I feel that I am lucky to work in a
preschool classroom. It isn't really hard to motivate preschoolers to learn and
be excited about new material since they are still in that stage where they
love school and learning. Though keeping the children motivated to be on task,
can sometimes be a whole other story. I find that coming into the classroom with
plenty of enthusiasm helps to get the children motivated to focus on what I am
trying to present. The more experience I have in the classroom the more styles I
learn about to try and keep children on tasks. There are times where I have to
come in and almost whisper to the children to try and grab their attention and
give them that giddiness of ‘sharing a secret’ although I’m really just giving
them new information in different way.
To get back on subject though, the
theory of motivation that I feel to be most helpful and instructive for me is
competency and self-worth. Growing up I can remember times where I simply gave
up due to the fact that I just felt inadequate (thanks a lot, long division). It
wasn't until I was patiently shown how to work out the problems step-by-step,
that I felt like even attempting again. The more practice I was given, the more
I realized that I could complete the task on my own, and even became excited to
finish whole worksheets. I still see this in myself and classmates to this day.
I know in many of my college science classes people would simply say things
like ‘’ What’s the point? No one ever passes it anyway” and not even attempt to
understand the concepts. I remember overhearing a guy on the bus once telling
his friend that he really wanted to ace an exam so he spent weeks studying and
ended up acing the test. It was motivational for me to see how much this guy
believed in himself and how much work and pride he put into his work.
I also see this sort of thing on a
weekly basis in the preschool that I work in. There is one student who says ‘Can
you help me?’ at least twenty times a day. The tasks can range from opening his
lunch to coloring in a sheet. He constantly goes through self-handicapping
behavior. I have really worked on getting him to at least try. For example,
each day in the lunch room he will scoot his lunchbox to me and ask for help on
opening it. i have gotten into the habit of telling him that I will not open
anything until he at least tries to. It’s not that he is unable to, he just
never seems to want to even try. Once he begins to open his lunchbox I usually
try to say things like “See? You did it all by yourself! You didn't even need
help, see how easy that was?” Once he begins to ask for help on other things I usually
remind him how good he was at opening his lunchbox and that I’m sure he could
open his fruit if he would just try. I have noticed a bit of improvement with
this student. He doesn't ask for help with opening his lunch box and hell
usually try to open his food before even asking me. Throughout the day I try to
comment on different tasks that I see him completing to remind him that he is
more than capable.
After reading what Janay has experienced with her little students I was amazed and at the same time wondered about the reasons that a young student can has, or perhaps the background behind him, so that he shows possible lack motivation at school at very early stage. It is obvious that he is reducing any possible effort he can make in order to accomplish his task, and need extra attention from his teacher, so he feels capable to do it. I am wondered if he is just trying to avoid failure to protect his self-esteem??? In any way, I have the impression that Janay is doing a great job with him since he already start doing his task by himself, which at the end is what, we want as teacher, teach them every single ability that is required to succeed in life.
ReplyDeleteI like how Janay would reminded the boy that if he could open his lunch box he could open his fruit. By reminding the stundent of his accoplishment Janay has encouraged/motivated the student to try a new task on his own.
ReplyDeleteI to struggle from a math handicap. I never took the initiative to get any better and lacked motivation from teachers and parents. It was presented to me as this is you math homework and you have to get it done. I feel that alot of teachers do this in there classroom. Instead on motivating them to do the task we force them to.
I agree with Noel about motivating children to do a task instead of forcing them to, but at the same time they need to know why they are having to learn something, or accomplish a task. You have to give them application for what they are doing and how it fits into an overall goal. After that, then a teacher can address each students individual needs and how to motivate them. Janay did a great job challenging her student and then complimenting him and lifting him up when he accomplished it and showed that he could do it himself.
ReplyDeleteI sometimes wonder if I chose the wrong age-group of students to work with. You comment that motivating them is not really the difficult part but rather keeping them motivated and on task. I have really struggled with both of these steps with my high schoolers, but I am realizing that I use the same simple strategies for motivation (encouragement to stop self-handicapping and humanistic approaches) with my teenagers...just with more difficult tasks. I sometimes fear that my encouragement seems inauthentic to this age group, but know that with repetition and reinforcement, it will sink in.
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