On Nov. 10, I worked with Ka'elepulu School in Kailua, HI. We dug into student motivation and considered how to lean into intrinsic motivators (autonomy, competence, belonging, purpose, curiosity, and fun) and away from extrinsic ones (tickets, points, prizes, grades, etc.).

We can design writing rubrics with intrinsic motivation in mind.

Let's be careful not to diminish kids' self-motivation for writing through rubrics that use extrinsic motivators.

Kids will be more motivated to write when writing helps them meet basic psychological needs.

Here's the conclusion from What We Say and How We Say It Matter (amazon.com/dp/1416627049/). It's a good reminder as we head into the school year.

Just had this comment posted in one of my online classes. I see this kind of reflection a lot. It's so true. We don't mean to demotivate with incentives, but that's just what happens in the long run.

What a blast yesterday! I got to teach a half-day workshop (Hugging Porcupines: How to Build Relationships with Kids Who Have Challenging Behaviors) to paraeducators from across southern NH. Here is a contingent from Manchester!

Could rewards and incentive systems make kids more self-centered? What if we spent more time teaching higher-level values? leadinggreatlearning.com/what-about-k...

Here's a great idea from a teacher taking one of my online courses.

I had such a blast presenting at The Learning & the Brain conference in Boston a couple of weeks ago. This conference always draws such engaged educators from all over the world. My sessions were Teaching SEL Through Literacy and Hugging Porcupines.