I think one of the hardest things to do as a teacher is to keep your students motivated. How could this be easy? Students are in school for 40 hours a week, plus they have homework on top of that. That’s a ton of work! No wonder they get sick of school. That’s why teachers have to make sure they keep students as motivated as possible.
One of the ways I am going to keep my students motivated is by making sure they understand that the main goal I have for them is for them to understand the content, not just to get an A. To do this, I need to know where my students ZPDs are. Once I figure out exactly what they can do on their own and what they need help doing I can start teaching to that level, and I think connecting a lot of the information to student’s schemas is extremely helpful in keeping them motivated. This will relate the information back to something concrete that the students are familiar with—this way they may feel a little more comfortable with the information and be more willing to learn about it. I really want to try to keep the content relevant to them. There have been plenty of times when I have thought “why do I need to be learning this? This has nothing to do with me!” I don’t want my students to feel that way. I want to attempt to keep them interested in the material. This can involve not directly reading and assessing from the textbook, but rather including discussions and classroom participation in daily lessons and assessments. If the students are actively participating in class and sharing their opinions and ideas they will be more motivated than simply sitting and reading chapters. I also need to know the content to help motivate them, so they don’t think I don’t know what I’m talking about and that the information is useless. I need to be prepared to give them the lesson. I want my students to have positive feelings towards learning, and all of these things will help them be motivated to do so.
Another way I’m going to keep my students motivated is by developing a good relationship with them. I can do this by learning their names, treating them as peers rather than putting myself in an authoritative role, and being a good role model. The students need to know that I respect them, and if they do then hopefully they will come to respect me and the class I’m teaching. Learning their names will show I care about them and don’t just view them as students but also as people. Treating the students as peers shows them that I really do respect them—I value their opinions and ideas and welcome them in my classroom. They may feel like I put a certain amount of trust in them that allows them to feel more responsible in the classroom. And being a good role model is extremely important for teachers—we sometimes spend more time with them than their parents do! If I show them that I’m motivated to teach them the information, they may be more motivated to learn it, especially if they respect me and see that what I’m teaching is valuable. I also want the students to know that I expect a lot from them but I am willing to help them with whatever they need—this way hopefully they are motivated to do well due to my high expectations but aren’t scared of failing because they know I will always be there to help them.
