SMC - Spring 2018
from apathy to engagement
Please note: This cohort is closed. Click here to navigate to the most recent cohort.
Here are a couple questions I've been receiving:
- Do you plan to offer the course again? Yes -- likely in June of this year.
- Will conditions for registration be the same? Probably not. I do not know if subsequent sessions will include live Q&As, a free and signed copy of my upcoming book, or the same low price. I need to see how it goes before firming up those details.
If you have any other questions, email me: dave_at_davestuartjr.com.
What would it be like if, every time you asked your students to do something, they
A) all did it, and
B) did it with care, engagement, and effort?
How much more energy, peace, and fulfillment would you have? What greater things would your classroom amount to?
Whether I'm talking to a colleague in my hallway or a group of teachers in a PD workshop across the USA, there's one problem we educators tend to have in common. This problem transcends grade level, socioeconomic status, school type, and subject area. It's simply this:
How do we help all of our students care enough to do the work and do it as best they can?
I've spent the past five years of my teaching career reading, experimenting, and interviewing experts about what lies at the heart of student motivation. In the Student Motivation Course, I've put together what I hope to be a definitive answer to this problem, condensed into over 35 bite-sized videos of 10 minutes or less. I get the busy schedule thing -- as a classroom teacher, I have one.
This course is built on the evidence-informed premise that, in order for our students to flourish long-term, they need to be motivated from the inside-out. Toward that goal, the Student Motivation Course explores the five key beliefs underlying student motivation:
- Credibility: I have a good teacher.
- Belonging: People like me belong in classes like this.
- Effort: I can improve my knowledge and skills through effort.
- Efficacy: I can succeed at the challenges this class presents.
- Value: This work matters to me.
The ideas taught inside the Student Motivation Course form the foundational chapter of my forthcoming book from Corwin Literacy, These Six Things: A Focused Approach to Long-Term Flourishing In and Beyond the Classroom. And, oh yeah, I almost forgot -- you get a signed copy of that book with your registration for the course, free of charge. The cost is already built in.
"At a recent inservice, we visited with our small staff and I expressed how in the recent weeks, thinking about these five key beliefs has changed my attitude toward students and alleviated some of my ire. Unlike most inservices, these beliefs touched all teachers. Even the Pre-K teachers and coaches, who often feel as if inservices are not applicable to them, said that it made a difference and was greatly needed. "
- April Boatright, English/History teacher, Oklahoma
How the course works
- WATCH: Five days a week (starting March 19, 2018), I release a video lesson of 2-10 minutes in length. You have access to the videos for life, so if you can't keep up with that every weekday schedule, it's all good -- get caught up on the weekends, or do a binge session during the spring break, or get caught up next school year. In total, you watch 35+ short videos of me delivering targeted, actionable content related to student motivation.
- ANSWER: Each video lesson includes a Reflective Application prompt to guide your thinking, process the lesson's content, and make tweaks to your daily work. I recommend answering these in the comments section of each lesson, but you can also respond to the questions in a personal journal or, should you choose to enroll in the course with a friend or a group, during periodic in-person meetings.
- CONNECT: Like I said, every video lesson includes a digital comments section, and I'm positive that this will become the richest aspect of the course. If only you could see how smart and earnest and resourceful the colleagues are who read my blog -- I get smart, earnest emails from readers every day. That's the collegial power I expect to see unleashed in comments.
And, as a bonus for this inaugural offering of the SMC, I'm also going to hold 7 weekly, live Q&As where I'll answer questions from course participants that have been submitted throughout the week. These live sessions will be recorded and stored in the course for you to access, whenever you'd like, for life. (Assuming that our lives don't intersect with some kind of Internet apocalypse, that is.)
Taught by a teacher who's researched and tested these ideas for years.
Hi there, I'm Dave Stuart Jr., the creator of the Student Motivation Course.
I'm a classroom teacher who has spent years reading, researching, and experimenting on the topic of student motivation. For thousands of hours, my burning question has been like yours: How do I get my students to do more work, with more care and less stress? This course is a culmination of that work.
Here is a bit about me:
I'm a husband and father, and I take these roles very seriously. (In other words, teaching is not my whole life.)
Over 35,000 people read my articles each month.
Over 10,000 educators in 25 different states have heard me speak about my work at various workshops, conferences, and keynotes.
My bestselling book, These 6 Things, is read by teaching teams and schools around the world.
I am animated by a simple belief: all students and teachers should flourish.
This course is closed for enrollment.
What's in the Course?
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Start1.1: The "So What" of Student Motivation (3:53)
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Start1.2: The Five Key Beliefs Underlying Student Motivation (7:25)
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Start1.3: Getting Practical: The Magic Wand Thought Experiment (5:46)
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Start1.4: Interventional Approaches to Belief Cultivation (4:56)
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Start1.5: Contextual Approaches to Belief Cultivation (4:47)
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Start1.6: What the Beliefs Are and Aren't (7:41)
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Start1.7: 10 Ways to Stay Motivated as You Work on Student Motivation (7:09)
Who's the course for?
In the lead-up to registration, I've been getting great questions like this: Who's the course for? Is this going to be relevant to elementary educators? How about principals, or teacher education professors?
Here's my answer: like all learning, the course is going to yield its greatest rewards to those who put the most in. It's likely, then, that since you're taking the time to read this, it could very well be for you.
Listen: I've never been a principal, and I've only taught grades 6-12, so in the course I won't inauthentically share stories about how I know from experience that this applies to ed leadership or teacher preparation or teaching third grade. But:
- I've taught in a range of classroom settings. I've been in an urban, under-resourced school teaching classes exclusively for "accelerated" (i.e., not doing well enough on state tests) learners, and I'm currently in a rural, majority free/reduced lunch high school. Each year I teach "GT" kids, "at-risk" kids, kids with anxiety disorders, kids terrified of failure, kids who coast, kids with tough home lives... you get the idea. Specifically, my time this year is split between teaching history in an "at-risk" ninth grade academy and teaching AP World History exclusively to about 30% of our entire ninth grade class. (In other words, it's not a selective AP program.) This range of experience deeply informs my work.
- I've led PD in a broad range of schools and to a broad range of educators -- PK to college, tiny towns in rural CA to charter school systems in major urban centers. When required, I've found ways to make literacy PD applicable to people who teach mathematics or orchestra or chemistry or career tech. My approach to PD on any topic is rooted in these prior PD experiences.
- I've chosen this topic -- student motivation via the five key beliefs -- because, of all the things I write about, this is the most widely, universally relevant. The key beliefs help me better understand and improve not just my students' motivation, but also my own, my colleagues', and my own kids'. The more I study the research underlying the beliefs, the more I see applications anywhere that humans are present.
- And finally, I'm the type of professional learner who actually prefers learning from people who don't do the same job as me. The most formative book of my undergraduate years was There Are No Shortcuts by Rafe Esquith, a 5th grade teacher in LA. The book that led me to pop-up debates was Clueless in Academe, a book written about higher learning by Gerald Graff, a former president of the Modern Language Association. The book that got my kids talking in class every day was Engaging Mathematics Students in Using Cooperative Learning, by John Strebe, a math teacher.
In short, if you want this course to be for you, if the five beliefs I've been talking about resonate, then I think the course is going to equip you, encourage you, and give you the tools you need to do work you're proud of without driving yourself insane. If it doesn't, you only need to take advantage of the 30-day, full-money-back guarantee for the course. If you put in a month and find that it's not at all relevant to what you do, shoot me an email (dave_at_davestuartjr.com) -- easy as that.
"Thanks for presenting your work in bitesize, applicable pieces that I can explore on my own time. You help make improving my teaching feel more possible. "
- Katie Fritz, high school English teacher, Minnesota
This course is closed for enrollment.
Why invest in this course?
The average registration for a teaching conference costs around $200, and then you typically need to arrange and/or pay for travel, release time, substitute teachers, and so on. Once the conference is over, you're often encouraged, but you leave with only your notes and (if you're like me) a strong dose of cognitive overwhelm.
The Student Motivation Course, on the other hand, offers a competitive value:
- Once you register, you have everything you need. No added costs, no subs, no travel. In fact, the price of registration includes a really cool book called These Six Things: A Focused Approach to Long-Term Flourishing In and Beyond the Classroom. (It's by this guy Dave Stuart Jr., who I hear is pretty great.) As soon as Corwin releases the book this July, I'll be mailing a free, signed copy to everyone who registers for this inaugural offering of the course. The book isn't just about motivation, either -- that's only the second chapter. These Six Things, then, is a significant add-on, giving you a clear sense of how I treat motivation in light of the work toward knowledge-building, critical thinking, literacy and mastery.
- Due to its all-online, drip-delivered format, this class is sustained, embedded PD at its best. While I do believe one-and-done PD formats can be transformational for teachers -- after all, I deliver keynotes and all-day literacy workshops around the USA, and I wouldn't do that if I felt it was a waste of a schools' time or resources -- this online format increases the odds that you'll gain deep, lasting understandings about student motivation, and that you'll be able to apply these understandings to your work over the long-term.
- The course material is designed to apply to all types of learners. Title 1 students? Yes. Gifted and Talented youngsters? Yes. "At-risk" kids? Yes. Advanced Placement students? Yes. Students disadvantaged by the achievement gap? Yes. If your school has initiatives targeting a certain student demographic or group, the course material can inform those efforts. As you will come to see, the five key beliefs are operative in just about any situation involving the need to get human beings to engage, and the research is clear that these beliefs are malleable.
- It's made for people with busy schedules. Lesson videos are 2-8 minutes in length, followed by 5-10 minute reflection application exercises
Limited Spots Available
This inaugural offering of the course is only open to the first 500 registrants. Enroll now and, as an inaugural student, you will receive:
- 35+ high quality, schedule-friendly video lessons, broken up into 6 focused modules.
- Unlimited access to the course. View it wherever and whenever you'd like.
- A free, signed copy of my book, These Six Things, when it releases in July 2018.
- Live, recorded Q&As with Dave during the first seven weeks of the course.
- 100% money-back guarantee. If you use and you don't love it, I'll refund you. It's as easy as that.