It's a GR8 Week!

I can't believe it's already week eight! Where have all of the weeks gone? It seems like I blink and it's another week and I am writing another blog. This week I am continuing to work with my small group and I can see the progression. Each time I work with my group, they get more and more excited to learn. The students have good days and bad days with wanting to focus and learn. I have noticed that they struggle more on Fridays and do better on Mondays. This Monday was such a GREAT Monday that I had to reward them with skittles because I wanted them to know how proud I was of them and for them to keep up the good work. Unfortunately, not everyday is going to be like that in this profession. Some days the students' are not going to be motivated to do anything except sit in their seats and take up oxygen. I found an article that gives details on "Motivating the Unmotivated". I think this is a great article to refer to when your students are not feeling motivated in the classroom.

This article gives five tips for teachers to help their students become motivated.

1. Focus: Teachers must be ready to focus mainly motivation for students who are not motivated. Students' who are not motivated are more likely to not participate in classroom activities, tutoring, mentoring etc.
2. Time Commitment: Teachers invest at least 15 minutes per week to focus on motivation which will increase teaching time. 
3. Reinforcement Through Repetition: It would help if teachers required repetitive reinforcement. Students would be more motivated if they saw this action don more often in the classroom. 
4. Effective Motivators: This requires this around the students to be positive motivators that will help the situation and to not be a negative impact. Also, this includes the parents or guardians of the students and for the teacher to look at the student as an individual and not at their parents.
5. Fun for the Students: Make it fun for the students so they will want to do what you are wanting them to do. 

Also, this article gives a motivational program to use that's called, "On Giants' Shoulders". It is a program that advocates a strategy for repetitively motivating underperforming elementary and middle school students to respect their teachers, peers, schools, and the learning process using 15-minute, once-per-week online chats with academically accomplished high school students who appreciate the value of education. The students are compared based off of interests. I thought that this was a great way to be motivated as an elementary student. I know when I was in Elementary school I looked up to high schools and couldn't wait to be that old.

There are so many different benefits from this type of program that it relates easily to the North Carolina Professional Teaching Standards. Standard 1: Teachers Demonstrate Leadership and lead in their classroom. As a part of being a teacher leader, teachers should take responsibility for all students' learning. Also, standard 2, teachers establish a respectful environment for a diverse population of students. teachers create an environment that is encouraging and supportive to students.