by Ashley Shea

Created on: July 11, 2009   Last Updated: July 20, 2009

Students are naturally more engaged and more responsive when they feel respected. Respect comes from trust and a mutual understanding.

During the summer, you don't have much time to catch students up. It is easy to feel that you have to get in there and start teaching the first minute of the first class and stay on topic every minute. When you do that, students tend to feel anonymous. Anyone could be in that classroom and you'd be going through the exact same motions.

It's easy to make an assumption about why students are in summer school - they just aren't bright or they didn't "apply" themselves. Students are intuitive enough to know when you make such assumptions. If you take the time to get to know your students, you may be surprised by the variety of reasons they are in your class this summer. Knowing those reasons and knowing what is important to the students you teach is the key to being effective and to inspiring student motivation and drive for success.

What do you need to know about your students?

Most students know exactly why they ended up in summer school. They may not be willing to admit their failures or obstacles aloud in a group of their peers, but that shouldn't keep you from asking. Students are more motivated when they can relate to the subject they are studying. Ask your students about their interests. What do they most enjoy doing? What television shows do they watch? What games/sports do they like to play? Use this information as springboards for your teaching. While it may be a challenge to make the connection, look for one. For example, if you are teaching math and your students are interested in skateboarding, the Futures Channel has a video titled Designing Stronger Skateboards that shows the math involved in skateboard design. The Futures Channel has many short, fun, exciting videos available online that are perfect springboards for math and science topics. While it is a sensitive issue, it is helpful to know a little bit about a student's home life. When they come to your class, will they have had breakfast? When they leave your class, do they have spend the rest of the day working and have very little time for homework? Keep these conditions in mind. You may want to bring food to class some days, as long as you are aware of students who have food allergies. You may want to limit your homework assignments to things students can do mentally (rather than written) or can do in a short period of time.

How can you learn about your

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