A major function a teacher is to motivate his/her students. (There is debate as to whether a person can motivate another versus whether a person can only support another to motivate themselves.) There are approaches to motivating people that are destructive, for example, fear and intimidation. While these approaches can seem very effective in promptly motivating people, the approaches are hurtful, and in addition, they usually only motivate for the short-term. There are also approaches that are constructive, for example, effective praise, inspiration, examples and coaching. These constructive approaches can be very effective in motivating others and for long periods of time. When attempting to help motivate people, it's important to identify what motivates each of them. Ultimately, though, long-term motivation comes from people motivating themselves, but as a teacher we are partly responsible for keeping them motivated while they are in class and that will inturn resonate in their everyday lives and they will become fully self-motivated. Praise and encouragement are the best motivators in the classroom!