Motivating Students Who Don't Care: Successful Techniques for Educators [Perfect Paperback]

Allen N. Mendler (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 1, 2000

Motivating Students Who Don t Care is a comprehensive and practical guide for reconnecting with discouraged students and reawakening their excitement and enthusiasm for learning. With proven strategies from the classroom, this resource identifies five effective processes the reader can use to reawaken motivation in students who aren t prepared, don t care, and won t work. These processes include emphasizing effort, creating hope, respecting power, building relationships, and expressing enthusiasm. Each process is fully explained and illustrated with proven strategies from the classroom. Questions for reflection will help the reader identify motivating strategies and apply the five key processes to the challenge of changing students lives.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Allen N. Mendler Ph.D., is an educator and psycologist who has worked extensively with children of all ages. As one of the internationally recognized authors of Discipline with Dignity, Dr. Mendler has worked to develop effective strategies for educators and youth professionals to help challenging students succeed.

Product Details

• Perfect Paperback: 69 pages
• Publisher: Solution Tree (February 1, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1879639815
• ISBN-13: 978-1879639812
• Product Dimensions: 7.7 x 5.2 x 0.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #181,855 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Allen N. Mendler Ph.D., is an educator and psycologist who has worked extensively with children of all ages. As one of the internationally recognized authors of Discipline with Dignity, Dr. Mendler has worked to develop effective strategies for educators and youth professionals to help challenging students succeed.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

68 of 70 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Useful stuff at a great price, July 6, 2007

By 

WritingGuy "JDH" (Columbia, MO USA) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Motivating Students Who Don't Care: Successful Techniques for Educators (Perfect Paperback)

The only person who can motivate an unmotivated student is the unmotivated student. All a teacher can do is provide a classroom environment that maximizes the chances that his students will choose to get motivated.

And that's where this book comes in. It is packed with useful and practical suggestions sorted into five big ideas: Emphasizing Effort, Creating Hope, Respecting Power, Building Relationships, and Expressing Enthusiasm. A brief introduction, including research sources, is given for each big idea, then the author gets right to the strategies.

Don't be fooled by the relatively unassuming size and the more then reasonable price. If you teach, this is a book you will use until you've used it up. Then you can buy another copy and another, and you still won't be out the price of many of the educational motivation books that sit pristinely on my shelves collecting well-deserved dust.

41 of 44 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Bending over backwards for students who don't care, August 14, 2006

By 

Drew Rolfe (Petaluma, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Motivating Students Who Don't Care: Successful Techniques for Educators (Perfect Paperback)

This book contains a lot of useful information for the new teacher or the burned out teacher who needs a boost. It's useful in the sense that it tries to get teachers to stop taking negative beahvior personally (usually it's not about the teacher) and to use positive reinforcement as much as possible--always a good idea whenever you are trying to change behavior, be it animal or human! But I had to laugh out loud when the author suggests praising the consistently tardy student for being in class "most of the time." Give me a break!

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good tips for all, September 12, 2009

By 

C. Williams "livnforchrist" (Chatham, VA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Motivating Students Who Don't Care: Successful Techniques for Educators (Perfect Paperback)

I deal with many unmotivated students. While I realize tht this is primarily a learned behavior and it takes time to unlearn it, this book has several good strategies to help kids get back into the "want to learn" mode. The ideas of emphasizing effort and restoring hope of passing or doing well in the class is difficult under the best circumstances. The book addresses these and, without being a spoiler, teaches teachers how to instill these in the students.
While the book does devote quite a bit to building character, (buzz word bingo there), it offers practical solutions to many of the problems that teachers face in today's "short attention span" classrooms.
While not for everyone (some teachers are just not charismatic enough to connect with students), this book is an excellent resource and I can heartily recommend it for upper elem ed through secondary ed.