Engagement and Motivation
Editor’s Note
Only when students feel engaged socially and academically can teachers and schools lay the groundwork for motivating achievement. The articles below explore a variety of approaches to helping students develop the skills, attitudes, and relationships that undergird success in learning.—N.W.
By H. RICHARD MILNER IV
In theory and rhetoric, the notion that teachers must build relationships with students is logical and well accepted. In my work in schools, I rarely, if ever, hear practitioners contest the idea that relationship building is a critical aspect to their success with students in any classroom or school. Continue
Innovative programs use technology to expand access to the arts
By PATTI HARTIGAN
Monika Aldarondo is sitting in an office at the Boston Arts Academy (BAA) untangling scraps of brilliantly colored fabric that her students dyed to make banners for the school’s annual Africa Lives! exhibition. “I love old media,’’ the visual arts teacher says, snipping stray threads as she unravels the cloth. Continue
Competition drives federal ed reforms at every level
By DAVID MCKAY WILSON
When Arne Duncan was Chicago schools chief, he welcomed a research project that paid students to earn good grades, believing that monetary incentives would keep teens in school.
Now as U.S. Secretary of Education, Duncan has deployed monetary incentives on a broader scale... Continue
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