Motivation Factors

Obviously the ideal situation in a classroom would be for students to be self-motivated.  However, this rarely happens in schools these days.  So, I have to find a way to get my students motivated to learn what I'm teaching because whether they want to be there or not they have to so why not make the most of it?  One of the biggest thing I want to make sure happens is that the time spent in the class is not wasted.  I hate it when teachers waste my time in class and so I don't want to waste theirs.  I think this will help to motivate them to do the work because they know I would never give them a task to waste their time.  This fits in with CLT because their schemas will be built so they know there is a point to the assignment.  I also want as much participation as possible because my content area is heavily based on discussion.  In order to motivate them to talk I want to make sure they feel as if whatever they say has a value, even if it is not exactly the answer I am looking for.  Not shooting down their answers is connected to CLT because their schemas will tell them that their opinions are valid.  There are other motivations but I think these two are the most important at this point.

Classroom Management

When considering classroom management there are a lot of things to think of.  I want to be respected and have the kids listen to me but I also want the kids to be able to talk to me.  The balance between these things is going to help with my classroom management.  I want to make sure I walk around the class so the kids don't have to focus on one spot all the time.  I also think that having them talk in groups will help them to keep each other on task.  Using the more knowledgeable peer will help them to listen to each other and if one person gets off task I think it will help to have their fellow student keep them focused.  Keeping a routine, such as a bell ringer, starting class on time/going all the way to the bell, and not springing things on them, will help keep them on task.  They have a set thing to do and expectations so they can keep themselves on task better.  Hopefully I can establish a sense of respect amongst my students so they are motivated to stay on task by themselves.  I don't want my students to have to "task switch" all the time because then they won't be able to put enough effort into the tasks to do them well.  All of these can be connected to learning theories.  Most of them are based in SLT, especially with the more knowledgeable peer.  Establishing a routine would fit in with CLT because I am establishing a schema for them.  I am also scaffolding them and adding on what they are already used to and making sure I add to that so they know how my classroom is run.  Walking around is BLT because I am causing a stimulus that they can respond to and won't be bored all the time.

Reflections on Lesson

(I thought this was posted earlier but turns out it was just a draft!)

When we did the lesson there were a few difficulties we ran into.  The first one was that when we told them to discuss the questions we gave them.  They seemed to focus more on answering the question than thinking how to give a speech on it.  We probably should have been more clear about what we wanted them to do with the questions.  Also, there wasn't as much participation as we would have liked.  I think this was because we weren't clear in what we wanted from them.  We had to restructure our lesson as we were going along to cater to what the "students" were giving us.  Next time we need to be more clear in our intentions as be more confident in what we are saying.