Sometimes would students are not motivated they are not been challenged enough in the classroom material so see if the student needs more challenging assignments. If this fails find ways to motivate the child and find ways to keep them engaged and the mother should understand the issue with her child since she is a teacher as well. If she gets upset about taking away recess you clearly need to say I can't show favoritism to your son and bend the rules just because you work here.

Possible solution: Find something that motivates him. If he gets his work completed, let him be the line leader, a helper or some other job that me might like. Is there an activity that he is interested in? Not having the parent's support is very difficulty, especiall if the parent is a teacher. The mother is not concerned now, however, if the student does not complete the work, how will the parent react if the incomplete work affects the students grade?

I would make sure that the parent realizes that incomplete work and lack of practice learning the material will begin to affect the students grade. You need a system of consequences and rewards for this student. Give him something he wants when he does his work and a consequence when he doesn't. Make sure to pay close attention and reward him if he makes any progress toward completing his work at all. This may get things moving in the right direction for the student, when he sees that you are paying attention and recognizing his progress.

You can try a reward system. Once he reaches a certain point give him a reward for his work. You could also try giving he a more challenging assignment and see if that works. If nothing seems to help try sending him to a school counselor and maybe they can get to the bottom of lack of motivation.

I had a student in my first internship that was very similar. He was a bright boy, but did not want to complete his work. His parents even spoke with the teacher because they did not know how to motivate him. The boy was only in the second grade. I found out from speaking to his parents that although they were very caring and concerned parents, they were a busy family. The student woke up at 5:30 am, attended before school care and after school care every day. He and his little brother did not get home until almost 7pm. His parents were tired at the end of the day and the boy was rushed to eat dinner, shower and go to bed. In my opinion, he was craving his parent's attention and was acting out to get any sort of attention even negative. I made an effort to spend time with the boy as much as possible, encouraging him to complete his work. I allowed him to eat lunch with me whenever he stayed on-task.

For the students who lack motivation, I would offer them some type of positive reinforcement or motivator. Sticker, public praise, candy, etc.

When in this particular situation, it would be ideal to set a system in place utilizing positive reinforcements. You could have a meeting with the students parent to discuss and brainstorm what would be a good reward for the student for when they complete assignments. You could then implement the reward system for the student in class and let the student know that if they complete their work at home and bring it back to school for a week, they would receive some type of positive reinforcement/reward at the end of the week such as treasure box, lunch with the teacher, etc.

In middle school I notice that a lot of students start to resist listening to the teacher or being unmotivated about school because they do not see the significance of school and its long term benefits. Which is still a lot of pressure on students so it would be help to try and give him reasons or create a list for him. It could be something as simple as earning money to get a pet, living away from parents, etc. Let the student know what kind of things they can achieve if they give school a chance!