Motivation

I reread all my blogs, and found a common theme... Motivation. We talked about motivation in class and decided that I would devote an entire blog entry to it. As teachers, it can be quite difficult motivating a great amount of students. Educators need to walk into class with a plan every day.. They need to walk in with a positive attitude and show they are passionate about what they are teaching, only then can students be passionate about learning. I feel like anymore, the only real motivation for kids to perform well in class is the grade. In inner city schools, or schools where motivation is low, we cannot rely on a grade providing the motivation. Our goal should be getting students to want to go to class every day and ask questions. Getting them actively involved and participating in activities within the classroom is hard, but staying persistent and constantly believing in the students will help. In too many classes, teachers teach what needs to be taught, and that is it... The students write it down, take a test, and never remember it again. The teacher isn't learning anything from this, and neither are the students. I've been subject to too many of these classes, and know that I need to be different. If I walk into my class and give my choir some music and tell them to sing, they won't be into it. You need to act like you want to be there and prove that to the students. Working hard pays off in the end, especially when you receive a letter from a student 10 years later saying that what they learned and took away from the class, lead them to where they are present. That is motivation for me to teach.