A Teacher's Morning Coffee: Renewed Motivation

Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Renewed Motivation

A colleague of mine proposed this question, “What is more important in teaching today…engaging and inspiring students or accountability for what they have learned?” I sat for a moment pondering the question and then responded, “Depends who you ask.”

Later contemplating my answer I decided there was a better response. You see, the question did not ask what the world, government, or family believes is more important; the question asks what do I see as more important. To that comes an easy answer.

Throughout the previous postings I have battled with motivation and understanding why I teach. I have yet to conclude I teach because I love math, nor have I concluded it is the pay, prestige, or recognition that comes with the job. Furthermore, the struggles mentioned have not been about math but rather reclaiming hearts and minds.

My answer, therefore, is simple; engaging and inspiring students is far more important than any other aspect of education...that is what makes my job so difficult.

With well over 100 students entering and leaving my classroom each week, I am destined to have difficulties. Students walk into class with all sorts of troubles; troubles at home, troubles in other classes, troubles with relationships, troubles with sports, troubles with image, troubles with troubles, troubles, troubles, troubles. With so much going on do they really care about math?

And thus the motivation/engaging game begins. We cannot teach our students until they are inspired to learn. Just how do we motivate? Before answering that question we must understand just what we offer through our motivation. We offer our students the opportunity to start new in our class, leave the troubles at the door, and welcome them into a sanctuary of respect. We offer our students renewed trust in ones abilities. We offer our students friendship that cares about self-actualization. We offer hope.

Knowing our offering allows us to offer ourselves to our students. Here are just a few ways that I find great joy in motivating my students:

1. Start each class with the desire to know my students. I ask them, “Did anyone have anything cool happen to you or do anything cool since last class?” In asking this question I get to know student hobbies, sport successes, what movies they watched…it’s incredible what students share.

2. Give high fives and handshakes to students who answer questions correctly.

3. Give high fives and handshakes to students who attempt to answer questions.

4. Email home to students who are doing well.

5. Smile, laugh, joke, play, relax, and enjoy diverse student personalities.

6. Talk to students outside of the classroom, always using their first name.

7.When one-on-one, praise a student for either having a great grade or question poor performance of those that could achieve a higher grade. Always tell them they are capable of greatness but it takes work.

8. Smile. I always act like I’m having fun, even when I’m not.

9. Thank students for participating and for a great day of class. Send them out the door saying I look forward to seeing them again.

10. My favorite: I spend the last ten minutes of Friday’s class speaking about a topic far greater than math. I call this “Motivational Friday.” Ranging from PowerPoints to inspirational videos, my students get to think of something greater than themselves, something more important than what happens only at my high school, something that paints the picture that life does not revolve around them. Motivational Friday engages students and allows them to understand why we are at school and what their resulting roles are as school citizens, community citizens, and a world citizen.

Below is a link to a Motivational Friday that I shared with my students last week, “Things That Bring Me Joy.” Within I share my beliefs in finding joy not in materialistic items but rather from expressing and developing our own uniqueness.

https://docs.google.com/leaf?id=0Bwqa0EmmC8WRNmMyYmU1YmEtYTYyNy00N2JhLWJlMWItZDZiOTJkOTllY2Uy&hl=en

What motivational tools do you use to reach your students? In the end, can an uninspired child begin to learn content material? Motivating the unmotivated is the biggest challenge we face, but if achieved will reap rewards far greater than we will ever know.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Dear Teacher

Dear Teacher,

Let us open our memory to when we were students seeking our degrees in education. Be it college or grad school, from day one we were taught how to teach. Between demanding methods of teaching, classroom behavior management, curriculum development, and the like, our professors modeled the ideal classroom. We presented lessons to our peers, critiqued deliveries, and role played numerous classroom scenarios until we all had an idea (or at least we thought) of what faced us in our journey ahead.

In the chaos of student teaching, interviewing, graduating, and so on, some of us forgot why we entered education in the first place. We simply did not choose jobs; we chose a vocation that impacts the rest of the word. Our souls have great purpose in what we are doing and there is something within all of us that moved us toward the classroom. Teachers thrive in the classroom, what we have to offer is more than subject material; we long to share ourselves.

Our belief in one student can change the world, yet we were unable to materialize our beliefs in our "how to teach" courses. Believing in students is an understanding of why we chose teaching as our careers. It is difficult to believe any of us chose this vocation without the ambition of changing student lives. Propelling one student beyond the content material is the difference we make as educators. As teachers, we must teach in such as way that our students can reflect upon their education and use us to mark history.

State testing and the bureaucracy that comes with our evaluations, tenure, and outside judgment will continue to haunt us all. Though rarely talked about and certainly not fully developed in our educational training, our desire to reach the adolescent heart is omnipresent. You are not alone in your quest to lead students to a greater peak in their learning, one higher than any state test can measure.

We have chosen an emotional occupation; the days may be long, the journey exhausting, and the victories difficult to see. Throughout this blog we will find meaning in our teaching through why we teach and allow it to transform how we teach our students.

Come on the journey with me to discover why we became educators. There is something deep within calling us to pursue more than the subject we teach. Our hearts long to be part of a story more important than standardized tests and student success hinges upon us being masters of that story. Rarely have we been given a chance to listen to our heart and reflect upon why we teach. Together we will pursue the source of the ever flowing spring of educational desire.

We are in a career in which we receive little monetary compensation. We are frequently berated from lack of tangible success and often blamed for the problems with America’s youth. Yet we are connected emotionally to our occupation. We love it….but sometimes the system kills the passion we had entering education and brings us a new reason to educate, to pass the test.

What happened to our initial motivation? What stole our spirit and how do we get it back? In the end, it is not really about dollars and dimes, what parents think of us, or how well our students remember Romeo and Juliet or the Pythagorean Theorem; it is about giving ourselves to our students. And when we give ourselves, there we will find true joy, there you will find motivation to keep teaching. There you will find the purpose in what we do.