I recently read an article in Scholastic's Parent & Child magazine that really caught my attention. The article was based on the book "The Motivation Breakthrough: Six Secrets to Turning on the Tuned-Out Child" by Richard Lavoie. Lavoie discussed what he called the "6 P's", which are approaches to motivate children. Motivation is like inspiration...each child is inspired by something different. As teachers, we must realize that each student needs motivated individually...because one size does not fit all. There are:

1. Project kids - These kids love long-term, multi-faceted tasks.
2. People kids - Kids who work best when the teacher creates an individual relationship with them.
3. Praise kids - They are motivated by being recognized.
4. Prizes (smallest group) - Kids who want to win and get "trophy".
5. Prestige kids - Kids like to see their name in lights - "class president".
6. Power - These kids need some control in what they do...the kid who's motivated when he/she can make choices about what is done and how.

As educators, it is important to identify what category your students fall into. We need to know what gets our students going. After reading this article, I could easily relate my students to a category! By pinpointing the strengths and weaknesses of our students, we can begin to work with our students nature, not against it.