Using Technology To Motivate

One of the most difficult tasks a teacher may have is to motivate an unmotivated student. There is an endless desire to reach students who don’t want to be reached. The teacher investigates every avenue they can think of to come up with an idea that will help. Getting into the student’s world, finding relavence, and using tools they are comfortable with, are all commonly mentioned techniques a teacher can use. But how to learn about students whose generation is 20, 30, 40 sometimes 50 years younger?
step in the latest technological device that every 12 year old clings to like a life saving machine.
A few years ago, my husband and I purchased an MP3 player….not because we wanted to have an MP3 player, but because we knew that the technology was moving so fast, that if we didn’t stay familiar with it, we would be dependant on our 5 year old to teach us how to run our Blue Ray. Now, with clouds and other ways to store information, MP3 players are nearly irrelavent. My students can absorb the new information and technology much quicker than (older) teachers. My advice for teachers: Do not be afraid of new technology, instead, purchase, practice and stay familiar with the new developing world around you…it may even motivate you to learn more….that is why I started this blog.

photo credit: rAmmoRRison via photopin cc

Flipped for Flipped Learning

Ever hear of Flipped Learning? I have been hearing about teachers who are using technology in a constructive way, instead of just games. I didn’t know it had a special name, but I knew the technique. Students access the next day’s lesson the night before at home through video, podcast or other such visual demonstration. Students can view the lesson several times at their own comfort and convenience. The next day when the student goes to class, they “practice” the information they learned the night before. In class, the teacher can work with small groups of students who need extra instruction and/or they can go help students practice their new learned skill. Now, what I just discussed is a very “generic” version. I began investigating this technique and came across “Flipped Learning”. The idea is students learn the concepts at home, and then practice in school. I did more investigating and found the “Flipped Learning Network”. There is a link in my BlogRoll.
It is free to join. Learn and practice a new philosophy on how to increase practice time in your classroom, and how to differentiate learning for all the learning levels you may have in your class. Their are webinars, discussion groups and support if you have questions. Please comment about your experience with flipped learning, or if you have even heard of it….it may motivate you! It motivated me to try….but I need to learn more…..how about you?

So…What Is Your Modiva?

I learned on thing from him…and that is…everyone has a ‘modiva’…

Modiva is “motive” in Spanish. Everyone has a reason to be doing what they are doing. If you understand why you are doing something, you will be able to focus on what you are doing, better. For example, if your motive is to go to work everyday to bring in money for your family than realize that you are going to have to do what is required of you, so you don’t lose that job. If your motive for going to work everyday is because you it will be a step in your career, and you are “just doing your time” until you get enough experience, than continue to look ahead on what your “next step” is. They say if you are starting your own business, your motive should never be “to make more money”, but instead, do something you really enjoy. Your customer service will be great, your customer base will grow, and they money will follow. In a business plan, your motive for the business should always be first and foremost in your mind. Henry Ford’s goal was to make a car affordable for everyone. He focused on his motive, invented (for all intense and purposes) the assembly line, and mass produced a car that was available in all colors, as long as it was black. His success blossomed, and the money came is.

Always be aware that people you encounter have a motive, from the 18 year old at McDonalds (wants to be a manager, or can’t wait to get another job), to the Doctor in the emergency room (loves the excitement of the ER or is an Intern, and must finish the 18 hour shift).

I ask my question often when I go through my work day….from by boss, to the parents, to the students, to the fellow teachers….what is their motive?….what is driving them?….why are they here?….why is their child enrolled in my school?….

What is my motive for this blog? I have alot of knowledge in the education world. I’ve taught from k-university level. I have many ideas on how to help students learn, and would like to reach more students. I have added a page called: Writer’s Clinic. In Writer’s Clinic, I will be posting information that will help instructors add to their teaching, and would also like teachers to add to this blog with great ideas.

So what do you have going on in your life? What is your modiva….?

Photo Credit: University Libraries; University of Washington

When You Inspire Others….

they inspire you…

Inspiration, to increase your desire to continue on the path, is sometimes difficult to come by, even though it is desparately needed.

One of the things that inspired me to become a teacher, is the “oh, I get it” comment that I receive from a student. It inspires me everyday, to continue my teaching career. Each one of is a teacher, maybe not with a credential, but definitely a teacher. Parents, grandparents, neighbors, and even sometimes strangers, can all teach us something. Learning happens often.

But there is a certain magic when you teach. You share a part of you. And someone internalizes your lesson for the rest of their lives. You become immortal in their memory. I still remember my kindergarten teacher, even though she has long passed. I’m sure your remember your kindergarten teacher too. It is true that when you teach, you touch the future.

I am not trying to convince you to become a teacher, but I would like to inspire you to teach others about what you know. It’ll surprise you what you learn.

photo credit: Kalexanderson via photopin cc

What’s My Affective Filter?

How often do you look in the mirror, and tell yourself something depressing….too fat, too skinny, too wrinkled, too many pimples, hair is not pretty, not the right color…….

How often do you look in the mirror, and tell yourself something encouraging…looking good, looking confident, looking happy, looking content…looking alive!

Learning is all around us! But when our “affective filter” is up, we block the possibility of positive inspirational and motivational signals of learning that come our way. Your “affective filter” gets triggered by increase stress, anxiety, depression, and reduced confidence. Your every fiber of being and nervous system is now set in a “non-receiving” mode.

Children are not in control of their affective filter as adults are. Their filter is often triggered by situational or environmental conditions for example, trying to learn information they are not ready to receive like learning a new subject or language, a new school, a new teacher, or someone being mean, all creating a stressful situation, and the child goes into protection mode, and raises their filter.

You can help yourself or a child, lower their affective filter by using encouraging words. Talk to them, or to yourself, about how this is a temporary challenge that you can learn about and overcome. The anxiety that they feel is a natural reaction, but you can help them see the situation by breaking it down to smaller steps, simpler ideas or in a different context.

You can help someone increase their ability to learn by communicating and increasing trust that the situation is safe, and learning will be a positive experience.

Have You Read A Good Book Lately?

Inspiration comes in many different forms. I often look around me, talk to people, and watch others to receive inspiration and appreciation of the amazing things around me. One thing I noticed is how many people read. Not paper books as much, but their electronic books. All around are people with iPads, e-readers, and phones accessing written material. The amazing thing about ebooks is that they are very inexpensive. Most under $5, many 99 cents, and even more free. I have seen books that are less than 25 pages, full of information that is informative, fun, or provacative. I would like to inspire you to not only read an ebook, but write one too! It is easy to jot ideas down about what you do in your life; a hobby, sport, club, outing, or events. You would be amazed on how many people would like to read about what you do, and get inspired.
I have written an ebook about how to help children learn math, reading and writing, with activities that are free (or less than $1). My series of books is called “25WaysTutor”, in them are ideas that parents and caretakers can play simple games that make a big impact on learning. Please follow my blog, and you will receive ideas to help your children. I have made a special page that you will be able to access information and eventually purchase my ebook. So stay tuned….

Inspiration….When You Least Expect It!

We all have had times when we needed inspiration for a project or a task and couldn’t find any ideas within. The search would be on; through internet, books, magazines, or talking to family, friends and collegues. As time moved along, we would get more frustrated that we haven’t found inspiration, or ideas to move our project forward….sometimes, often times, unfortunately, we would give up.
…but every once in awhile, inspiration is staring at us in the face. When we least expect it…if we are open to it, we will be ready to recognize an idea that will help us accomplish our next task.
There are many stories of events that change peoples lives. Often called “opportunity knocking”, you need to open the door. My husband and I made the choice of me quiting my job, to raising our two young children, but I needed to find a job that would allow me to stay at home during the day, and work at night and weekends when my husband could be home with the children. I searched many places for employment, but nothing seemed to fit the time or salary we needed. Then my car broke down, and it was taken to a shop, where I had several hours of freetime before they were able to repair it. I decided to take a walk down the street to the local fast food stand. On my way, there was a little real estate office that I had driven by and seen many times before (because it was a donut shop-turned real estate office). It was usually closed, but on this day, it was open. I decided to stop in, and there behind the desk was a young man about the age of 18. Clearly he was not a real estate agent, so I began to inquire of whom I should speak to, to get a job there. Happened to be that he was the broker’s son, and the broker asked him to answer the phones for a few hours while they were in town. He directed me to his father’s other office by giving me his phone number. As I walked out, I realized that I loved the real estate business, and had taken a real estate class 10 years earlier “just for fun” that would help me move forward with a real estate career. To make a long story long….just kidding….short, I followed through with this unexpected opportunity and had a pretty nice career as a Realtor for 3 years. As my children grew up, I wanted to have the same school schedule they had, and I went back into education. But for those three years, I had enough money and a schedule that worked out with my new young family. An opportunity of inspiration, that I least expected.

After Failure, Can You Motivate?

Recently my son was involved in a competition. Unfortunately his team didn’t win, and wasn’t recognized for any of their efforts. Now a days in the “everyone needs to win a trophy” era, children don’t understand why they aren’t recognized with an award, because they “did their best”. Children know when they “really deserved” an award….it maybe hard to admit, but they do know, and it is often difficult to have a child recognize that what they think is the best, really wasn’t the best performance, and someone else did perform better. But in this post,there is no debate if every child should win a trophy or not, self-esteem issues or how not to destroy their desire to continue competing. What is the focus is, is this: In competition, we can’t all be the winners…there are losers. So how does the child get passed the pain of losing and regain the desire to compete again? ANSWER: Discuss what happened! Allow them to express what they think went well, what didn’t go well. Give them immediate feedback, so they remember detail, and can discuss detail clearly. What did the winning teams do? AND how can they incorporate winning strategies and behaviors into their team to emulate the winners? Revisit the past, seek advice from winners, and look forward to putting their new found strategies to the test by entering a new contest. Challenging ourselves is a natural desire for humans. From birth, the challenge to roll on your back, standing up, running, to doing better than before. Possibly fueled by the desire to survive, people want to push themselves to success. As we grow we begin feeling the pain of failure, and often begin avoiding events that bring us this pain. As teachers, parents and motivators, we must help our children work through the pain by comfort, understanding, compassion, and encouraging, facilitating and guiding them back to the state of wanting a new challenge. When my son walked away from the competition, he “quit” in his mind. By time we got home (after going out to dinner and discussing the event), he was ready to take on the new season. Motivate and inspire by being their to support their endeavors.

Just A Note May Do…

It’s been assigned for four months now. The last couple of class meetings they have had the opportunity to complete their presentations. But one of my students, hasn’t begun. “Why haven’t you done your report?” “I’ve been really busy”…”For four months? Really?” “No, I don’t know, I just, I didn’t want to do it”. “But it was your choice?” “Yeah, I know….I just keep forgetting”. “I can believe that more than you’ve been really busy”.
So I wrote a note. A quick note. A friendly note, with a silly picture. “Remember to do your project”. The next morning I asked if she did her project. She said, “I got started, is that good?” Yes, that is much better than nothing. The note that helped her remember, was still in her binder cover. She didn’t remove it, as I think it meant alot to her, that I would take a moment to help her in a little different way. Today, I made another note, for another girl….I think I’ll be writing many notes.

Free Time as Motivation

Students have busy lives. Children are dropped off at school (or daycare) often before the parents go to work. At school, they have between 6 to 8 hours of lecture, activities and projects they must do. They often have one break in the mid-morning for 15-20 minutes, when they have to have to decide between having a healthy snack or playing outside. Later, a 40-45 minute lunch break where eating is reduced to a 10 minute silent period, where children are rushed out of the auditorium to make room for the next group. Afterschool daycare has become the norm, where staff supervise constructive activities. More often than not, children must attend homework club/study periods where adults help them with their homework or projects, as parents return too late from work to be of assistance. Children aren’t reunited with their parents until 5 – 6 pm, where evening home activities may include finishing up unfinished homework, helping with chores, bathing and getting ready for the next school day. If the child is lucky, the are picked up earlier in the afternoon, shortly after school has finished, only to be carted off to sports activities, dance lessons, gymnastics, music lessons, swim practice, tutoring, martial arts…you get the idea. Whew! No wonder they are exhausted at the end of the day. With this kind of schedule, I have noticed children like to have “their own time”. A time that they can decide what they are going to do, for a specific time period. This is often the incentive I use with my middle school students. For a week as students stay on task, they earn an activity where they may choose their free time. It has become effective, motivational and successful. It is never longer than 15 minutes and they look forward to not having anyone tell them what they can do with their own time.