Motivation and Habit Formation

I met a young middle school teacher a few months ago who wants to be successful. She has visions of her students coming back to visit her after they graduate high school and thanking her for the impact she made on their lives. Unfortunately, her day to day teaching experience makes her feel ineffective and frustrated. More and more of her students are disinterested, and sometimes even disobedient. To be a great instructor you need students who listen and desire to learn.

The solution to this problem is not new but requires planning, purpose, and some discipline. Successful students cultivate some or all of the habits that almost all successful people have: THEY EXERCISE, READ, SHOW UP (ATTENDANCE), AND EAT HEALTHY FOODS. The more habits students cultivate from this list, the more successful they will be.

A proven way to help create such “successful habits” is to create goals and then reward students when they attain the desired behavior. Teachers across the country find this works very well, and research bears this out.

That’s why we created the #1 selling award for run clubs, Toe Tokens® – colorful, plastic feet that kids love to collect.  Kids run miles and love it J, so they can get a Toe Token. 

Due to the success of Mileage Club®, and because of requests from teachers, we quickly followed up with awards for reading, attendance, and nutrition – which is also helping kids reach their goals.

 

Here is how it works:

1. Develop a plan to create routine activities around the desired goals for your classroom.
2. Layout the prescribed activities based on your goals and circumstances.
3. Following the idea of cue-habit-rewards made popular recently by Charles Duhigg (2012) and  now James Clear (2018), you then create:
1. A cue that tells the student when it is time to begin the habit/activity.
2. Clear instructions on what the activity consists of, without uncertainty.
3. An incentive plan to reward students at fixed intervals.
4. Design a system to measure progress.
5. Celebrate the goals met by distributing the awards earned.

Let’s look at how this works with Mileage Club (run club):

 

1.  Goal - my students will exercise more to increase their learning readiness and improve their health and mood.

 

• Create a program that allows every student to participate. 
• Allow each student to feel accomplished.

 

2.  Prescribed Activity – Start a running/walking club (Mileage Club).

• Create a course/track for the Mileage Club. (Our example will be a ¼ mile course around the playground.)
• Students run two times a week during recess (with an optional third day on Friday).
• Provide 20 minutes for each run.

3.  Cue - the recess bell.

• On Tuesday and Thursday, the students move around the track at whatever pace they can.
• Music can be played during this time to create a fun atmosphere.
• Incentive plan- every 5 miles (20 laps), a student earns a Toe Token.

 4.  Measuring – laps and total mileage will be tracked with the EZ Scan tracking software. 

5.  Celebration – awards day every Friday.

• On Friday, at lunch, all students who earned awards receive their Toe Tokens.
• A lanyard is also provided with the first Toe Token so a student can display their awards.
• Students who desire to run more may do so on Friday.

This goal/reward method has worked for decades across the country for run clubs, as well as reading plans, and behavior programs. Such programs are easy to create and implement. And, they help students create those necessary “successful habits.”

Stop being frustrated with your current efforts and start making a massive difference in your students' lives - just like you dreamed about in college - with Mileage Club, EZ Scan, and Toe Tokens! Fitness Finders has decades of experience to help you begin today.

References:

The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg from 2012

Atomic Habits by James Clear from 2018

Manage Your Classroom While Meeting Common Core Standards

With Fitness Finders’® new curriculum, Zooper Safari™, your students will embark on an exciting trek around the world, learning about positive classroom behaviors while meeting CCSS and NGSS standards. By appealing to students’ natural curiosity and love of animals, Zooper Safari™ introduces unique Featured Creatures that display Zooper Behaviors students will be excited to investigate, and then emulate in their personal choices. And by including CCSS and NGSS standards, Fitness Finders® is combining academic learning with classroom management to help teachers create a positive and successful learning environment.

Zooper Safari™ is all-inclusive!

The innovative Zooper Safari™ curriculum includes:

*9 Lesson Plans: Introductory Lesson, 1 Lesson covering each Zooper Behavior, and Review Lesson. Teachers who have a SMART Board or electronic white board will love our online, interactive lesson plans, with links to videos of Featured Creatures displaying the Zooper Behaviors in their habitats. Prefer teaching from paper? You’ll appreciate our economically printable black & white lesson plans. They include the video links, as well, so you can prepare ahead of time to share the information from the videos with your students, as desired.

*Hands-on Reinforcement Activities: Includes large group games for reviewing, a multitude of activities for Learning Centers, cute crafts you’ll love to display, yummy snacks that incorporate counting and shape recognition, large group brainstorming exercises that include individual writing prompts - and more.

*Student Materials: Includes grade-appropriate student journals or coloring pages, activity templates, and review games. All of the student materials (except the Zooper Safari™ Adventure Game Board) are designed to be printed in color OR black and white. YOU choose which materials to use, as well as the style and the amount to print!

*Zooper Safari™ Map: Students love seeing this colorful, 12-page map come together piece-by-piece as they complete their Zooper adventure.

*Unique Awards: Fitness Finders® has decades of research and experience motivating kids to set goals, adopt positive behaviors, and achieve. We’ve included LaceLink™ Lanyards, cool tokens, and charming stickers to help you create excitement and desire in your students to learn the information, transfer the behaviors, and become Zooper Explorers!

Zooper Safari™ is written BY teachers FOR teachers!

The Zooper Safari™ curriculum was written by teachers with decades of experience. The components of each lesson are consistent so that prep time may be simple and minimal. Each lesson is comprised of the following:

*Review: Information from the previous lesson is reviewed.

*Anticipatory Set and Lesson: Includes information about the Featured Creature, continent, and Zooper Behavior.

*Turn and Talk: Students reflect and share with one another something they’ve learned.

*Transfer and Reflect: Includes a read-aloud book recommendation with talking points to discuss the Zooper Behavior, as well as instructions on completing a grade level-appropriate student journal or coloring page, designed to enhance learning and sharpen writing skills.

*Summary: A quick restatement of the Zooper Behavior.

*Assessment & Award: Easily evaluate student learning; then encourage student participation by awarding our integral, fun rewards.

*Hands-On Reinforcement Activities: A variety of creative activities that continue the fun and learning.

At the end of each section and activity, you will find CCSS and NGSS standards that are met by that segment of the lesson. You simply enter the date in the box provided to record when each standard has been covered, making inclusion and documentation of these standards quick and easy. (There’s also space for you to write in any standards we may have missed!)

Fitness Finders® has been working with, and advocating for, teachers since 1974. We have teachers on our staff, teachers as our family and friends, and teachers in our community with whom we consult and support. We’ve seen a lot of trends, policy mandates, and political debates about education come and go. But one thing remains consistent – the passionate dedication to students that teachers bring to the classroom. Our goal for Zooper Safari™ is to meet a need we’ve heard expressed by teachers to address behavioral issues and academic standards, at the same time incorporating technology and appealing to students.