Young people need to be engaged in meaningful, relevant, and authentic activities. They need positive, supportive, and enthusiastic models. What motivates you and your students?

Real world projects that reach outside the classroom are motivating for students. Go to Teacher Tap: Contests for ideas such as the student video projects at Schoolhouse Video. Considering joining global project:

• Ongoing Projects
  • Flat Stanley
  • Iditarod
  • Journey North
  • KidProj
  • Kids-Learn
  • Kids Space
  • Global Grocery List
  • Global School Net Project Registry
• Contests
  • Scholastic Contests
  • Young Naturalist Awards from the American Museum of Natural History
  • Random House Contests
  • Scholastic Contests - Instructor, Kids Are Authors, Write It
• Media and Technology Fairs
  • CyberFair
  • Indiana Media Fair
  • ThinkQuest
• Publishing Online
  • Scholastic
• Subject Area Fair Ideas
  • Science Fair Central
  • History Fairs - Canada
• Directories
• Google - Writing Contests - teens and adults
• Yahooligans - Contests - kids

Examine the many online projects at Kids-Learn such as Beautiful Spring, Beautiful Earth. In this project, students read books, explore websites, and participate in a variety of activities. Teachers share the work of their students as part of the project. For example, one class read Under One Rock: Bugs, Slugs, and Other Ughs by Anthony D. Fredericks, then created poems, visuals, and concepts maps about insects.

Also, explore science projects at Exploravision. Many states such as Indiana have media fairs. Watch three award winning claymations at Bob the Lightbulb.

Do a google search for contests.

Create Your Own Collaborative Project

Participate in the wikipedia project. Try Wikijunior to show kids how to participate in wiki projects. You could even create your own WikiBook.

Create a wiki for your classes to explore. Try using pbwiki. Check out the Teasdale and ecollaborate examples.

Try It!
Explore online opportunities. Join a project for next year. Explore The Wright 3 wiki. Add to the Day Drives wiki. Create your own at wikispaces. Be sure to go to the teacher page to register for a free account.

Motivation Essential
“I’m motivated to learn.”

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