Same for me I’m afraid. Fear of a painful death at the hands of my parents.
I will say on some rare occasions a teacher motivated me because I wanted to make them proud of me but regrettably those teachers were few and far between. Most of the other teachers were just there like talking parrots spewing the lesson plan and a very few I actively despised.
I’m motivated by my loser fr
iends. I look at them and say to myself, “Now, when we are both 26 and out in the real world, which one of us will be sleeping on the sidewalk and begging for change? Not me!” And then I go do my homework.
To be the best in the class. Maybe not a possibility in most cases, but at one college I taught at, it was really competitive and that was most students’ attitude. (The next place had a “I just want to get a C.” attitude which was pathetic.)
(You’ll love this one.) To catch the teacher in a mistake. Only real reason to stay awake in most classes. (Strangely, in 20+ years of teaching at the college level, I’ve never had a student who did this to me.)
ftg, I’ve also been teaching college for twenty years, and I’ve had plenty of students–almost half, I’d say–who’ve stayed awake in class.
At least once a week make a lecture to them that requires no input or output from them, only observation. Make the lecture long enough to contain a decent amount of information, but short enough as not to bore anyone to tears. I would say 15 to 20 minutes should do it. The subject of your lectures is short biographies of famous people. Spend the last few minutes of each lecture emphasizing the education and training (or at least the great motivation and inspiration) of your chosen subject. Finish your lecture, then DON’T encourage any discussion or feedback on the subject, head immediately into the other business of the day.
In grade school, I made wonderful grades because I wanted to and because it was easy–I was a smart kid. No homework, just turn in the worksheets and participate in class.
When I got to high school, though, making good grades got tougher, not because the work was hard, but because it required focus, organization, and a decent attention span (which, by the way, I’ve had to work on developing as an adult). If my parents had cared at all, it would have motivated me to try, which I now realize would’ve resulted in excellent grades.
Looking back on high school, though, there were teachers who were very important factors in my success as an adult, though they may not have known it then; I certainly didn’t make it apparent. What I’m saying is that you are making a difference even if it doesn’t show. The teachers who mattered most to me were the ones who cared.
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TEACHERS: To a student (directly or by way of the parent) who claims to be doing poorly in a class because their massive brains are under-utilized, don’t you just itch to say something like, “How about you use your prodigious intellect to discove a way to get your work done AND not be bored?” I know you probably can’t say it … but don’t you want to, just a little? I personally think that’s an excuse, not a reason, and would never let my kids get away with it. My opinion.
ALSO, I second the thanks. Thanks to ALL you teachers for trying to educate kids (who may not receive any background support at home) through a slew of mandated paperwork and bureaucratic BS. Thank you, thank you, thank you for at least trying.
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To discover, I mean. :smack:
Look, you asked a simple question, and I told you that nothing motivated me in school. Considering that this is summer school you’re teaching, these kids all have something in common: they failed miserably. I think it’s very possible that most of them really don’t have a damn interest in school what so ever, and they never will. This doesn’t mean that they will grow up to be failures though. I believe the best option for students who aren’t “book smart”, and are repeat failures in school, is to take classes that teach them a trade and to take the basic requirements for English and math. This alone will help them better than anything in my opinion. But for me, I eventually decided to do better in school because I stopped hanging out with trouble makers and getting into trouble, that alone helped me do better in school. So another piece of advise, if you’ll take it, if some of the kids are “bad” kids, try to group them with “good” kids and setup projects around that.
PA
Your earlier response only stated that you thought the kids had failed due to boredom, that is the point I had a problem with. My question isn’t about whether or not they are interested, but what I can do to motivate them, regardless of their current level of interest. I want to cause them to be interested! Thanks for the new suggestion.
Thanks also to you skeptic_ev, it always makes a teacher feel better to hear that kind of encouragement.
Class discussions
Class discussions
Class discussions
I’ll say it one more time: Class discussions.
I just recently finished highschool, and I can tell you with absolute certainty it was the teachers that made their classes INTERACTIVE that were the best.
Just standing there, listing off facts, assigning homework, giving lectures etc. is just plain boring and just makes us (students) want to go to sleep.
I had one physics teacher whom was very open to allowing the class to take a very free-form schedule. We’d often spend en entire period just discussing the paradoxes of time travel, and our own pet ideas for perpetual motion machines. The teacher himself would tell us about his life, movies he’s seen lately, etc. Of course, he’d relate them to physics and we’d have a whole disussion on movie physics. This, THIS kind of class interaction was far more motivating to learn physics than any kind of lecture or cheap game.
(PS. I too was highly motivated by fear. “Ahh, perfect, nice job. But, weren’t there any bonus marks?” Of course, I was also extremely competetive, and yes, I always strongly desired to outperform my friends.)
Sorry moejuck, I was a bit of an ass. I hope you achieve your goals with your students.
I guess my main motivation was fear. But even then, it didn’t always work. 
In math classes, an A was definitely not always within my abilities. Now that I’m in college, my motivation is just my own standards. If I get a C, I feel disappointed (as long as I know I could have done better).
Occasionally, I would also be motivated by a specific teacher I really, really liked and wanted to please. That happened rarely–the only really exceptional time was my junior year history teacher. He was a great guy who I really liked, and he also had this odd tactic of joking around with us if we didn’t get A’s. “A B-? You loser!” All in fun, of course. But it motivated me! Ordinarily, I would have been happy with a B, since it was a really tough class, but I wanted to please the guy. And get blow-pops. He gave us blow-pops.
I taught in the inner-city with similar problems, only I was trying to get the kids to be motivated in Art. Yes, you are on the right track with trying to engage what interests the kids already, and to do hands on stuff. These kids usually are not approval-seekers, because they gave up a while ago.
I try a combination of things. I use rewards, but I detest the carrot on a stick style of rewards. If a kid does something well, I give out a certificate privately, sometimes I mail them home. Some projects I let the kids choose between a few projects, to find the one they like best.
And as a last resort, I bother the hell out of the kid. I pester them about not working, I call home at odd hours, (6:59AM and 9:59PM are my personal favorites.) I mail assignments home, I call every emergency number and talk to every friend and relative about the kid.
Just do the best that you can and don’t take a kid’s failure personally. Always try to learn and improve, and know that you are doing all that you can. Kids can really surprise you in the end, some of your worst students can show up years after having your class to tell you that their life is going well and that they appreciate you. (Usually the first thing they say is WTF?! When did the school get metal detectors?)
What damaged my motivation was bullying & classroom violence.
Do what you can to stop the bullies, & the rest will fall together.
I figure there are two forces for every action: 1) the force that pushes one to school to get away from whatever’s happening at home 2)the force pushing one to come to school because its desireable; as long as it’s better to be at school…
What motivated me, in the end, was not wanting to disappoint a friend. I was going to fail grade 12, not because of lack of motivation but because I never developed decent study habits. A classmate took more notice of how I was doing than my parents (who had odd parenting theories involving not bothering to find out what was going on at school for me…) and took it upon himself to mentor me. I cared enough for his opinion that I wrote outlines and drafts (a first for me!) and turned them in to him to his deadlines, so he could be sure I wouldn’t miss the real deadline.
I have no idea how you can apply this particular lesson - but peer pressure to suceed made all the difference to me. I found in college too that although I didn’t have someone standing over me making sure I did well, I picked up a buddy system of working. A friend and I in each class would work together to make sure the other one stayed motivated and on track with assignments and exam study. It was a huge help.