Sorry for the delay, my dear blog readers, but this school year came in like a lion...and I'm still waiting for that lamb part. ;)
Back to motivation...
We all have been there with that one or two (or depending on your district maybe 20!) students who come from families that don't really care or provide support. The story is the same for each kid. The parents don't care about them, so they don't care about themselves. In my district, it's usually the minority kids. These students are usually good kids that have good hearts, but are troubled and lacking a positive role model.
According to my class reading, it is important to build a relationship with minority students prior to motivating them to do classwork.
I know what you're thinking, this is all great in theory, but what happens when you're dealing with these kids in real life? And they are horrible? And ruining my class?
Well, I'll share my own (it's still a work in progress) success story. I have a student in my English class who completely fits the mold. He is a minority student and comes from a family of eight in a more-urban-than-suburban part of town. During the very first week, I considered this strategy with this student. When giving out tickets (to trade for rewards) I made sure to give him some after he gave a correct answer, I complimented him often, I told him how he's such a good boy (cheesy I know, but I think he needs to hear it) and complimented the whole class, saying how bright they all are and how I'm so happy to have them all.
So how is it working? Said boy is still rambunctious and chatty, but I do feel that when I reprimand him he tries to listen and generally respects me. After each time I dole out reprimands, I am mindful to try to give out compliments too. This motivation aspect of teaching is a work in progress, but I do feel that it is important to remember why we all began our careers.
If you've ever been asked why you became a teacher, I highly doubt your answer would be: "because I love testing, SGOs, IEPs, grading, paperwork, emailing parents, dealing behavioral kids, etc." The list goes on! I'm also sure that most of us would not include "summers off" or "holidays" in our responses. If you're like me, you'd probably respond with "because I love working with children and love helping young minds grow."
So even though a lot of these motivational ideas are common sense, I felt that these ideas were great reminders to bring me back to my original goals. Hopefully my post will do the same for you! :)
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