This is week 2 of my motivational experiment. I am rocking a mohawk for the first time in my life, all in the name of keeping my students focused and motivated as we approach our big test on May 1st. It has worked amazingly well, with only one small hiccup along the way.On Wednesday, my last class pushed the very limits of my patience, to the point I was ready to end the experiment. It was only due to the excellent work of the rest of my students earlier in the day that I didn't shave the whole thing off, a message the class in question received quite clearly the next day. I don't think they realized what they had done; they were apologizing profusely and pleading with me not to shave it off after I told them what was up.
I told them that while I knew some of them probably didn't care about it, that was fine. The important thing to realize is that the mohawk is a symbol, a symbol of how far I am willing to go to ensure their success, but also of my goodwill. When the mohawk goes, they now understand, so does my goodwill, and they don't even want to know what happens next.
The next stage of the experiment will be to set some goals for the test itself, and some "rewards" in the form of dying my hair various colors.
See what happened:
Week 3
Reflections on a Mohawk