Doper Teachers: What is your method of dealing with unmotivated kids?

In My Humble Opinion
1

They can be teachers worst nightmares. The kids that come to school for no reason but to hang out with their friends or because people will complain too much if they don’t. Some teachers would label these kids unteachable, put up with them for a semester (unless the kid gets suspended or expelled before then) and later fail them.

I want to know how Doper teachers deal with these kids. Do you just say to yourself that the kid does not want to learn, I can’t teach him, so I should concentrate my efforts on the well behaved kids that want to learn? Do you try to motivate them or just loose faith in the system, curse your faith and wish you never became a teacher?

2

And, what do you do about the ones who are “intelligent but lazy”?

My own experience is that lazy my ass, I was unmotivated (parents heard about the stick but not the carrot, so I got yelled at for getting Bs, I got yelled at for getting Cs, I got yelled at for getting As, and if I got any A+ I got yelled at because the rest of the grades weren’t) and way tired from housework. But any time I tried to speak with some teacher about it I’d get this spiel about what perfect parents I had, presidents of the PTA and all, you know.

About 10% of my classmates had the same kind of parents, stick but no carrot. We were used as “fillers”: the teachers knew we would get the same grades no matter what class we were in, so they mixed us with the horrible ones. About 10% had carrot but no stick, which was equally disconcerting and bad for motivation.

3

(I’m a science/chemistry new HS teacher)

The truth is that unmotivated kids have problems that may not be reachable by a teacher.

Some kids just don’t see the teacher as a real person they can connect with. This kind of thing can be treated somewhat just by bringing them a taco at lunchtime detention (personal experience).

Some kids are only slightly motivated. They need to see directly that the material has a value either to their lives right now, or at the least, their grades on a day-to-day basis. I have gotten a lot of results recently out of giving little quizzes based on the previous day’s material. Kids now see their work not just as something that gets logged, but as a help for themselves on the upcoming quiz. They don’t just put junk answers to placate me and act like they’re working, they’re working for themselves, and they will get to read the notes right before the quiz.

Some kids are having a significant problem. They need their parents to step in big time and take away the X-Box, or whatever it takes to get their attention. Some kids will need end up with only a futon in the floor in their room before they decide that they need to at least put in the effort to avoid the trips to the office and the Ds and Fs on the report cards. I know I got a 4th grader cured of his constant clowning once by hassling his father into reading the riot act and finally giving a spanking. That kid then made an abrupt change and would make “Get a load of those idiots” looks at other kids who were screwing around.

Some kids have huge issues going on in their lives. They have parents who have not been asserting control through the years. These kids have probably discovered a “nuclear bomb” threat, like one girl I had last semester. Her mother said repeatedly in front of her that the mother didn’t have the time to help her or address her issues. What a parenting style. The mother told me on the phone that when discipline was enforced, the daughter threatened to run away. This apparently was taken seriously, and I guess the daughter is running the mother instead of the proper way. This student I have very little hope for. She is dating another student in my class who is also probably going to flunk this semester and is smartly in the cholo-gangbanger culture. This girl I expect to get pregnant by 20 and raise a brood of kids she claims she doesn’t have time for.

What can be done about the more serious cases? Not much without (religion warning…) some serious spiritual changes. You have to go out of your way to sometimes be nice to these kids, but they probalby won’t recognize it and will treat it as an entitlement. Without a serious spiritual change, I don’t hold much hope. And they probably don’t want to hear a word you have to say, because you’re a racist because you give them referrals to the office for disturbing the class during the semester final.

4

A lot of my students are unmotivated, so I use this approach with all of them.

I tell them that their lives are a series of choices. Every period, they choose whether or not they are going to learn. I inform them of the consequences of each choice, and then say “It’s up to you.” I also have them look at themselves as students in areas on being on time, prepared, in seat/focused, attitude, and readiness to learn. They have to give themselves a grade and reflect on what they can do to make themselves better students. Usually, the kids are harder on themselves than I or their parents would be.

I also inform them that they have the right to learn, and it’s my responsibility to teach them; however, if one student’s choices interfere with the right of every other student to learn and my right to teach, I have the professional responsibility to remove that student from my class and get back to my job.

It has taken me 8 years to come up with this approach, and it works.

5

I bully, nag, wheedle, tease, guilt–whatever it takes, and it seems to vary for each kid.

Once I promised a whole class a pizza party if one kid showed up every day. The class was at the end of the day, and if he wasn’t there at lunch (he ditched more than he came to school), they started calling him on their cell phones to get his ass up. He didn’t miss a day that six weeks, and the pattern held even after the game was over.

I also make sure to attend all sorts of sporting and other extra-curricular events (concerts, plays, awards ceremonies) because it means so much to the kids that are motivated in one area to see that I am interested. They are more likely to give me something after I have shown that. Of course, it takes a few years for that to kick in–they need to have seen you at the basketball game two years before they walk into your classroom.

If a kid doesn’t care about something–say grades–I don’t try to make them. They know what it takes to pass my class–all assignments are set on the first day of the six weeks–and if they don’t give a damn, I don’t either. I just focus on educating the smart-but-don’t care about-grades kids.

I hold after school discussion groups, topics picked by kids, to get the verbal/social kids a place to come in an dget interested.

I have a classroom message board for the kids that don’t like face to face interation.

I do boisterious after school tutoring before each vocabulary quiz, with lots of off-color jokes and candy to try and get kids to study.

I make sure access to me is always avalible to them, before and after school and by phone or email, so that if they decide they want help, I’m avalible.

I LIKE them. This helps almost more than anything else. You simply cannot moticate someone if you dislike them.

I brag on them. I kiss more ass than Mr. Smithers. It’s amazing how much this can motivate some kids.

But there’s a lot of kids I can’t get to. First and foremost it’s the ones that don’t care about anything but getting high. I don’t mean any kid who uses drugs–hell, if half my kids don’t smoke pot, I’ll be a monkey’s uncle–I mean the kids who always think in terms of “I want to get high and hang out with my friends”, not “I want to hang out with my friends and get high” If that’s their overriding passion, there isn’t anything I can get in there and get hold of.

I also can’t do much with the one or two kids a year I really dislike. I fight this, I try so hard, but it’s there. I have a student this year who is cruel, mysogynistic, homophobic, and racist. I hpoe he gets better when he grows up–but at 16 he’s irritating as hell. I don’t like him, and I am not doing a good job motivating him. Ironically, if i could put away my dislike and motivate him better, I could potentailly soften those views. But it doesn’t seem to be happening. Maybe I’ll be abke to do that more effectively in a few more years.

But it varies with every kid, and I lose too many. They do know exactly what