A Different Approach to Enhancing Student Productivity

By: Vince Heyser MITES TEACHER RESOURCE CHAIR

As you look around the lab you feel disappointment setting in as you notice that even your most productive

students are losing focus and are off task. At first you feel anger and then you begin to relax and question what the underlining problem might be. You finally come to the realization that you are in the armpit of the school year. I know you all know what time of year that is. It’s that time of year a couple weeks before spring break. It falls before the mad rush to get ready for the MITES project fair and after the excitement of building that awesome project.

I typically would try and combat this issue by trying to motivate the students with threats of a poor grade or perhaps bringing up what it means to display good work effort. Instead I’ve decided to take a new approach. Although I hate to lose the valuable work time I will be totally “changing the subject” this year during that growling time. My hope is that by removing the students from their projects they will get more fired up once we get back in action. It works on the theory of being more productive after a lunch break.

Here are some suggestions:

OFF TO THE COMPUTER LAB

-Have students make business cards pretending they might be starting a

business from the skills they have learned in your class.

-Have students write about the progress of their project in a story form.

Ask them to be creative and fun. (These could later be submitted to a newspaper)

-Have students make a brochure about their project advertising their skills and abilities.

-Have students research a topic relating to the subject of your class and

make a crossword puzzle from that topic.

-Let students demo software related to your subject. They have welding software, cabinetry design software, and other industrial design software that are free to try out.

-Have students make up an invoice of their project as if they were selling it. Also have them determine what hourly wage they need to earn to provide them with the lifestyle they want.

CONVERTING THE SHOP

-Have students make safety videos using themselves as actors/actresses.

-Have students create tee-shirt designs for your class/program.

-Break students into teams, give them a bag of miscellaneous junk and have

them try and build the tallest free standing tower they can.

-Invite in that guest speaker you’ve been meaning to get in all year.

-Have students make small teaching aids for you to show other students.

-Have an exchange day with another class where students show their buddies what they are doing.

-Have elementary students come in and make a small project with your students.

-Have an organized tape measure race. (Good luck trying to make this educational)

Students could even sell tickets to other students.