Motivation in middle school

Internal motivation is elusive and variable. Teachers are often charged with the overwhelming, and I feel unrealistic, task of developing internal motivation in all of their students. Of course we all want our students to love learning and enjoy coming to our class. We use 'hooks' and KWL charts to connect with their interests. But what do you do in middle school classroom when young people are developing their identity and look for approval from their peers?

One strategy I found useful was to have students fill out a Google Forms survey asking them about their interests and social networks. I like using google forms at the beginning of a semester to gather some information and let students share in a format in which they are already comfortable.  I discovered that my students' interests ranged from snowboarding to drawing, listening to music to playing video games.

Based on this information, I chose a sports-related video to introduce a topic. The 'sporty' students were totally engaged, even offering to research a specific fact. However, another student put her head down because she had "no interest in the topic" and other students gave me blank looks when I asked them a question. What to do then? After the discussion, I had students begin working on their individual projects. With my prior knowledge, I was able to go over to the student who had put her head down and let her know that she could make her project all about music. That set her off and running. She was excited to do research, successfully completed her web map, and was certainly internally motivated. (On the other hand, the 'sporty' students who earlier showed a lot of enthusiasm, struggled greatly with independent work).

Lesson learned? You can't please everyone all the time, and frankly, we teachers shouldn't have to. I like this article which suggests that, sometimes, it's just about getting the work done. Students don't always have to be creating the most unique/best/innovative work. Yes, we should keep our expectations high and support students to achieve their goals. But we also need to feel okay about 'good enough' and not get burned out from the constant strive for perfection.