Motivating Students In PE – 5 Tips From Molly Collins
Motivating students in Physical Education class is tough. It is something as a PE teacher, I honestly struggle with quite often. When you are teaching upwards of 50 students at a time, there are a lot of different variables to try and manage when it comes to motivation.
As a teacher, one of my main goals is to help students develop intrinsic motivation. (Easier said than done when working with high school students. Trust me, I know.)
Try these five tips to help instill intrinsic motivation in students during Physical Education class.
1: Create A Welcoming Environment
As teachers, we need to create a welcoming environment by having a clean and safe space. Is the room boasting with color, light, and energy? No one wants to be in a space that is dirty, blah, or dull. 
Students benefit from a clean facility that has structure and flow throughout the space. Having little things like phrases, pictures, or branding on display shows what you are striving for.
For energy, is music playing to set the tone you are looking for? Go grab a speaker and get your kids feeling excited.
While the space and music can be electric, we still need to meet the students as individuals.
2: Establish A Relationship
As teachers, we should strive to greet each person by name each day. A name is one thing that characterizes a person, so calling students by name is the first step to establishing a relationship.
A lot of students feel a bit of anxiety when entering a physical education environment because they think they don’t belong.
Let each student know that they belong here. Having someone welcome you and converse with you instantly can help put any student’s nerves at ease.
3. Start With The Basics
No matter what level of students you are teaching, everyone should have a solid foundation of the basics. Starting with the basics sets the students up for success right away. It gives them that instant satisfaction needed to build confidence.
From there, students will progress at the pace they are ready to challenge themselves. From this foundation, students can set their own goals for what they hope to achieve next.
Goal setting helps to build confidence in a way that only they will understand. The goals should be driven by the student and no one else. As a teacher, you are there to help and guide. As they get some self-satisfaction within their goals, it will hopefully leave them wanting more.
4: Think Outside the Box, Change is Key!
After that foundation is built, challenge your students to step outside the box. Once students are ready to step outside their comfort zones, growth and development can really flourish.
I think about it like the muscular system and training. Anyone doing the same exercises or weight day in and day out will reach a plateau. When we look for muscle confusion by switching up exercises, weights, or style of training, we can see that muscle growth happen.
That same idea of switching things up is what we are looking for with growth and confidence in different physical education activities. To change it up, we do game days, obstacle course challenge, or team workouts. Sometimes different military branches come in to do cognitive and physical challenges with the students. We even just take breaks from the workouts to talk or watch a video.
Being able to read your students need for change, but also know when to stay the course and challenge them is a balancing act. This balance will help your students remain motivated throughout the whole year.