Motivating students can be one of the biggest challenges in education. Students come to us with many different backgrounds, interests, and experiences. Jennifer Gonzalez writes about motivation in her blog, "5 Questions to Ask Yourself About Unmotivated Students." (You can click here to find the article or go to www.cultofpedagogy.com for her podcast.) Jennifer tells us that we cannot make excuses about how technology, home lives, or millennial work ethics are the problem. As professionals, we must embrace our society and take a look at ourselves and what we are doing in schools and in the classroom that stifles the motivation. She suggests that research talks about the importance of building strong relationships, offering choice in a lesson, how grades really are not motivating, but growth is, and the importance of relevance to students when learning. I highly encourage you to read the article!
We are fortunate, at Perry Central, to be providing opportunities for students that help motivate them. Programs like Commodore Manufacturing, Project Lead the Way, Internships and Problem Based Learning lessons all help foster motivation in our classrooms by providing real-world experiences and choice. In individual classrooms, I believe our teachers are finding ways to collaborate, build relationships with students and continue to work on developing a growth mindset everyday.
But, we cannot stop here. As professionals in the field of education, it is our job to teach each and every student and to motivate them to want to be life long learners. We need to be consumers of research and blogs like Jennifer Gonzalez to help us continue to find ways to reach all of our students! What are some ways you have found to motivate your students?
School Notes:
* ISTEP Testing Week!! Please remember students will be testing Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday this week. Thank you for your flexibility and patients during this testing window.
* Exciting opportunities for summer school will be posted soon!
* You can find a master calendar in the Teacher Resource Folder on your Google Drive.
* Thank you to those who have turned in your 4.5/9 week assessments for the 4th Quarter!
Important Dates:
* Monday, April 24 - Varsity Golf @ Lucas Oil/ Varsity Softball @ Paoli 4:30
* Tuesday, April 25 - Varsity Track @ NED invitational/ Varsity Baseball @ H vs. Paoli 4:30
* Wednesday, April 26 - Varsity Baseball @ Lanesville 4:30/ Varsity Softball @ H vs. Cannelton 4:30
* Thursday, April 27 - Varsity Golf @ Paoli 4:00/ Boys Varsity Track @ Home 4:30/ Girls Varsity Track @ Southridge 5:30
* Friday, April 28 - Varsity Baseball @ Home vs. Wood Memorial/ Girls Softball @ Home vs. Tell City/
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