Make Their Day! A Different Approach to Motivating Undergraduate Students in Communication Studies Classrooms

Readers,


During the past few weeks, I started emphasizing the FISH Philosophy in my Organizational Communication course. This philosophy has four components: play, make their day, be there, and choose your attitude. One of the components that I emphasized in all of my communication studies classes in to "make their day". I am one of those eccentric communication professors who always walks to class with a briefcase in one hand and a candy container in the other hand. I use the candy container to provide incentives for the brave students who choose to provide answers or contribute stories of their personal experiences during class.


This week, I decided to incorporate my love of coupons and deals with my passion of teaching college students (like my blog). I decided to obtain as many "Free Oatmeal @ McDonalds" coupons as I possibly could in a short amount of time. At the end of my coupon collection period, I ended up with 60 coupons in all. This collection process enabled me to give "free food" coupons to my hungry college students as incentives. They LOVED it and they were very thankful for the sweet incentive. As a result of this great experience, I plan to obtain a lot of coupons from local restaurants to give as incentives to my college students to feed their mind and their hunger! :)

THINK ABOUT IT - What do you think? Additional ideas?

Millennial Professor - Jennifer T. Edwards, Ed.D.