by Eric Benzel

Motivation was the topic of last Thursday’s teaching math seminar.

Here are some excerpts:

From book: “… you should now have the students realizing that there is a void in their knowledge. They are now motivated to learn how to find the values of trigonometric functions of angles greater than 90°.”

From class: “You can give the kids an extra credit math art project and they will blow you away! The kids really loved math doing this project.”

Really? Ok… I’ll admit that I love math. Geek flows in my in my veins, and solving math problems can be addicting. Hearing these “motivational” recommendations almost had me laughing out loud though! Can the authors of the text book really expect students to find trigonometric identities interesting just because I point out they don’t know this yet? Does the teacher (who happens to work at one of the most prestigious gifted schools in the country) expect an extra credit do whatever you feel like (with a math theme) project to motivate a normal class of students who 1) hate math and 2) have been told they aren’t good at math since they were young?

Yea, motivation is a tough subject and, to be fair, the authors of this unnamed text give lots of other, somewhat decent, suggestions. The gifted teacher was simply presenting a possible project. Yet I think the lack of student motivation is one of the most important issues we deal with. It connects to identity, classroom culture, performance, and future plans! I left the conversation deeply cynical but motivated to learn about motivation!

I don’t have the answers to this yet… so I’m making student motivation my own learning goal for the next year. (Last year I focused on learning about the research and best practices of cooperative learning). I want to be able to help an integrated algebra class love math (something the Regents can’t measure, by the way). I think that my classroom must be a place where students are motivated to work hard and learn lots!

Any places to start? Any recommendations? Here is a list of questions I’m starting to develop:

1. What contexts are motivating for students? I don’t think ‘real world’ is enough… what are characteristics of contexts that are highly motivating for students.
2. How to help students move beyond grade based motivation. Is standards based grading the answer? Ungraded work? What is out there?
3. How does community fit into the motivation picture: are there class structures that not only facilitate higher interaction but also higher levels of collective motivation?
4. Is motivation or interest something that can be tracked? Are there ways of determining my own effectiveness (other than a sense) in increasing the interest and motivation of my students?

Here are two interesting ideas that have come up in the last month. The first is a TED talk that I am obsessed with right now. The second is one of those bizzare prezi things that a friend emailed to me (my favorite recommendation: be less helpful!). Check them out and let me know if you’ve found anything good!

http://blog.ted.com/2009/08/the_surprising.php

http://prezi.com/aww2hjfyil0u/math-is-not-linear/

I was interviewed for Mississippi Public Radio just the other day, and I wanted to share the link with everyone.

http://www.mpbonline.org/news/story/hundreds-new-teachers-are-being-trained-delta

My fantastic teaching partner, in the picture of the article, was teaching Chemistry by playing trashketball.  The jerseys are quite classy!

Reflecting on the piece, my comment in text format is a good reflection of my scattered thoughts. In the audio clip, on the other hand, I think I ramble on enough to get a decent reflection of my TFA experience.

One thing I would like to clarify is that many students do come to class wanting to learn, and for me to generalize all student weren’t motivated was inconsiderate.  I just think when it comes to Chemistry, particularly summer school Chemistry, it usually takes a little more effort for students to be invested because of the rigor and the preconceived notions of a typical Chemistry class.

By Nate Reaven

The question of classroom management has become an issue lately at my summer school. I have always heard of classroom management as something to corral the animals.  I have heard classroom management as the fence surrounding the acceptable, and keeping the unacceptable out of reach. Now, while I just made that simile up, I think it adds value to what it means to have a well-managed classroom.

A fence with a hole will be exploited immediately by the animals inside. Similarly, if I create a hole in my classroom management, my students will exploit this until the end, sealing my downfall as a quality teacher immediately. If I treat one student with any hint of favoritism, or another student with any hint of personal dislike, my students will no longer trust me, and instead attempt to try me as a person, as oppose to challenging themselves as students.

For some reason this does not feel like the silver bullet that I am looking for in my classroom management. So often I have seen teachers fall victim to the “New Teacher Disease,” where they are only able to rule their classroom with discipline and negativity. Instead of praising students for intelligent answers, they will call out students for speaking out of turn or not raising their hands. They believe that a quiet classroom is a good classroom.

I have never really subscribed to this paradigm. I believe that students inherently want to succeed. True, it oddly seems to be cool to be unintelligent amongst urban youth these days, but I sincerely believe that when given the right motivation and finding the right teacher, that intelligence can be seen as the right path to go down. But a student cannot become a passionate learner in a quiet classroom.

Take a second. Think to yourself about the most excited you have ever been in a classroom. Were you silently reading or writing in a corner only academically and intellectually interacting with yourself? Were you listening to the teacher drone on about simple or complex sentences? Or were you instead working on a project? Were you in class interacting with a friend or two about how to make a volcano? Or, were you jumping out of your seat because of the way the teacher expressed their ideas?

I’m not sure what your answer was, but I would bet that it was probably during a time when you were using your hands, your body, your voice and your ability to express yourself. Not just writing down your thoughts and showing them to only your teacher.

Unfortunately, for those new teachers that have contracted the “New Teachers Disease,” this means that their classrooms need to be a tiny bit chaotic (if chaos can be tiny that is). And I welcome that. If my students are not yelling, they are not learning (okay, that might be a little hyperbolic, but wouldn’t that be more fun?).

I guess what I am trying to say is that you need to get your students excited about learning. If they are bored, they will act out. And then they will not be excited about anything except finding a way to get through that hole in your classroom management-fence.

by Eric Benzel

I got schooled in a water fight by a little elementary school girl and her abuela yesterday. My roommate and I ran out into the street, and twirled a few times in the blasting fire hydrant. When we walked back on the sidewalk, it was to dry off. Then, from behind, one of our neighbor’s daughters dumbed a bucket of the cold water on my back! Her grandmother then proceeded to hit me again from the side before I could find a bucket of my own! The water battle erupted, everyone to their own! I knew a couple of the guys throwing water buckets (D and Brandon are always on the stoop) but most were strangers. It was a moment where the barriers I had felt on our little block broke down: who knew it would take a heat wave and an open fire hydrant to cut through much of the cultural and language tensions that I had imagined (or perceived) since moving in.

Last week, I posted a picture of some kids playing in a hydrant on a different street. Looking back at that picture, I realize how much of an outsider I often feel here. It is easy to feel distant from the people in the neighborhood. In my classes, we talk about the traditionally marginalized, low-income, ELL students in New York City. We discuss diversity and community from a safe distance. My news blogs I follow are full of people writing about the charter school wars happening in the city right now. People discussing remarkable gains among ‘high-needs’ students, or the impact of charter schools on public school spaces in poverty ridden communities. It is easy to keep distance from the actual, breathing people that are behind these stories and the pedagogical techniques.

It was reviving to be in a water fight with my neighbors. Fun, laughter, and the heat brought our street together in a very beautiful and authentic way. I am so ready to be in a classroom where the ‘Latino and Black’, ELL, and high poverty students are not just a category, but students that I have a living connection with. I am ready to be in a school where families from the community and neighborhood connect with each other and with teachers. I think these tangible moments provide more opportunity for learning than the distanced discussion that is occupying so much of my learning right now.

At CU, in my Ed Pysch class with Vicki Hand, we wrote case studies on students we got to know over an entire semester. This is the type of real life relational learning that I crave… I appreciate the distanced discussions of impacts of detracking in math classrooms, and I’m learning a lot here.

But I’m ready to get in the water.

By Nate Reaven

I love teaching. I love teaching a lot.

I love the kids. I love imparting knowledge. I love creating engaging, exciting, and most importantly challenging material that will grip the kids in a way that will get them excited about learning not for the rest of the summer, but for the rest of their lives.

I love playing games with my students. I love challenging them to tell me who Benvolio is in relation to Romeo. I love asking my students questions that do not necessarily have a right or wrong answer, but an answer that requires evidence. And then I love seeing my students support their answers with the exact right line in the play. Point proven! they yell excitedly as they show me the scene, act, and line.

I love giving my students the skills to succeed. I know that in order for my students to succeed academically and professionally, they need to know how to read. Giving my students the gift of literacy is unforgivably challenging, but it is so necessary. And I love it.

But, I’m also scared to death.

What if I do not impart the right knowledge? True, I love creating engaging, exciting, and hopefully challenging material – but will the students ever remember that activity I spent hours planning? Will the material be too challenging? Or not challenging enough?

I love playing games with my students – but shouldn’t I be spending more time having them read and write their way to success? Learning can be fun, right? But is it the most effective way for them to succeed? I love hearing one student cite the right piece of information in Romeo and Juliet, but what about the student in the corner who is more lost than Christopher Columbus on his way to India? Am I just calling on the intelligent student because I know they will know the right answer?

I love giving my students the skills to succeed – but how do I know I’m teaching the right skills? I know they need to read, but what are the steps to successful reading? Is it phonics? Does one learn how to read by being read to or is it best to just keep pushing through and hope they get it? Am I just reaching into my magic hat hoping I pull out a literate rabbit for my last trick of the night? Or will I fail and pull out nothing but air?

As a teacher, I have an unbelievable amount of power. I cannot afford to fail. Right?