Have you ever tried to get kids to volunteer? You would think they'd learned the old "first rule of the Army" - never volunteer! Most of today's youth don't really think about volunteering as being their thing.
Volunteering is something that other people do, not them.
That's unfortunate.
Volunteering teaches us to want to help other people when they are in need, and is a valuable learning experience.
Volunteer work also doesn't have any financial incentives for those who do it.
Obviously you can't get your kids to want to volunteer because of money.
There are other rewards you can offer to your students, though, to motivate them to give volunteering a try.
Depending on the age of your students, you might try a point system.
This can be a very effective incentive plan where you offer points to students based on how much they volunteer.
At the end of the year students could redeem their points for prizes, or could be awarded different certificates based on the number of points they earned.
During the year, they could earn points based on how much they help others and do volunteer work.
Sometimes a little friendly competition is an effective motivator.
You may find that if you break up the students into groups and have them form teams, and then let the teams compete, this does wonders for enthusiasm.
Don't forget to encourage students.
You want to praise students who volunteer in front of the class, and also highlight how important and significant the work they have done is.
This can encourage the other students to volunteer as well.
Another great way to motivate your students is to offer grade points for volunteering.
The chance of improving a grade can make volunteering much more attractive.
In short, if you combine praise, encouragement, and incentives, you will likely be able to effectively motivate your students to volunteer.