Chapter 13

For my classroom, I want to arrange the room so that students have no choice but to be put in the middle of things, hopefully engaging them in the lesson. I like the idea of no back of the room, because this is often a spot for students to talk or hide from the teacher. In many of my English classes, the desks were arranged in a circle for discussion. This set up won’t always work for all lessons, but I find that it is very effective when trying to get students to be involved in a discussion or even listen more accurately to what is going on around them. I also enjoy posters and words on the wall for students to read. Obviously we don’t want a distraction, but I believe it also shows students that the teacher cares about her classroom, and wants to create a fun environment and not just envelop kids in a typical classroom setting.

For the fifth period music class in my CSEL case study, I think some application of love and logic could be effective. For those passing notes and texting, it might be helpful to say “If everyone listens up and gets through the songs on time without distraction, we will probably have a few minutes to socialize at the end. If we don’t want to pay attention it will only take longer, and we’ll be left with no free time.” For the three boys roughhousing it will be effective to take them either aside as a group, or each one individually, and sit and talk to them in a private setting. If chastising them in front of the class hasn’t worked, this attention might. It shows them you care about their behavior and how disruptive it is regardless if they believe it is harmless, and also takes away the attention they receive when they do it. If they boys refuse to still obey you might threaten to have them taken out of this class for another period, which wouldn’t be something as fun as music, but work in the office or study hall where they will be separated from their friends.

Chapter 11- Motivation

As  a teacher, motivation is a student’s learning is a key in the amount of the effort the students put in, and the amount of knowledge they will take away from a lesson or project. Therefore, it is detrimental that we, as future teachers, do our best to spark that motivation in order for a student’s best performance. In order to do this I believe I would have to go outside the typical mode of extrinsic motivation. While grades are enough for some students to entice them to perform, others genuinely don’t care. In order to put some care and effort in the project, finding some sort of intrinsic motivation would greatly involve the students. To do this, I believe it extremely important to get to know students and their personal lives outside the classroom. Knowing a student’s hobbies or home life can allow a teacher to gain insight in to their life, and find out what interests them the most. This way, when projects or lessons can be revised into adaptable ways, the teacher may know what to say or assign that may hit close to home and actually spark interest. Obviously, this cannot be done all the time because there are multiple students in a classroom, but for some certain large projects or important lessons it would be very useful. This in turn not only allows a student to put their own ideas and heart into something, but shows a students that the teacher cares enough about his or her learning to try to help them succeed. Because of this, some students might see the desire teachers have to see their students be successful, which in turn might encourage them so that they can please someone who has faith in them. I believe showing a student respect and love will ultimately affect that student, because they will want to do the same in return, perhaps through their school work. By doing their work or learning the material, they believe they are pleasing the teacher, and so desire because they want to continue that relationship of respect and encouragement. I believe when teachers reveal their own passion to teach and focus on the well-being of the student as a whole, not just grades, it does not restrict the learning environment and increases motivation because it reveals encouragement, along with satisfying one’s need for relatedness.