Motivation

#week3

Motivation is the biggest challenge I see on a daily basis in high school English. Reading is a time consuming task that students don’t seem to want to tackle on a daily basis. Whatever a student’s reasons are for being a reluctant reader doesn’t matter. It simply must be known that motivating a student is a hard task. The RSA video and Arzt article discussed similar themes. While the video spoke about money as motivation, you can consider grades in a classroom the same difference. To motivate students they have to have a sense of self accomplishment, belonging, and success. These were mentioned in some fashion within the video. I related those ideas to the points made in the Arzt article suggesting that technology itself does not motivate students. I found similarities between the two sources as they both suggested motivation was linked to a positive self awareness. It’s not motivation to simply use technology; you have to have the students create something WITH it, according to the article. This is evident in my classroom. It was not motivational for students to complete a research project using Chromebooks and Google Docs. Like the video suggested, once they had to use their brains and THINK, their motivation subsided. Just as in my class; once students realized they had to use Google Docs to complete a research project, they were not as fond of the Chromebooks! Teachers need to be cognizant of the types of technology and assignments they are giving. Don’t use technology for the sake of saying you did, just like you wouldn’t give an assignment for the same reason. Nothing is really accomplished. Teachers need to discover what our students care about and incorporate technology, online reading, reading, assignments, etc. to help students feel accomplished when they have completed the task. For example, I have used blogging in class as I know students love to communicate with others, especially students from another class. So many say they are upset that their friend is not in their class. The technology incorporation of blogging exonerates that idea!