Inspired Versus Deflated In My Own Education

When creating motivation strategies for my future classroom, I take moments to look back on my past experiences as a student and what my teachers did that motivated me. I think of examples from past teachers of mine that motivated and deflated me. I then try and incorporate the motivating strategies into my future own classroom.

One teacher of mine that immediately stands out was my 7th and 8th grade history teacher. She always had our class engaged and excited about the material we were learning. For example, when we studied the Civil War, we received the content from multiple resources. As a class we read chapters from our history book, watched Gone With The Wind movie, watched a show on the Civil War from the National Geographic channel, and read articles the teacher had printed for us. We also had our own Civil War in the classroom. The classroom was split down the middle into the North and the South. After learning the content for the day, each side would be given the chance to answer questions. Students were motivated to pay attention during the lesson and retain knowledge on the content because if a student answered a question correctly, their side (North or South) would be given a point and a chance to throw a soft nerf ball towards the other side. If the nerd ball hit a student, they would be "dead". We were also given the opportunity to answer questions to bring people back to life. The side with the most points at the end of the unit won the classroom civil war. This made learning extremely fun for students. I didn't realize this at the time, but how she offered the content through multiple sources met the needs for various learning styles.

A teacher can also deflate a student's motivation. The first teacher that comes to mind when I think of deflated motivation, I am reminded of my 9th grade history teacher. This teacher only provided the material in two methods; the teacher would lecture while sitting in his chair or we would read the chapter in our history book independently at our desks. This class was very boring, not motivating, and did not keep most students engaged on the content. The teacher would lecture in a mono tone and sat in his chair at his desk. The teacher appeared bored during his lecture on the material. I wish we had a collaborative discussion on the material in the class. I am a strong believer that if students can talk about the material, then they understand the material. I did not retain the information well from just reading it independently. It would have been more engaging to have a class discussion after reading the material. My father would take over teaching me the material in the evenings at home. He would read the chapter, then we would have a discussion on the entire chapter. My father took over the responsibility of engaging and motivating me in history. I was soon back on track and retaining all of the material.

This is why it is crucial teachers take the time and the effort to create strategies for motivating and engaging their students. I believe one of the most important strategies is to provide the material through various sources to reach all students' learning styles. I will always remember my 7th and 8th grade history teacher for showing me how much fun learning can be. I will try my hardest to create that same environment in my future classroom.