Sharon Shaw

Interesting topic.  I never thought of paying my taxes as motiviated, but it is true, I am motivated by not going to jail.

I oftn think of what motivates students and remind them to remember what motivated them to come to school in the first place to get the unmotivated back on track.

Motivating students is essential to retaining students.  I have students who sometimes bring a wealth of life experience to the class and express that the assignments are meaningless to them.  I encourage to take classes and assignments they are already know as something to pad their tool boxes and their GPAs.  There is going to come a time when they just might learn something if they open their minds to it.  I let them know that I am always learning each time I teach a course.  I learn from the material as well as from their experiences.  

I like the principle behind the REFOCUS acronym.  Sometimes I find myself caught in a rut and it helps to refocus.  Student engagement is also a plus.  I try to encourage particpation throughout the course and have the students help each other after I have helped them learn a particular skill.  I consider it as reinforcement of what they just learned.

There was a lot of content that I enjoyed in this section.  Since we are in a COVID environment, I greet each student as they sign into Teams.  This helps me to establish a rapport and learn their voices when they ask for help.  I also think knowing your subject and presenting it with enthusiasm is very important.  Teachin energizes me.

I like the videos from Harvard.  It is always critical to be prepared for the classes prior to teaching them and I like the idea of using students with experience to help reinforce the lessons.