Tip for teens!! Anyone find that age 13-15 is the 'its not cool to try' phase? Praying it isn't just us but feel like im drawing blood from a stone at times. Any tips much appreciated!Teacher 2
I teach secondary school dance so I see a lot of this. Dance is compulsory in our school at KS3 and with the classes being mixed in age and ability motivation is essential.Teacher 3
Mine is 11-13 age range! Driving me madTeacher 4
I grit my teeth for two years between 14-16, and then they are lovely again.Teacher 5
I'm struggling with the older group 16-18 and although they've actually CHOSEN to be doing a btec course they won't try anything!
However, the discussions I have had with my colleagues are heavily focused on 16+ and students in professional training. It was through this work that my idea to focus on motivation began. I am lucky in that I have a fairly large group of students to try out motivational techniques on, Some of these students are going through a dip in motivation at the moment so it will be interesting to see which, if any, motivational techniques help them although I'm not sure that should factor into my decision? I wouldn't want anyone to misunderstand, the students who I teach are very dedicated and have a passion for what the study, but are lacking in motivation to better themselves outside of college hours e.g. arriving early to conduct a more thorough warm up before the days lessons start, staying behind after college to stretch or applying the amount of hours required to complete build-ups or learn theory. I recently had a group of students entered for teaching qualifications everything was left until the last minute which resulted in a group of very stressed students and an extremely stressed teacher. After the exam I wanted to talk to the students to see why this happened. One student remarked "I just can't seem to motivate myself." This is what interested me, the concept of self motivation and whether there is anything we as teachers can do to help students to find their own motivation rather than always being there to push them along. I am still unsure as to whether using both age groups will create too broad a topic or if it will help strengthen my inquiry. I do think that there is a difference in the problems that occur in the age groups, when talking to people about motivating early teens it seems to be more focused on 'in class' or 'in the moment'situations
Teacher 6
I have found with lower school (year 7&8) they need lots of short tasks. If they are given extended amounts of times they will only work productively for about 5 minutes,Teacher 7
I think pitching the class right is vital. Set the class a generic/core exercise. For those excelling, go to them individually and give them an extra task/make it harder, for those struggling, help them maybe break the steps down and praise them at each step even if they cant quite reach the generic/core movement.Teacher 8
Maybe a cliché but I do find that being positive with them and praising those that work hard and picking up on anything positive they achieve helps.Teacher 9
I make one of my girls dance captain in each class, it makes them work harder, also if they have been working hard there treat is they can do the warm up in modern under my supervisionI still have a lot of thinking to do and would love any opinion on my line of inquiry and its relevance.
Della - something to think about on this blog - this sounds like it is more about the inquiry stage than the planning stage... but it sounds like you have a very 'motivated' staff at your work with teachers who really care about what they do - important for a workplace SIG - this process has helped you engage with this area of study - however - at this stage you might consider more generic info in the text (noted no names used ) e.g. using brackets like [older group] or [younger groups] so we can follow your thinking but some of the full information might be useful later in your inquiry. It sounds 'class motivation' is vital in your work in performance teaching - but planning an intervention will be dependent on what you find out in your inquiry. The idea that planning might differ for class engagement dependent on age is an interesting point to follow up on - and one that could compare the stages of development for your pupils.
ReplyDeleteI have spoken to my colleges briefly regarding my Inquiry topic to get an idea of whether it would be relevant and helpful topic but I wanted to wait to talk to them in more detail until module 3, so I decided to carry out my informal survey to other teachers outside of my workplace via one of my internet based SIGs to see if the problem of motivation was a concern for them also. It was interesting to speak with other teachers and It helped me to gather a wider source of information rather than teachers who taught the same students as I did, I felt this helped me to understand that others share the same concerns as me and my colleagues and it is not just an Isolated problem at my workplace, but one that many teachers struggle with.
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