In a mere three days our students have jumped from 1000 IXL problems to 5000! When our school was planning a remote learning website for students, I began to ponder what content would be pushed out. I knew it would have something organized by subject, using the tools available to us.
Wondering about the content took a back seat when I started to ask a much bigger question. How do we motivate kids at home to go to the remote learning website and what best pedagogical practices can I employ to get them there while working from home? This question plagued me for the rest of the night.
At 4 AM I woke up with an epiphany! Educators get motivated by badges, so would students do the same thing? Could a badge be my dangling carrot as Daniel Pink so passionately discussed in his TED Talk, The Puzzle of Motivation? I began to work on a badging template for a remote learning site I had yet to see. Calling a student was also helpful, and we worked together to create a badging program to go along with the remote learning website. When the website was released the student and I figured I could paste in the content to go along with the badges. Having a student help assured me this would be in student friendly language, so parent support would be at a minimum once kids started going through it.
After the site was released, I emailed out directions to families. They could continue going on doing their own enrichment and engagement. They could peruse the Remote Learning Site, choosing activities at their leisure, or students could choose the badge challenge. I planned to make the badges as students earned them in Google Draw. Badges were then emailed home to the parent and student, with feedback about his or her work. Feedback and reflection continue to be an important part of our learning process, even in a virtual classroom.
An announcement of badges was also made in Google Classroom, encouraging other kids to check it out. I kept track of their badges in a Google Sheet. I check each night to see what students accomplished. It provided me another avenue to communicate to home and build connections with families.
Half the class has been working on badges for a week! I emailed individual students yesterday morning, encouraging those who had not yet started to check it out. As educators we need to think about how to motivate all our students, remembering pedagogical strategies for student success.
*If you would like to use the badge program or want the badges find me on Twitter and connect to me there!*
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