Connection Between Lack of Motivation and Behavior Issues

As I listened to our discussion yesterday, I noticed two strong themes. 1. A lack of motivation/interest/desire for learning among a unfortunately large number of our students. 2. A concern that too many of our students are not following the basic procedures. (ie., take the hat off, sit down, put the ipod away.) This got me to thinking that there is probably a fair bit of overlap between the two groups of students. If some of these students regained/began to have an interest in being a life-long learner--whether they are turned on to a topic or at least saw that they needed a certain amount of knowledge or skills for college or a job--then the amount of their inappropriate behaviors would go down. Simply put, they wouldn't have as much time for them. How can we, then, help them to regain that spark. After I have time to reflect on this I will try to post a few ideas, but I'm sure the group has many ideas to share.