Student Motivation: The HMC Teacher-Coach Model

Good coaches are both born and made. Student motivation is absolutely dependent on the communications and relationship skills of the Teacher-Coach.

Teachers, if you’ve never thought of yourself as a coach, you’re doing yourself and your students a disservice. You can develop the spirit of a motivator, tough-love task master, team builder, and skills builder.

As you activate and develop your inner coach, your students can't help but respond with positive behavior and improved academic performance. Children revere the coach because he/she is dedicated to bringing the team to victory.

The coach is the symbol of hope, especially in impoverished communities. If your students know you’re all about helping them win the game of academics, they’ll do their best, first for you (extrinsic student motivation) and hopefully, ultimately, for themselves (intrinsic student motivation).

As you incorporate these ideas into your teaching and classroom management, you’ll feel more confident and hopeful about your ability to help students.

The HMC Teacher-Coach Model includes the following best principles and practices:

1. Build student relationships with positive motivation and respectful communication. Always communicate with authority, respect, inspiration, motivation, and consistency. What you say and how you say it can mean the difference between peace or war in the classroom. Before you utter one word to students you must begin to believe in their innate genius – despite their grades and behavior. If you don’t believe in them, they won’t believe in you.

2. Increase drilling activities. From a coaching perspective, there’s a difference between teaching and drilling. Basically, teaching is standing at the blackboard and imparting information. Drilling is practicing the concepts taught in the lecture in creative ways that address a variety of learning styles.

Teachers, be honest: are you lecturing too much? Lectures are necessary, but real learning takes place during drilling, when students make the abstract lessons practical and concrete.

Here’s where your creativity can go through the roof. Cooperative and competitive games are great for drills. Memory games, friendly team competitions, in-class study groups, mock testing, and one-on-one tutoring are just a few ways of drilling students and developing mental toughness.

By the way, student motivation is enhanced when they're having fun learning!

3. Positively influence peer relationships by transforming peers into team mates. Not only are you teacher and coach in the classroom, you’re a socializing agent for change. Among young people it’s like the blind leading the blind or misery loving company. With peers, the dog-eat-dog rules of the street apply, but with a classroom team, the goal is for everyone to win.

That’s why you, the Teacher-Coach, are so important. Without the coach, there is no team. There is no student motivation. In a team, there’s no bullying, gossiping, or other destructive behavior. Only the focus on improving skills and winning the game (test, project, assignment) is important.

4. Use the culture and heritage of students to engage and amaze. One of the reasons students are bored in class is because they can’t see how the lessons apply to their world. General vs. abstract thinking may explain why children are constantly asking, "Why do we have to learn this?" They want to know how algebra is going to help them survive and make money. Even young children have these concerns. The more you make your subject relevant to students' daily lives, the more engaged they will be.

5. Celebrate your students’ academic achievements. Pep rallies are the one event in school where everyone – students, athletes, coaches, teachers, and administrators – get together to celebrate a win or to get fired up for the big game. Pep rallies are fun. The achievements of athletes are cheered.

Amazingly, the most boring event in school is the honors assembly. When the purpose of school is academic achievement, why do we torture everyone with long, boring assemblies? This has got to change. The more exciting and rewarding we make academic achievement, the more motivated students will be to achieve.

6. Incorporate more movement into the school day. Take a cue from the sports coach and incorporate more movement into your lesson planning. Unfortunately, some underserved schools no longer offer gym and recess because of budget cuts. Children are expected to sit still all day. Can you sit still all day? Add sugar and hyper media stimulation to the mix and students are virtually climbing the walls by lunchtime. This does not create an ideal learning environment.

Learning stations, combining physical activity with memorization drills, marching breaks, exercise as discipline instead of time-wasting detentions and suspensions, and periodic stretching throughout the day can help break the monotony and defuse energy.

By the way, teachers, movement is good for you, too!

7. Develop quality relationships with parents. A parent advocate once told us, "Get that mother or father on your side and you'll have no problems out of the student." So true.

The reality is, in some communities, the parent-teacher bond has completely broken down. There is little communication and even outright hostility.

Attempt to strengthen your relationships with parents. There are no guarantees, but you must try. Some parents are supportive of teachers’ efforts, while others are not. However, just keeping the lines of communication open can help a lot.

Occasionally, call up parents when students are doing well. They’re so used to getting negative calls that this will be a pleasant surprise and will motivate parents to become more involved. It will also create tremendous goodwill.

8. Become coachable. Never stop learning. Another way to put this best practice is, “Overcome your own inertia.” What’s holding you back from making changes in your teaching style? Fear? Lack of confidence? Inability to relate to students? Who cares anyway because retirement is just around the corner? Search your soul for the answer and seek ways to overcome inertia.

9. Manage stress in healthy, fun ways. Easier said than done, you might say – but absolutely necessary to your mental and physical health. All teachers are under stress. It comes with the job. Lack of respect from students and parents, paperwork, lesson planning, fear of violence – the reasons are endless.

How does stress impact your motivation to teach?

How does stress impact your relationship with students, colleagues, and parents?

What everyone seems to forget is that teachers need love, too. Teachers need down time. You’ve got families to take care of, homes to maintain.

It’s not enough to wait for winter, spring, and summer breaks to relax. Everyday, you should take even as little as ten minutes a day to pray, meditate, listen to soothing music, do yoga, take a walk – whatever it takes to calm you down.

10. Share successful coaching strategies with other teachers. Don’t keep the goods to yourself. If something’s working in your classroom, share with other teachers. If you’ve noticed another teacher rocking and rolling in her classroom, make her give up her secrets.

Excerpted from Coaching in the Classroom: Helping Underserved Students Win the Game of Academic Excellence by Alfred "Coach" Powell. (c) 2008 Alfred Powell. All rights reserved.

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