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This site give tips and also provides materials, to bring current events into the classroom, helping the adults bring thins like politics to a more child friendly level.

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Teachers' #1 Choice for Current, On-Level Nonfiction

Over 6 million students read Scholastic News every week! See why so many teachers rely on this exceptional magazine to engage their students, build nonfiction-reading skills, and increase content-area knowledge.

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Teach current events in your elementary classroom, grades 1-6.

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A site that provides mathematical games to make everyone's favorite subject fun!

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National Library of Virtual Manipulatives

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A digital library containing Java applets and activities for K-12 mathematics

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Little hints and tips, as well as activities to help a teacher start their day on a positive note.

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This helps teachers of the younger students find projects and crafts to boost the attention of the children.

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For decades, Crayola has partnered with educators to bring creativity to the classroom. We've learned that creative teaching helps all students make their thinking visible. Crayola provides educational resources for students, educators, and families. Together, we can transform learning and build engagement, collaboration, and creativity.

Sign up for our e-Newsletter!

Be in the know! Hear about colorful learning events and new teaching ideas as soon as they are announced. Receive monthly emails from Crayola Education for creative learning inspiration, colorful project ideas, animated micro-learning videos, upcoming events, and much more. Just select 'Education' as your email preference!

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Upcoming Learning Events

Prepare students for the world they face today and that they will lead tomorrow! Crayola Education equips teachers, students, and families with the tools they need to infuse creative experiences into learning. Explore our upcoming creative learning events including free webinars, Read Along, Draw Along™ and Creative Spa for Teachers™ events, micro-learning videos, and more!

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Projects & Lesson Plans

Explore thousands of curriculum-connected lesson plans that support and extend instruction for all grades. Each lesson plan is educator-developed and includes classroom-ready directions, a list of needed supplies, standards alignments, and images to help guide your lesson planning. This collection of lesson plans online grows continually and always inspires new teaching and learning excitement.

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Products for the Classroom

Inspire and engage every student with colorful Crayola products that will inspire creative learning in the classroom (or at home)! Be sure to check back soon for fun tips on how to use these products to teach or learn ANY subject.

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Learning Videos

Missed an event? Looking for a resource you watched, loved, and now want to share with your students? Access our full collection of videos to support children's learning through creativity! Whether you want to focus on literacy, kindness, space, the ocean, coding, history, or even music⁠-there's sure to be a video for you!

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online professional development for teachers

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Browse Crayola Education resources for teaching strategies, lesson planning, and creative learning ideas. Educators & teachers can access teaching tools, plus get teacher professional development tactics.

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Tools that allow you to construct your own learning ecosystem all at the push of a button! From quizzes to flashcards

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Growth through Learning

Delivering better digital learning experiences - Create, Discover & Share relevant learning content

Tools to Build Knowledge

An integrated suite of content creation tools for each step of the learning journey

What our members say ...

I love the creativity GoConqr allows me to tap into! We use the GoConqr tools to prepare clients for the PHR and SPHR qualifications. The mind maps are especially helpful in breaking down objectives to create a visual learning guide!

Sandra M. Reed, HR & Management Consultant, US

I'm convinced GoConqr contributed greatly to our excellent AS results which were our best ever - I couldn't recommend it highly enough to other teachers.

David Bayne, Teacher, UK

GoConqr is a simple tool that allows you to create beautiful‚ fun and engaging exercises. My students and I are absolutely fans!

Clarisse Thoelen, Teacher, Belgium

GoConqr is an exceptional tool for anyone studying for Professional Qualifications.

Letícia Nobre Coaching Professional, Brazil

GoConqr helps me easily share my experiences and knowledge with the different members of my team. All the different tools are really interesting, especially Courses, which offer a great range of learning variety.

Isidro Esparza, Commercial & Marketing Director, Spain

I use GoConqr to summarize lots of information and create quick courses through the different tailored tools. I highly recommend it because it's such an useful tool where you can access easily and design and distribute different strategy plans.

Eduar Guzman, CEO, Colombia

I use GoConqr to plan my lessons, as it is very easy to use and user-friendly. The tools to create Resources are excellent. I recommend it to all teachers and students.

Luis Miguel Espino, Teacher, Peru

Excellent tool that allows me to organize and share ideas! I've been using it to develop learning content related to Problem Based Learning in the Virtual Learning Environment of the Military Fire Brigade in Santa Catarina.

Anderson Sarte, Fire Brigade Captain, Brazil

GoConqr is ideal for creating e-learning activities for students. Fun exercises are easily created without any programming skills. A great program that is easy to use.

Ulrike Renauer, Teacher, Austria

When using GoConqr to revise for my summer exams, I found the Mind Maps helpful. It's a great online application - I will definitely suggest to all my friends!

Katie McAllister, Student, UK

GoConqr has been indispensable for my teaching practice. The complete suite of applications on offer are individually brilliant and collectively make up a considerable armory of teaching resources. It is a brilliant educational resource truly fit for the 21st century.

John O'Driscoll, Teacher, Ireland

Using GoConqr has been a great part of my studying life and has made it so much easier! The user-friendly Flashcards tool has enabled me to achieve higher grades than ever before, and I am greatly appreciative that this website exists. Thank you GoConqr!

Kaitlyn Schrauwen, Student, Canada

GoConqr is a great tool for creating varied content for iPad classes. It also gives students quick feedback on exercises.

Kai Wörner, Teacher, Germany

I use Mind Maps for the Krebs Cycle and Photosynthesis for my biochemistry course, and never before could I visualize the entire pathway with just one look!

Sean Lim, Student, US

It takes a lot of work to create mind maps on paper between drawing and coloring them. But with GoConqr it's so quick and easy to put together effective study schemes and work plans.

Andrea Higashi, Teacher, Brazil

The Quizzes tool is the best one I have found on the Internet. Since I have started using Flashcards with my students their grades have improved significantly.

Pilar López, Teacher, Spain

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GoConqr is a personal learning environment that allows students & teachers to create, discover and share learning resources. Transform your learning and achieve your goals with GoConqr

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This is a place where teachers can find new and exciting idea's to engage their students.

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Whooo's Reading is a higher-level thinking alternative to multiple choice. Get your students writing about what they read. Re-associate reading with joy.

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A piece from Pearson that helps teachers create an enviroment that will assist in fostering a positive active student body.

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Motivating students is one of the major challenges teachers face on a daily basis. Conceptualized as students' energy and drive to engage, learn, work effectively, and achieve their potential at school, motivation and engagement play a large role in students' interest and enjoyment of school (Martin, 2006). Understandably, both also play huge roles in academic achievement (Martin, 2001; Martin & Marsh, 2003). Consequently, those students who are motivated by and engaged in learning tend to perform considerably higher academically and are better behaved than unmotivated and un-engaged peers (Fredricks, Bulumenfeld, & Paris, 2004).

While much motivation is intrinsic to the student, teachers also play a vital role in the motivation and engagement of their students. A significant portion of student engagement and achievement has been explained by teacher- and classroom-level variables (Hill & Rowe, 1996). Therefore, the purpose of this article is to briefly discuss the importance of motivation and engagement on student learning and behavior, the role teachers play in motivating and engaging students, and suggestions for doing so.

Student Engagement and Motivation: Impact on Learning and Behavior

Student engagement, described as the tendency to be behaviorally, emotionally, and cognitively involved in academic activities, is a key construct in motivation research (Thijs & Verkuyten, 2009). Consequently, compared to less engaged peers, engaged students demonstrate more effort, experience more positive emotions and pay more attention in the classroom (Fredricks, Blumenfeld, & Paris, 2004). Further, engagement has also been associated with positive student outcomes, including higher grades and decreased dropouts (Connell, Spencer, & Aber, 1994).

Teachers' Impact on Student Engagement and Motivation

Teachers play a vital role in their students' engagement and motivation (Hill & Rowe, 1996). Although much is intrinsic to the student, research has found that teacher's play a vital role on their students' motivation and engagement. Specifically, Martin (2006) found that a teacher's enjoyment and confidence in teaching, pedagogical efficacy, and affective orientations in the classroom have a positive impact on student engagement and motivation.

According to Bandura (1997), confidence is akin to self-efficacy. Those teachers who are confident, or self-efficient have demonstrated: a) the ability to generate and test alternative courses of action when initial success is not met; b) enhanced functioning through elevated levels of effort and persistence; and c) enhanced ability to deal with a problem situation by influencing cognitive and emotional processes related to the situation (Martin, 2006). Conversely, according to Bandura (1997) teachers with low confidence tend to dwell on their deficiencies and view situations as more difficult than they really are. Inadvertently, teachers high in confidence (self-efficacy) are more likely to engage in pedagogy that is characterized by positive, proactive, and solution-focused orientations, resulting in increased student motivation and engagement.

Teachers' enjoyment of and confidence in teaching have been shown to positively impact their affective orientation towards their students (e.g., positive student-teacher relationships); resulting in increased student motivation and engagement. Teven and McCroskey (1997) found that students who believe their teacher is caring also believe they learn more. Further, positive relationships with teachers predict enhanced social, cognitive, and language development in younger children (Kontos & Wilcox-Herzog, 1997). According to Flink, Boggiano, and Barrett (1990) those teachers who support a student's autonomy tend to facilitate greater motivation, curiosity, and desire to be challenged. Finally, positive relationships with teachers are associated with emotional, cognitive, and behavioral engagement in the class (Connell & Wellborn, 1991).

Tips for Enhancing Student Engagement and Motivation

The following tips are provided in an effort to provide teachers with suggestions on how they might proactively begin the school year in an effort to improve and cultivate student motivation and engagement.

Recognize and enhance one's mental and physical stability. Teaching is a stressful job, and it is imperative that teachers take care of their mental and physical selves. Teachers should engage in activities that are relaxing and physically challenging. Having an outlet to alleviate stress will radiate within the classroom and positively enhance student-teacher relationships. When teachers feel good about themselves, they have more patience for and better interaction with students. Possible outlets for stress include: yoga, running, work-outs with weights, healthy eating, dance, biking, or meditation.

Ensure the classroom environment is welcoming to students from all cultures. To be engaged, students need to feel that they are in an environment where they are accepted and affirmed. Ensure the classroom is warm and inviting to all.

Enhance students' self-belief. Research shows that students engage when they act as their own learning agents working to achieve goals important to them. They must believe they can learn and know how to deal with failures and learn from those experiences. Incorporate problem-solving activities and provide discussions when failures occur. Allow students control over learning. This helps them develop confidence and commitment to learning.

Survey students to obtain information about their likes and dislikes. Understanding what students like and dislike will provide suggested areas in which teachers can connect with the student (e.g., favorite books, movies, video games). Information collected from the survey can be utilized as a motivator for academic and behavioral engagement or as a means of building rapport with the student (e.g., a topic for conversing).

Allow students to work autonomously, enjoy learning relationships with peers, and feel they are competent to reach their goals. Allowing students to work autonomously and with others, developing their sense of competence, results in increased student motivation. This focuses on the cultivation of intrinsic motivation, which fosters self-determination that leads to engagement.

Create learning opportunities that are active, collaborative, and promote learning relationships.Â Active learning in groups, peer relationships, and social skills are key components to engagement and motivation.

Create educational experiences for students that are challenging and enriching and that extend their academic abilities. Easy learning activities and assignments are not as effective at engaging students as activities and assignments that challenge them. When students are reflecting, questioning, conjecturing, evaluating, and making connections between ideas, they are engaged. Teachers must create rich educational experiences that challenge students' ideas and stretch them as far as they can go (Zepke & Leach, 2010).

Recognize that teaching and teachers are central to student engagement. Keeping up with the educational research through involvement in professional development activities (reading journals, attending workshops or webinars, etc) is key for teachers to remain current in the field using effective, research-based strategies, and techniques.

Motivating students and encouraging engagement is not an easy feat for teachers. While much of the motivation is intrinsic to the student, teachers play a vital role and can be proactive in cultivating student engagement. Increased student engagement and motivation is key to academic and behavioral success.

About the Author

Tammy L. Stephens, Ph.D., is a former assessment consultant for Pearson. Prior to working at Pearson, Dr. Stephens worked as a special education teacher (working with students with emotional/behavioral disorders), an educational diagnostician, and an assistant professor at Texas Woman's University. Dr. Stephens has presented on issues related to assessment and intervention at the local, state, national, and international levels. She is also published in several books and educational journals.

References

Bandura, A. (1997). Self-efficacy: The exercise of control. New York: Freeman & Co.

Connell, J., Spencer, M., & Aber, J. (1994). Educational risk and resilience in African-American youth: Context, self, action, and outcomes in school. Child Development, 65, 493-506.

Connell, J., & Wellborn, J. (1991). Competence, autonomy, and relatedness: A motivational analysis of self-system processes. In M. R. Gunnar, & L. A. Sroufe (Eds.), Self process in development: Minnesota Symposium of Child Psychology (Vol 29. pp. 244-254). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Fredericks, J., Blumenfeld, P., & Paris, A. (2004). School engagement: Potential of the concepts, state of the evidence. Review of Educational Research, 74, 59-109.

Hill, P., & Rowe, K. (1996). Multilevel modeling in school effectiveness research. School Effectiveness and School Improvement, 7, 1-34.

Kontos, S., & Wilcox-Herzog, A. (1997). Influences on children's competence in early childhood classrooms. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 12, 247-262.

Martin, A. (2006). The relationship between teachers' perceptions of student motivation and engagement and teachers' enjoyment of and confidence in teaching. Asia-Pacific Journal of Teacher Education, 34(1), 73-93.

Martin, A. (2001). The student motivation scale: A tool for measuring and enhancing motivation. Australian Journal of Guidance and Counseling, 11, 1-20.

Martin, A., & Marsh, H. (2003). Fear of failure: Friend or foe? Australian Psychologist, 38, 31-38.

Teven, J., & McCroskey, J. (1997). The relationship of perceived teacher caring with student learning and teacher evaluation. Communication Education, 46, 1-9.

Thijs, J., & Verkuyten, M. (2009). Students' anticipated situational engagement: The roles of teacher behavior, personal engagement, and gender. The Journal of Genetic Psychology, 170(3), 268-286.

Zepke, N., & Leach, L. (2010). Improving student engagement: Ten proposals for action. Active Learning in Higher Education, 11(3), 167-177.

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Tammy L. Stephens, Ph.D., Guest Author, Review360 Pearson

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Encouraging Positive Student Engagement and Motivation: Tips for Teachers | Pearson Blog

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Motivating students is one of the major challenges teachers face on a daily basis. Conceptualized as students' energy and drive to engage, learn, work effectively, and achieve their potential at school, motivation and engagement play a large role in students' interest and enjoyment of school (Martin, 2006).

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A short slide show to assist teachers in motivational skills, how to motivate a classroom

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Annai vailankanni arts and science college, thanjavur.

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motivation skills for teachers. it will help to the young teachers for success in the field of education and training. it gives the student engagement,motivati...

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Everyone loves puzzles! This allows a teacher to create their own specialized puzzles then they can give them to the students as homework - fun and educational!

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Puzzlemaker: Game Based Learning | Discovery Education

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Discovery Education helps incorporate game-based learning into the classroom with puzzlemaker. Create a new puzzle now!

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A wonderful site that provides games, puzzles, and quizzes (and so much more) that will engage the students in learning.

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Flow Chart Games - Science, Social Studies, History and Geography

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Learn with flow chart games on science, social studies, history and geography for K-12 school kids.