Motivating our students

It is easy to understand that each class is different. The difference lies in the students’ behaviour, the way they interact with the teacher and fellow student, and even how eagerly they share their ideas. Each group is a whole different world and our teachers are in charge of filling this world with passion and new concepts.

But there is something they all have in common, and that is the way we motivate them. Their effort is evaluated by teachers using an incredible platform called classdojo.com

Classdojo is a super fun online application which enables teachers to assess pupils’ progress and the behaviour in class. Using a number of points, which are given to student for homework or helping others for example, both teachers and students themselves can control their improvement.

We couldn’t miss this great way of keeping our students awake, so we have assigned each one with an avatar which receives points for positive performance in class. The response has been incredible. It was like a big wave pushing our students into the deep sea of learning and participation.

Since then, our young learners have been using a lot more English in class, their homework has become a fun routine for them and a huge improvement both in terms of motivation and behaviour in class. Such has been this improvement that we now have a competition to see which class has gained most points for their hard work during a whole month.

A lot of our teachers nominated some of their groups to be awarded, telling us how their classes have improved after using Classdojo. This is the winning group, which wasn’t easy to pick as the nominees had gained very similar results. They received a beautiful diploma, a new pencil case and also a notebook. A special thanks to Miss Lara who is in charge of this original idea.

We always try to make use of any teaching tool which brings out the best in our students’ performance. We are also proud of them and know that motivation is a key element in language learning.