enough. Your students are enough. Learning is a lifelong process, and we all get better with time and experience.

Don't wait until all administrators, parents, and legislators show kindness and grace to you. Even if your principal is demanding, your students' parents are impossible to please, and your district leaders keep piling more responsibility on your plate ... stay focused on the kids. Connect with them. Care for them. Show them love.

Don't let the pressure from every side keep you from remembering why you went into teaching in the first place. Focus on making a difference. Your students won't remember everything you taught them, but they will always remember how you made them feel. They are people, even when the school system treats them like numbers. And you're a person, too. Dismiss those nagging thoughts that insist you're not doing enough. Redefine the role of a teacher for yourself.

Celebrate your small moments of accomplishment. Every day of being a teacher is filled with moments of potential joy and satisfaction. I use the word "potential," because you have to pay close attention and really be present if you want to grab onto those small, beautiful moments.

There were many, many days when I was distracted and completely missed them because I was in such a hurry to get to the next thing. I rarely took time to stop for even a second and revel in what my students and I had achieved.

You have to train your brain to find and dwell on those moments of accomplishment. Don't mentally replay the moment when a student disrespected you or a colleague was condescending: Return your mind to the instant when you finally entered all that data into the computer, or cleared out your email inbox, or finished the lesson plans for the week.

You worked hard for those accomplishments! Don't skip over them and hurry on to the next item on your to‐do list. Celebrate yourself. Give yourself the encouragement and praise you would give a student: Yes, you did it! You're on fire today. Look how much you got done! You didn't want to do that task, but you pushed through it, anyway. Good job.

As you do these things, stay in the present moment. Don't let the joy of watching kids learn get muddled by the off‐task behavior of another child nearby. Redirect as needed, but keep your thoughts centered on the good stuff that's happening right in front of you.

When you leave school at the end of the day, think back on those little wins. Treasure them and use them to inspire you to go back into the classroom the next day and give it your all once again.

Choose to focus on the students you made a difference for. If there is even one child in your class who cared about the lesson you taught and made an effort to learn it, you have done something worthwhile. Use that student to motivate you to get up in the morning. Look over at him or her when you start to feel discouraged during a lesson. Press on toward more lightbulb moments with that child, which will give you the motivation you need to keep reaching out toward everyone else.

Being truly present in the classroom will help you practice reframing your work to recognize and appreciate the magnitude of what you do. In those moments of full presence, you will start noticing all the small wins and celebrating the lightbulb moments. You'll find yourself getting back in touch with the reason why you entered this profession in the first place. You'll start to realize what a tremendously important job you are doing every single minute of the day. And then you'll be able to reframe how you view your work.

Do you think you spent the last 15 minutes tying shoes and zipping coats? No, you smiled at each of your students as you bundled them up to protect them from the cold. That might be the most loving, nurturing gesture some of those kids got all day.

Do you think you just wasted an entire afternoon in a data chat meeting? No, you got to step back and look at all the hard work you did compiling and analyzing information over the past week. You got to see all the evidence of just how well you really know your students, and you got to learn even more information that is going to empower you to take your kids to the next level tomorrow. Who cares if someone else in the meeting had a bad attitude and made the meeting miserable? Look at what YOU did! Look how ready YOU are to meet your students' needs because of your hard work! Don't let anyone take that away from you!

Do you think you just taught a developmentally inappropriate learning standard that less than half the class truly understood? No, you helped 12 or so kids meet an incredibly difficult objective. 12 different kids, all at the same time! And you planted a seed for another dozen (or two dozen) kids who are now a few steps closer to understanding the concept when you re‐teach tomorrow.

This is not overly optimistic thinking - this is realistic thinking. It's reality. This is exactly what you did.

You show up, day after day, and work these little miracles all day long without even realizing you're doing it. You're probably so focused on everything you didn't do that you don't realize how much you've actually accomplished. I am urging you - stop for a moment. Be present. See what you are doing. Really, truly, see it.

Your work is important. Ultimately, whether someone else tells you that or not is irrelevant. You must choose to perceive your own work as something meaningful and valuable, because it is. Be present in every moment of it. It all matters, and it's all worth it.

You'll NEVER get it all done - so build some boundaries, and save your energy for what really matters. (from Dan Tricarico)

Here's the bottom line: You'll never get it all done, anyway.

I know that's hard to hear. But there will ALWAYS be more. Teaching could be a 24/7 job, if we let it. We could always be doing more thinking about teaching, more planning, more grading, more organizing, more rearranging the furniture in our classroom.

But when does it end? The answer is: It ends when you SAY it ends. You have to build some parameters. Some boundaries. And you have to respect the boundaries you've set. We respect other people's boundaries. And why do we do that? Because we care about them.

What if we learned to care about OURSELVES enough to respect the boundaries we set for ourselves instead of saying, "Oh well. It's only me. And I don't matter, anyway."

Does that kind of internal self-talk sound familiar? I'll bet it does. How do I know? Because I do it, too! But I've learned to make honoring my own boundaries a habit and a priority. I'm not perfect at it, but I'm getting better! And yes, that may sound selfish, but it's not. There is a difference between self-care and being selfish.

Selfishness is when you say, I want this thing for me and I want more of it than everyone else, and I want it because it's going to benefit me and I should benefit more than others.

But self-care is when you say, I am going to take care of me and respect my boundaries and listen to my mind, heart, body, and spirit for signals about what I need so that I can renew and rejuvenate and then I can be in a better place, not only for myself but for others. Not only so I can do more for me, but so that I am more ready to help, to serve, and to give to others in a way that benefits everyone.

The truth is: You are worth taking care of. And as I often say, if YOU aren't going to take care of yourself, then who will? So one strategy for not feeling like you have to do it all is learning to say no. And not only learning to say no, but learning to say no without guilt. I know that's not easy. Teachers are by nature givers, so it's critical that we learn to take some things off our list.

But like anything else, it's a habit. It takes practice. But think of what would happen if you pulled that off? If you said no, thank you to the new committee at school? The book club you no longer wish to be a part of? The volunteer work at the church you never wanted to do in the first place but felt obligated to do?

I feel a deeper breath coming on just thinking about it.

I'm not saying NEVER help others or NEVER do things to serve. Far from it. I'm simply saying save yourself for the things that matter. Save your energy for where you'll do the most good and have the biggest impact. You won't have ANY impact if you're burnt out, stressed out, or full of tension.

So how do you get off that treadmill? The first step is to prioritize. Ask yourself what's most important. What are your non-negotiables? What are your essentials? And then the second step is to remove some things that aren't quite as important as you thought.

Another step we can take is to learn to respect the signs that our mind, body, and spirit are giving us to stop. This is not always possible, of course, but learn to listen to the signals. When you're tired, rest. When you're overwhelmed, stop. Those signs are there for a reason. But we often don't listen to them.

What if our cars didn't have a gas gauge? What if we just kept driving and driving and driving without listening to any signs about what kind of shape the car was in? Before long, we would run out of gas and be stranded and stuck and wondering how we were going to get home.

Sound familiar? But we can conserve our fuel by listening to the signs and focusing on the things that are important.

Here's a good way to figure out what's essential: Make a dialectical journal with two columns (in my class, I just call it a T-chart) and in one column, make a list of all of your MUSTS and in the other column, make a list of all of your WANTS. The goal would be that you get ALL of your MUSTS and as many of your WANTS as you can. But you'll probably never get them all. And that's okay.

I have a sign hanging in the window of my classroom office. It's a quote from a book called Essentialism, by Greg McKeown. As the name of the book suggests, it's about paring things down to just those that are essential. The sign says "LESS, BUT BETTER."

The idea is not to crowd our calendars with all sorts of things so that we never have a moment to breathe just so we can feel busy. In fact, we need to STOP glorifying being busy as if it's a badge of honor. Sure, that's a subversive idea in our society. But that's okay. We're different. We're marching, as Emerson says, to the beat of a different drummer now.

The idea, according to that sign on my window, is to do fewer things, to have less scheduled, but to do what's left BETTER than we used to. To hone in on what's essential and make it happen with a higher level of quality. And if we do that, the bonus is that we will have more energy and joy left over for the things that we WANT to do. We need to reduce things to their essence. We need to embrace simplicity. We need to see where we can streamline, eliminate, reduce, so that's all that's left is what absolutely NEEDS to happen.

And only THEN do we add on other things that we either need or want to do.

The key word here is SUBTRACT: Take away everything that isn't completely necessary. And then add back on as you feel you can.

In the classroom, we are often bombarded by a truckload of new obligations, responsibilities, and duties that we have no control over, that we would not ourselves choose to do. It seems as if there are always more students, more testing, more technology to learn, and more meetings. And it seems that, more often than not, these things come down the pike with very little to no more support, funding for supplies and materials, or compensation for us. And that can create a great deal of pressure, stress, and tension.

So one way to deal with that in a healthy way and retain more of your sanity is to look around and see where YOU can streamline, where YOU can reduce and subtract the systems in your own classroom to make room for all of these other things.

Make no mistake: We ALL know - even The Powers That Be know - that you're doing too much. That too much is being asked of us. And the funny thing is, since teachers are givers, we always seem to find a way to do it. The unfortunate thing is that this sets an ugly precedent. The perception often becomes Well, they did it before, I'm sure they can incorporate this as well. And the insidious part is that they know the rationale they give us will always make us take on more. All they have to do is remind us that, "It's for the kids." As soon as we hear that, we say, "Then I'll make it work." And we do.

But if we're not careful, that can put us on the path to anxiety, overwhelm, and stress. And the irony is that if we spend too much time there and have to leave the profession, then everyone loses. If you end up having to leave teaching and end up working in an office somewhere in corporate America, then you're not pursuing what I'm assuming you see as your gift and your calling.

I'm not saying there's anything wrong with those kinds of jobs, but then you really AREN'T helping the kids in your classroom. So if we are interested in staying in the classroom, it becomes imperative to set and respect the kind of boundaries that I'm talking about here. Before long, you will see that you are conserving more energy this way and leaving more room for your own sense of peace and self-care.

No time to finish reading?

Click the download button and listen to the audio on the go!

Maintain perspective by viewing your current workload as temporary and changeable.

Another helpful perspective to consider when you feel like you're drowning in your workload and can never do enough to keep up is realizing that everything you are facing right now is temporary. The intensity of the demands can make even a few days feel like an eternity, but taking a step back and remembering that no problem or situation lasts forever can help you muster the energy to keep going.

Practice reminding yourself that the way you feel right now will not last all school year. You cannot look at your current workload and low energy level and start questioning, "How in the world can I keep this up until the end of the year?" Allowing yourself to think this way will deplete whatever little bit of energy you have.

If you want to be able to see the light at the end of the tunnel, avoid the presumption that your current situation is permanent. Resist the urge to assume things will stay this difficult for a long time, because as we know, life is always changing. New challenges will come your way, and old challenges will be resolved.

I can guarantee that you will not be dealing with this exact same set of problems a few months from now - your workload will change, your students will change, and you will change. Some of it will be for the better, and a few things will change for the worse, but it will be DIFFERENT. You will not feel exactly like this every day for the entire school year.

So, practice viewing your challenges and the demands in your life as temporary, as well as changeable. No one has a crystal ball, so most of the time, we don't know for sure if a bad situation is going to be pervasive (keep getting worse), permanent (go on for a long time) or be impossible to change (leaving us hopeless). Pervasive, permanent, and powerless are the hallmarks of a pessimistic outlook on life.

Most pessimists think they're being realistic. But deciding that a situation is hopeless and unbearable is not being realistic. It's simply your perception. If you've never challenged your assumptions about your situation, you'll automatically be convinced that the way you perceive things is factual, when it's actually a result of the way you talk to yourself, and the story you tell yourself about your life.

You may not be able to change your circumstance, but you can change the self-talk that colors everything you see. Challenging pessimistic thought patterns means choosing to see things as they really are, not as they appear to be through the lens of a negative interpretation you've applied.

So avoid making a negative guess, assumption, or prediction about how your situation will go and how long things will be this way. Your perspective will determine whether you feel courageous and accomplished, or discouraged and defeated.

Choose to tell yourself that good things are happening and are worth focusing on, that problems will not last forever, and that your own efforts are making a positive difference. While the pessimist sees setbacks as permanent, pervasive, and powerless, the optimist sees setbacks as temporary, situation-specific, and changeable.

You can even choose to see your current dissatisfaction and overwhelm itself as temporary, situation-specific, and changeable. It's a reality that you're not really loving your job at the moment. That is a fact. But you can choose to interpret your disillusionment as something that you're facing right now - something that won't go on forever, won't continue to spiral and get worse, and most importantly, won't be something that's out of your control.

It's easy to get sucked into pessimistic thinking when you try to take on too much at one time.

You can fight disillusionment by concentrating on one day a time. Resist the urge to worry about how you're doing to balance everything next month, next quarter, or next year. It's impossible to predict how certain problems will improve and which new issues will crop up to take their place, so don't expend too much mental energy on this or start making negative assumptions.

Instead, trust that you'll have the wisdom and the strength for each day as it comes. You will know what to do when each problem arises. Choose to be okay with taking two steps forward and one step back-don't let that discourage you, because even with the setbacks, you'll still come out ahead from where you started.

Summary & Key Takeaways

Be present and recognize the magnitude of your accomplishments, even when it feels like it's not enough.

You'll never get it all done - so save your time and energy for what really matters.

Maintain perspective by viewing your current workload as temporary and changeable.

View your current workload as temporary and changeable: the challenges and demands will always ebb and flow.

You may not be able to change your circumstances, but you can change the way you view them.

If you enjoyed this episode, check out the full set of audio messages in Finally Free: The teacher toolkit for conquering anxiety and overwhelm. You'll get to hear my words of encouragement which you can listen to anytime you're feeling anxious about all the things that need to be done. And, you'll get to hear wonderful teachings from Dan Tricarico - he's a high school teacher in San Diego and the creator of the Zen Teacher Project.

What you just heard or read is the 2nd of 10 modules. We cover freedom from guilt, freedom from perfectionism, freedom from worry over students, freedom from comparison, and much more. You can go through and complete the modules in order like a course, but we were really intentional about calling it a toolkit because we don't want this to be one more thing you feel pressure to do and can't keep up with. The idea is that you can listen to the audio in the toolkit over and over again, whenever you are feeling a specific type of teacher anxiety.

Click below to learn more or get the entire toolkit:
This post is based on the latest episode of my weekly podcast, Angela Watson's Truth for Teachers. A podcast is like a free talk radio show you can listen to online, or download and take with you wherever you go. I release a new short episode each Sunday and feature it here on the blog to help you get energized and motivated for the week ahead. I'd love to hear your thoughts below in the comment section! This episode is brought to you in part by, Peergrade, a platform that makes it easy to facilitate peer review in your classroom. Students review each other's work, while Peergrade takes care of anonymously assigning reviewers and delivering all the relevant insights to teachers. With Peergrade, students learn to think critically and take ownership of their learning. They also learn to write kind and useful feedback for their peers. The best part? Peergrade is free to use for teachers and students. To learn more, visit thecornerstoneforteachers.com/peergrade. See blog posts/transcripts for all episodes Subscribe to the podcast in iTunes Subscribe to the podcast in Google Play

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Navigating teacher anxiety when you're drowning in work

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
This episode of the Truth for Teachers podcast is for educators who struggle with anxiety and feel like you're just drowning in work. You'll find an encouraging audio message you can replay anytime you are feeling anxious.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Ten Promising Practices for Effective Online Teaching

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Ten easy to implement practices for teaching in a fully online environment.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
9 Ways for Educators to Recharge During Win... | ExploreLearning

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
As the holidays unfold, indulge in well-deserved rest! Explore nine rejuvenating ways teachers on winter break can prioritize relaxation this vacation season.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
How to Motivate Students: 12 Classroom Tips & Examples

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Examples of both intrinsic & extrinsic motivation of students in the classroom.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Take Cellphones Out of the Classroom, Educators Say | NEA

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Across the country, a 'teacher-led movement' is demanding new cellphone policies to curb the constant distractions and disruptions to learning.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
As educators, it's important to push the boundaries and try new things in the classroom. Especially towards the middle and end of the school year, students need to be engaged and excited.

When you're a more seasoned teacher, it's much easier to try new and riskier things-you have years of experience to fall back on if things don't go as planned.

Things still go wrong for me all the time. After over a decade I still run into issues when trying new things in the classroom. But these issues should not stop any teacher-new or seasoned-from trying new and innovative things.

Below are some tips when creating or implementing a new idea or lesson plan:

Seek Advice from Other Teachers

While a particular idea or activity may be new to you, it may not be to one of your peers. Check in with other teachers around you to see if they have experience with something similar and can share advice.

If a new lesson or activity does not go exactly as planned, you shouldn't just throw out the entire thing. Evaluate different aspects and determine small potential changes to optimize the activity.

When I taught High School English, I incorporated a unit on public speaking for the first time. My students immediately dreaded speaking in front of their classmates, and the first exercise went terribly. They were all visibly nervous-and while I wanted to prepare my students for the real world (college, interviews, jobs), I wanted to do it in a way that was enjoyable for them.

Instead of scrapping the unit altogether, I modified how we did it. Rather than immediately present in front of their peers, I had each student record their speech on their phone to playback and listen to in class. This gave them the opportunity to practice a few times, if they wanted to, before showing the class. As a class, we could talk about inflection, tone, pace, and more before beginning live speeches. This made the class feel more comfortable and prepared to speak publicly.

Involve Students in the Process

When possible, be honest and upfront with your students. Tell them when you're trying something new, and ask them to help you navigate through the experience as a class. Ask for their input-find out what they liked, what they didn't like, and how they would do it differently.

Getting them involved in the production of a new idea or lesson plan will engage them even further in the activity.

Realize that not everything will go perfectly, especially when trying something new. When something goes wrong or unexpected, relax and remember that you're learning, too. As teachers, we often remind our students to learn from their mistakes, so we should remember to try to take our own advice.

Taking risks as a new teacher may be daunting, but the possibilities are endless. Don't wait to be a veteran teacher to try brand new things-your students will thank you for it!

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Tips for Trying New Things in the Classroom | NEA

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
As educators, it's important to push the boundaries and try new things in the classroom. Especially towards the middle and end of the school year, students need to be engaged and excited. When you're a more seasoned teacher, it's much easier to try new and riskier things-you have years of experience to fall back on if things don't go as planned.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
4 Benefits of Trying New Things in Your Classroom

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
4 Benefits of Trying New Things in Your Classroom Advocacy % %

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Highs and Lows of a Teacher on Instagram: "Anyone else like me? I guess the tests will have to grade themselves 🤷🏻‍♀️ #testsgradeyoself #orgivemeanIA #orgivememoreplanningtime #enjoyyourweekendteachers @highsandlowsofateacher"

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
648 likes, 24 comments - highsandlowsofateacher on February 10, 2018: "Anyone else like me? I guess the tests will have to grade themselves 🤷🏻‍♀️ #testsgradeyoself #orgivemeanIA #orgivememoreplanningtime #enjoyyourweekendteachers @highsandlowsofateacher". 

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.embed_code
View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Highs and Lows of a Teacher (@highsandlowsofateacher)

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.provider_name
The Institute for Arts Integration and STEAM

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
This guide shares activities, organization tips, and tools for making the end of the school year simple and efficient for K-12 teachers and students.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
4 Test-Taking Strategies That Help Students Show What They Know

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
By teaching students to approach test questions critically, you can help them accurately show what they’ve learned and avoid picking wrong answer choices.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
19 Highly Engaging End-of-Year Activities

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Teachers can help students end the year on a high note with activities that remind them how much they’ve learned in class.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
The Four Secrets to Motivating Students (Opinion)

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Giving students the opportunity to choose can be liberating as long as teachers provide the right amount of guidance.

# data[].attributes.headline
Could you identify a gifted and talented student?

# data[].attributes.subject
Could you identify a gifted and talented student?

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
What is Gifted? - Institute for Educational Advancement

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
What is giftedness? Educators, researchers, developmental psychologists, and parents of gifted children alike have found it difficult to answer this seemingly

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Note: This document is not the copy of record and may not exactly replicate the authoritative document published in . When referencing this work please refer to and cite the published article: Siegle, D., & McCoach, D. B. (2005). Making a difference: Motivating gifted students who are not achieving. TEACHING Exceptional Children, 38(1), 22-27.

Gifted students are one group of exceptional learners who are not normally considered at risk for academic failure. We often expect the brightest students to also be the most motivated. Unfortunately, many gifted students seem to lack motivation in school. Watching bright students perform below their potential is a source of frustration for many teachers, parents, and counselors.

Why do some gifted students demonstrate low levels of achievement? There are at least four potential underlying causes for underachievement. First, the apparent underachievement problem may be masking more serious physical, cognitive, or emotional issues, such as a learning disability (Moon & Hall, 1998; Reis & McCoach, 2002). Second, the underachievement may be symptomatic of a mismatch between the student and his or her school environment. Third, the underachievement may result from students' attitudes about themselves and their schooling. Fourth, lack of self-regulation and study skills may hinder some students from achieving academic success. Each of these reasons requires different intervention strategies. Therefore, educators should attempt to isolate the origin of the underachievement. We also recommend that gifted students who are having difficulty with school should be screened for a wide variety of physical, mental, or emotional issues before focusing on motivation problems (Reis & McCoach, 2002; Siegle & McCoach, 2002).

In this article, we focus on four factors that are related to achievement and suggest a variety of strategies that teachers and parents can use to promote motivation and academic success. Students with learning disabilities often exhibit poor academic self-confidence (Baum, 2004; Stone & May, 2002). Further, they benefit from explicit teaching of self-regulation and study strategies (Reis & Ruban, 2004). Therefore, we believe that strategies related to two of the four factors discussed below (self-efficacy and self-regulation) are particularly well-suited for use with high ability students with learning disabilities.

Answering the question, "Why try?"

What motivates a person to put forth effort to accomplish a given task? There are two basic reasons that students engage in a task; either they enjoy the activity or they value the outcome or byproduct of the activity in some way. Some students are not motivated to achieve in school because they do not value the outcomes of school, nor do they enjoy completing schoolwork; therefore, they see little value in completing their schoolwork. To reverse underachievement that stems from an apparent lack of motivation, we must first determine how to build value into a student's scholastic experiences. Consider a Social Studies class that is learning about American government. One student may seek high grades in order to obtain a college scholarship. Another student may be planning to become a lawyer. A third student may have a strong interest in understanding American government and politics. While each of these students is motivated to do well in the Social Studies class, each is valuing it for a different reason.

Utility Value

While students may not enjoy an activity, they may value a reward or outcome it produces (Wigfield, 1994). Students see utility in tasks that are integral to their vision of the future, or instrumental to their pursuit of other goals. Because goals can play a key role in attaining later outcomes, we should help students see beyond the immediate activity to the long-term benefits it produces. Teachers need to be able to answer the common query, "Why do we have to study this?"

Extrinsic motivation involves the drive to receive a reward or positive reinforcement that is external to the activity itself. One way to increase the perceived utility of the task is to positively reinforce students for completing the task. Extrinsic motivators include rewards such as stickers, praise, grades, special privileges, prizes, money, material rewards, adult attention, or peer admiration. However, teachers should use extrinsic motivators carefully, as providing extrinsic rewards for an intrinsically motivating activity may decrease a person's subsequent intrinsic motivation for that activity (Pintrich & Schunk, 1996).

Utility Value Motivation Tips

Educators should explain the purpose for lessons and assignments. At the beginning of every unit, explain why mastering these skills or learning this information is important to 1) help them to meet their own current needs or wants, 2) provide them with social rewards or opportunities for social advancement, or 3) prepare them for occupational or other future successes (Brophy, 1998). Before every lesson, state "why we are learning about this and how it is useful" in one or two sentences.

Teachers can help students set short and long-term academic goals. Small, short-term goals work better for younger students. It is essential that the goals are meaningful to students themselves. Goals that adults value may have little meaning to children.

Educators can help students see beyond the present activity to the long-term benefits it produces. A school assignment may seem unimportant, but acceptance into a prestigious university, a lucrative college scholarship, or a rewarding occupation may be outcomes that students value.

Teachers can invite community members into the classroom. Such individuals can tie school curriculum to their career activities. Parents can also share how they use various skills they learned in school.

Intrinsic Value

Intrinsic value often results from the enjoyment an activity produces for the participant (Wigfield, 1994). When students enjoy scholastic tasks, they are intrinsically motivated to do well. Both interests and personal relevance produce intrinsic value for a student. Generally, students are intrinsically motivated to pursue activities that are moderately novel, interesting, enjoyable, exciting, and optimally challenging. Material that is either too hard or too easy is anti-motivational. When schoolwork is too easy, students become bored. When tasks are too difficult, students become frustrated and anxious (Deci & Ryan, 1985).

Intrinsic Motivation Tips

Teachers can learn about student interests, and integrate these interests into classroom instruction and curriculum.

Whenever possible, teachers should offer students authentic choices about the ways in which students can learn and show mastery of the material in the class. Teachers may want to ask students for ideas about alternative projects or products.

Students are more likely to become engaged with material that is optimally challenging so classroom activities should be appropriate to students' current knowledge and skill levels. Ideally, teachers should deliver instruction that is just above the skill range of the students. The activity should be something that the students can master, but not without effort and appropriate strategy use (Morrone & Schutz, 2000). Ideally, students should be challenged (but not frustrated) by classroom activities.

One reason that computer games are so popular is that immediate feedback enhances the psychological impact of the activity. When possible, teachers should strive to build opportunities for immediate feedback into classroom activities.

To the extent that teachers treat their students as if they already are enthusiastic learners, students will be more likely to become interested in the topic (Brophy, 1998). For example, when introducing a complex topic, teachers can refer to it as "interesting" and "intriguing", rather than as difficult.

Educators can encourage students to think seriously about how their performance in present classes can affect their future goals, as well as to explicitly articulate their reasons for choosing or failing to put forth effort in a class. They can use student responses to the following statements to obtain a more complete picture of a student, which may aid in the formation of more specific school related goals.

1. When I try hard in this class, it's because _________________________.

2. I would spend more time on my schoolwork if _________________________.

3. If I do poorly in this class, then ___________________________________.

4. When I don't try hard in this class, it's because ____________________.

5. I would rather do ___________________ than do my work for this class.

6. Doing well in this class will help me to ________________________.

7. Doing poorly in this class will keep me from ________________________.

8. This class is important because ________________________________.

9. The thing that I am most interested in learning more about is ________________.

10. The most interesting thing that I learned in _______ class is _________________.

Answering the question, "Am I smart enough?"

While valuing a task can be motivating, it is not sufficient to turn that motivation into action. Students must also believe they have the skills to perform a task before they will attempt it. For example, students must believe they are capable in mathematics before they will attempt a difficult math problem. If they believe that mathematics is too difficult, they are unlikely to put forth appropriate effort.

Success Breeds Success

Students' beliefs about how well they can perform are first, and foremost, influenced by how well they have performed in the past. Significant adults in children's lives can increase students' confidence by helping them recognize past accomplishments. In this way, success breeds success. Helping students acknowledge past growth is an important contributor towards their future growth.

Motivation Tips to Recognize Growth

Teachers or parents can videotape students as they are engaged in various activities. By periodically reviewing the recordings, students recognize how much they have improved. A young person who has been taking piano lessons for several years may not feel like he has made any progress. Parents can videotape their child practicing and show it to him six months later. The child will be amazed at how much better he plays. Without viewing the tape, the child might not feel as if he had made any progress during those six months. This technique can be used with any activity where visible progress can be documented.

Educators should keep samples of previous academic work and periodically review students' earlier work with them to show growth and improvement. Students are amazed at how easy their earlier work now appears and how much better they are now able to perform. Student portfolios promote this sort of self-reflection. Students should help select work to include in their portfolios for future review.

Teachers can encourage students to compete with themselves by charting their progress. Most children remember their parents reserving a special spot in their home to mark their height each year. They loved to observe how much they grew. Just as parents chart height, educators can also help children recognize other forms of growth and development. Teachers can record a running list of mastered spelling words or multiplication facts.

Feedback: Attributing Success

The way we compliment students also has an impact on how successful students perceive themselves. Everyone agrees that students should be encouraged to work hard as effort plays a significant role in achievement. However, students also need to believe they have the skills to succeed. The key in complimenting students is to help them recognize that skills are developed, and they have acquired the skills necessary to succeed. The feedback must contain 1) recognition of the talent and 2) attribution of its development to the student.

Dweck (1999) demonstrated that students who believe abilities can be developed and are not fixed are more likely to attempt challenging tasks and persevere through difficulties than students who believe abilities are innate. Students who have a performance orientation approach new situations as opportunities to show what they know. These students tend to believe that abilities are fixed. Therefore, they view any mistakes as evidence they lack ability. In contrast, students who have a mastery orientation view new situations as opportunities to acquire new skills or improve their existing skills. Students with a mastery orientation tend to believe that abilities are malleable, and they are more likely to tackle difficult tasks. Although Dweck found that students already gravitate toward one or the other of these orientations in elementary school, she also found that these orientations are amenable to change.

Gifted students may develop a performance orientation, which may limit their willingness to take academic risks. Gifted students often perceive giftedness as innate, and they may believe they had very little to do with their giftedness. While it is true that gifted students often acquire skills more quickly and easily than their peers, they still gain such skills through learning. They may have taught themselves to read or learned to read easily at an early age, but they still learned to read. It is important for gifted students to recognize that the talents they possess are acquired, and they are capable of further developing these talents.

Gifted students also need to understand that just because they find something difficult does not mean they are not smart. For some students, not trying preserves an image. They do not perceive "not trying" as poor performance. They can always say, "It wasn't important" or "I just rushed through it and didn't do my best." Young people often believe that if they need to work hard at school, then they are not smart. In fact, peers often perceive hard-working students as less intelligent than students who do well in school without making any visible effort.

Attributing success to ability or effort is a fine line to walk. The key is to acknowledge ability while recognizing that effort went into its development. Educators and parents can help students recognize the important role both ability and effort play in talent development. One way to achieve this is through the comments made to children.

Motivation Tips to Encourage Mastery Attribution

Compliment students on the specific skills they have developed by drawing attention to the skill and to its development. This acknowledges the effort without drawing undue attention to it. An example is "You did very well on this math project. You've learned how to solve equations."

Use specific rather than general compliments. A general compliment such as "Good work" doesn't carry the weight of something more specific such as "You have really developed the ability to provide supporting sentences for the topic sentence in your paragraphs." Specific feedback allows students to better appraise their progress by letting them know two things: what specific skill they possess and that they developed it. Both components are necessary. Students will reflect on the comment and think, "Yes, I have learned to write a well organized paragraph."

Of course, compliments must be genuine and earned. Complimenting children for tasks they did not perform well or for unchallenging tasks can be counterproductive and diminish their trust. Overly effusive and too numerous compliments can backfire. The goal should be to help students recognize their developed skill, not to heap undue praise.

Answering the question, "Can I be successful here?"

As was previously discussed, students need to value the task and be confident they have the skills to pursue it. While these two factors are powerful influences on motivation, a third component is necessary. Students must also view their environment as friendly and likely to provide positive outcomes for them. Minimally, successful students must believe that environmental factors such as school personnel, peers, or the curriculum do not prevent them from being successful. Students who possess positive environmental perceptions believe their home and school environments support their efforts. Their perception of the friendliness of their surroundings has an impact on their academic attitude and behavior. Students must expect they will succeed if they put forth effort. Phrases such as "You don't understand" or "I can't learn this way" are strong indicators that students do not view their learning environment as friendly. In other words, they don't believe they can succeed even if they try.

Gifted underachievers often view school negatively (McCoach & Siegle, 2003). They may feel like they do not fit into the system and in some cases, giftedness can actually represent a stigma in school. Rather than appreciating the special gifts and talents these students exhibit, some teachers are threatened by the presence of gifted students in their classroom. Therefore, in some situations, low motivation may represent a coping strategy, whereby students strive to adapt to an anti-intellectual school environment (Cross, 1997). In addition, classroom activities or the curriculum may not be appropriate for gifted students. Students may already have mastered much of the material that is being covered, rendering them bored and disengaged (Plucker and McIntire, 1996).

Students' perception of the friendliness of the environment may or may not be accurate. The first step is to determine whether students' perceptions are accurate. If they are, then changes need to be made in the environment. Research indicates that the person being asked to change must be involved in the process (Emerick, 1992). Therefore, the student should be consulted about how to rectify the environment. For example, if a child feels it is too noisy to study at home, adults can ask what needs to be done to make it quieter. It may be as simple as asking, "What would it take for you to do well here?" It is important that students be involved in helping find solutions to the environmental roadblocks they perceive for two reasons. First it enhances their sense of internal control. Second, it lets them know that something will be changing.

Environmental perceptions go beyond the classroom. Cultural and economic factors may also limit students' opportunities. Students' perceptions about the fairness of "the system" or of society in general may impact their motivation. Steele (2000) reported that students may have difficulty trusting the environment, and their achievement may be less influenced by their perceived abilities than their perception of the fairness of the environment.

Motivation Tips to Enhance Environmental Perceptions

Educators and parents can discuss with students the obstacles they believe are keeping them from doing well and what options exist for them. This includes a discussion of what is within the students' control as well as what is beyond their control. Teaching students to appreciate multiple view-points should be part of the discussion. Educators and parents can help students understand when it is important "to stand their ground," when compromise might better serve their interests, or when ignoring the situation is the best course of action.

· Educators should avoid letting students use their environment as an excuse. At times, young people may attribute their failures to their environment rather than to themselves. When this occurs, a technique such as active listening may help resolve students' concerns (Pickering, 1986).

Answering the question, "How do I put it all together?"

Many gifted students may lack self-management strategies such as time management and study skills. Because gifted students often progress through the early years of school without being challenged, they sometimes fail to develop the self-management skills that other students master. In the early grades, good memory and fast processing skills can compensate for note taking and other study skills. Often, educators attempt to teach students study skills before students need those skills to be successful. This process usually frustrates both the teachers and the students. Students are more likely to internalize self-regulatory skills when they need the skills to solve the problem at hand. Providing gifted students with an academically challenging curriculum early and throughout their school careers promotes opportunities for developing self-management skills.

Motivation Tips to Promote Study Skills

If students are not being academically challenged, teachers should encourage them to explore opportunities to interact with more challenging and interesting material. Curriculum compacting (Reis, Burns, & Renzulli, 1992), an effective process to use with gifted students, provides a way to give students credit for their knowledge and skills and buys time to pursue more challenging content. Pretesting or preassessing students allows teachers to evaluate what students already know about the material they are about to cover in class and to ensure that students have the prerequisite skills and knowledge to be successful in the upcoming unit. An ideal pretest includes questions that all students should have mastered as well as questions that, if answered correctly, indicate mastery of upcoming instructional objectives. Teachers can use students' pretest results to provide instruction that is optimally matched to students' level of mastery. If students have already mastered an instructional objective, allow them time to pursue interest based enrichment opportunities, rather than giving them "more of the same."

Teachers should evaluate what study skills are needed to be successful. A word of caution: teaching study skills to gifted and talented students before they really need them can be counter-productive. Some common study skills include note taking, outlining, and using memory mnemonics.

Teachers and parents can help students organize their work and study time. Greene (2001) recommends students create a homework book to record upcoming assignments, projects, tests, and events. Students can use color coded folders or binders. Organizing all handouts and papers in chronological order in subject notebooks may also be helpful. Students can create reminder checklists, one called "at school" and one "at home." Students should pack their book bag each night before they go to bed, making sure they include all of their homework and keep the bookbag in the same place every night. This makes it easier to later remember forgotten items and eases the morning rush.

Some gifted students lack self-monitoring skills. These skills include monitoring distractibility, practicing delayed gratification, and awareness of performance avoidance. The Premack principle (also known as "Grandma's rule") suggests using a more preferred activity as a reward for a less preferred activity. Someone may enjoy exercising, but not writing. Therefore, he exercises only after he has written a preset number of pages. Parents often mistakenly reverse Premack's principle, which renders it ineffective. "Okay, I'll let you watch 30 minutes of television and then you need to start your homework" does not work as well as "As soon as you finish your homework you may watch some television."

Students with a performance orientation, which was described earlier, may demonstrate performance avoidance. Such students are motivated by generous reinforcement for success as well as detailed instructions with specific grading criteria.

Motivation Tips for Self-Regulation

Educators and parents can help students plan school work tasks. This serves two functions. First, it develops a mindset that the task is doable. Young people are often reluctant to begin a task because they are unsure how to begin. Second, it minimizes the unknown. Through planning, students can visualize a task coming to fruition.

Teachers and parents can teach students to set short-term attainable goals and reward themselves once they are completed. This includes learning to withhold the reward if the task is not completed. For example, a student might reward herself with a half-hour of conversation on the phone with a friend after reading a Social Studies chapter.

When working with performance avoidant students, teachers should provide detailed assignment instructions and include an evaluation rubric when appropriate. Larger tasks should be divided into smaller tasks and the student's performance at each step should be recognized.

Educators and parents can help students set realistic expectations. This involves setting goals that are difficult enough to be challenging, yet not so difficult as to be unachievable and discouraging.

Final Thoughts

Educators and parents should support students and encourage them to pursue their interests and passions. In addition, adults can help students to see that what they are doing serves a purpose, to believe they have the skills to perform well, to trust their environment will encourage their productivity, and to set realistic expectations for themselves. Early encouragement of these behaviors will help young people lead productive and fulfilling lives.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Making a Difference: Motivating Gifted Students Who Are Not Achieving | Renzulli Center for Creativity, Gifted Education, and Talent Development

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Del Siegle D. Betsy McCoach Note: This document is not the copy of record and may not exactly replicate the authoritative document published in TEACHING Exceptional Children. When referencing this work please refer to and cite the published article: Siegle, D., & McCoach, D. B. (2005). Makin ...