Senioritis, Motivation, and Technology

During my student teaching experience, I remember my AVID senior class being very relaxed and casual. My mentor teacher explained how difficult it was becoming to manage the classroom because the students have been with her for four years and most of them are ready to move on with the next phase in life – college. A couple of the students “checked out” already and didn’t seem to mind the consequences of turning in late tutorial forms and receiving a poor grade in the class.
I couldn’t help but relate with the students. My senior year, I was ready to check out – get my diploma and leave the place for good. Knowing all too well this attitude that embodies the senior AVID class, I couldn’t help but wonder – how do I battle “senioritis”? How do I keep the interest level of students who are ready to move on and graduate? On a similar note, how do I hold the interest level of students who are unmotivated and simply do not wish to learn anything that is being taught in my class?
Motivation is such a critical component of teaching and learning. I can’t teach effectively unless students are properly motivated to do their work. One of the things I must consider as I develop my curriculum is the interest level of students and their motivation to learn the content that I’m preparing to teach them. I know that more students will be motivated to learn if they develop a personal connection to the material and have readily available technology resources, so I must also list that as a priority as well.

Columbia vs. UC Davis

For my student teaching, I did my literary placement in a senior AVID class. I remember some of my students got into a discussion about their future colleges during tutorials. One of the female students mentioned that she got into Columbia, but then also added that she wasn’t going to go. I was surprised at her decision, so I asked her why she would turn down an Ivy League school like Columbia. She explained that her parents wouldn’t let her go because it was too far away from home. I was even more startled by this response and I brought it up to my mentor teacher after class. My MT also agreed that the student’s situation was unfortunate, but she also added that it was wise not to press the matter further because the student’s parents might possibly become upset with her.

A few questions went through my head as I pondered this student’s situation. How much, should I as an educator, get involved in a student’s personal issues matters? I can empathize with the parents not wanting to send their daughter to a distant school, but I also feel like it’s a tremendously wasted opportunity if they were to stop their daughter from attending Columbia. I’m also certain that the student wishes to go but cannot because of her parents. Should I at least attempt to mediate a conversation between the parents and the student, or is this matter none of my business?

I learned that a student’s personal life would very likely be one of several key issues I must deal with when I begin my teaching. Getting involved in my students’ lives is a big part of my job description and I’m gaining more experience in this area during my student teaching. However, I’m also starting to learn how to tread the fine line that separates what is appropriate and inappropriate for teacher involvement in a student’s personal life. It’s important to remember that the student has to answer to and obey their parents, and that my input as a teacher should always stay within the realms of academics.

Teachers and Community

Last Thursday, I randomly met up with a friend whom I haven’t seen in several years. As we talked, I found out that he worked for Geoffrey Canada and the Harlem Children’s Zone, which received widespread recognition by the documentary Waiting for Superman. I asked him his thoughts on several issues pointed out in the documentary, such as the teacher’s union, the effectiveness of charter schools, and Michelle Rhee’s hardnosed policy on teacher performance.
One of the things he said really stuck with me after our conversation, in regards to Michelle Rhee’s (in)famous firing of teachers and school administrators. He mentioned that although the terminations were justifiable, they did not take into account the impact they would have on the local communities. Most of the teachers she laid off were African-American individuals who had grown up in the urban areas and districts of the schools in which they were employed. For many minority students from low-income backgrounds, these teachers served as the only models of the middle class and people they could aspire to become in the future.
I never thought of myself as a role model or example for students. To be quite frank, I decided to become a teacher because I thought the benefits were appealing and the work hours were undemanding (Bad Teacher, anyone?). Consequently, those myths were dispelled during my student teaching experience but I came to realize that teaching has its own set of merits apart from monetary incentives. As a teacher, I indirectly affect the futures of hundreds of young lives everyday at work. My students’ success and (failures) also indirectly affect the livelihood of the communities in which they live.

Engrish

It’s my first day of teaching and I’m standing in front of a classroom filled with thirty-six Korean middle school students. Three-dozen pairs of eyes. “Hello, kids,” my voice cracks, “my name is Noah and I’m your new English teacher.” Only nine students understand what I’m saying. The rest don’t speak a word of English. As I try desperately to get through what seems like a never-ending forty-five minutes, the same question keeps repeating in my head: how did I end up here?

I went to teach English in Korea because I had just finished college and I was knee-deep in student loans. It seemed like an easy way to make money – I would be earning a decent salary with great benefits, plus the plane ticket and housing were provided. Go to school, teach English for four to five hours, go home. How difficult could it be?

Needless to say, I was overwhelmed – I was ill prepared for oversized classrooms, unmotivated students, disinterested coworkers and the educational bureaucracy. To further complicate things, I had to teach the entire school of eight hundred students every week because I was the only native English-speaking teacher in the faculty (the other English teachers were native Koreans).

Thing started to change when I began teaching the English Club, an after-school program. The students (eight junior high boys) ranged in skill level, but their enthusiasm and level of participation were equally shared. To be honest, I’m not sure how much my teaching improved their skills. What I am certain of, however, is that I thoroughly enjoyed the experience of working with them. I took comfort in knowing that there was a tremendously positive aspect of teaching – helping students reach their potential and exceed their expectations. This was the single most rewarding accomplishment from my experience in Korea and one of the chief reasons why I am pursuing teaching as a career.

First Post

My first experience with technology in the classroom was in the fifth grade. We were taught how to use qwerty keyboards using word processors, which would also measure our wpm typing speed. At the same time, PC computers were becoming more prevalent in the classrooms, though they were usually tucked away somewhere in the corner. If we behaved well and completed all our assignments on time, we were sometimes rewarded with playing time on the computer. Oregon Trail soon climbed to the top of coveted playtime activities list among all my friends and classmates.

When I was in junior high, I attended a private school and was fortunate enough to have had access to technological resources. We had a computer lab and library with over dozens of PC computers and, as any typical adolescent boy would, I spent countless after school playing video games with my friends. I still remember the tech specs of these computers (120 MHz, 200 MB of disk space, 15 MB of RAM) and feeling envious because the Apple II computer I had at home was nowhere near as fast and powerful. One of our elective classes was a computer course in which we learned how to use Microsoft Office programs and the Internet - a novel and rapidly developing technology at the time. Our first lesson was on web browsers (Netscape, Explorer) and the use of search engines (AOL web search, Lycos, AltaVista, Yahoo, etc.).

Since that time, technology has made giant strides and advances, evidenced by the gradual changes in my high school and college classrooms. From Gmail, to Wikipedia, to Google Docs, to the use of personal clickers, my experience with technology in classrooms has always been fun, exciting and rewarding.