Motivation

     Motivation is a hard topic for me because I feel like a lot of the motivation I had throughout school has always been from myself. My parents have helped me understand how important doing well in school is, so whether or not my teachers motivated me, I still excelled in school. However, I know this will not be the case for all of my students. With that being said, I want to make sure my students understand the importance of excelling in school. This motivation may not come from within, but with my support, I hope to show my students that excelling in school is crucial for their future and they will be able to do that with my help. This could be the start of building their own self-efficacy towards school.
    One of the major things I will do to motivate my students is to keep them actively mentally engaged. By keeping the concepts I teach within their ZPDand connecting them to their schemas, I hope to make the concepts relevant to their life, which in return will help them want to learn. This will also help to keep my students from being frustrated with things they don't understand. By doing a majority of the learning in class and not assigning homework that isn't purposeful, I hope my students will have enough support and scaffolding that they can move forward at each of their appropriate paces. I will also use concrete examples and ask lots of questions to ensure my students are understanding what I am teaching.
     By showing my students how imporant a good education is and helping them move forward with their education, I hope they will be able to see how much I care to see them succeed. This will set a level of respect from my students to me and me to my students which will help motivate my students. I will also serve as a role model to my students by setting good examples for them to follow. I hope to build a good relationship with each one of my students individually which will give my students a better understanding of what I expect from them.
    I feel that by changing the beliefs of my students towards education, I can motivate them to learn. I don't think school has to be boring and hard. It can fun, engaging, and very worthwhile, but many teachers don't take the time to make it that. I hope by using effective strategies to motivate my students they will understand the importance of learning and strive to work hard at it.