Tammy,
All experiences are great experiences as it gives specific examples.
Philip Campbell
Sondra,
What ever helps to motivate them will help them. Finding what that is takes time.
Philip Campbell
I teach a course that focuses on motivation and I always use the gas tank analogy. In order to reach our destinations, achieve our goals, complete our tasks, etc. you have to monitor and watch your motivation. When it gets low you have to refuel, re-assess, re-focus and re-charge or if you run out of motivation you are stuck. It seems to be a widely accepted analogy and it helps students to understand that motivation especially in a school setting won't always be high, but by learning to recognize the symptoms they can keep themselves from running out of gas.
I find motivating students one of the jobs of teaching. I have over 20 years of practical experience to bring to the classroom, and I find it very easy to make the class relevant to the field the students are aspiring to. Hands-on application of skills beats lecturing hollow! Once they have the experience of practicing a skills instead of being shown it, they're self-motivated!
I find motivating students one of the jobs of teaching. I have over 20 years of practical experience to bring to the classroom, and I find it very easy to make the class relevant to the field the students are aspiring to. Hands-on application of skills beats lecturing hollow! Once they have the experience of practicing a skills instead of being shown it, they're self-motivated!
Gay,
Relevance is what will make or break a class. If yo can show how they will use it after they graduate, you will have them eating out of the palm of your hand every time.
Philip Campbell
Correlating what they are learning in the classroom to possbile real-life experiences.
Tara,
Always a good example of what to do in the classroom.
Philip Campbell
I feel it is important to involve the students as much as possible. This accomplishes two things: motivation and interst. In my classes, I have students write down a word that they want to focus on for the hour or the day. I also have students come to the front of the class to act as the "reporter of the hour," having them read back just as they would in the "real world." We also play games, and if a student answers correctly, they put a smiley face on their "motivational" game card. They seem to love this! We also go on field trips and discuss what they observed. The students embrace this because it becomes real for them, what they will be doing when they get out of school. These are a few of the ways I keep students involved, motivated, and interested in learning.
I teach court reporting which is a very difficult skill to learn. As the students try to achieve a particular level, they are faced with failing tests constantly. This constant non-passing of tests can quickly make a student feel down about themselves. I need to always have them look for the positives in their work such as little errors that they can learn from and change for the next time, realizing how much they have improved from the last attempt (so they can see progress), or even having them accept some of their errors as "half-errors" that really were very close. All they need to do is improve in these particular areas and they are on their way to success.
I want to contribute some original thought but there are already lots of good ideas here. So building and taking from the work of my classmates, the things that have worked for me are being straight forward and telling the students up front why the course/class is important, relate it to their future job success, have a game to draw out their competitiveness, tell a related joke or humorous story, link it to personal experiences. Thanks for the insights.
I teach math in a predominatley medical career path school. Most students had a really bad experience with math in the past and do not see the relationship between calculating numbers and their career path. So, to bring some real life stories and reality into the classroom I have several lead-in stories which I use to introduce the reason why they need to know a particular method of calculating fractions, percents, and decimal numbers. The bottom line of each story is simple, students must feel confident in their ability to make it through the first interview with prospective employers. Students must also have the skills to achieve a promotion by knowing more than their peers. And the third story of "why do I need to know this stuff" is, how to earn a raise in salary by showing their employer initiative. These traits of a new or want-to-be new employee are critical to employers who do not have time to train employees basic soft and hard skills.
I teach in the clinical setting which makes it easy to related personal experiences with professional experiences. I then encourage students to extrapolate to then give the patient the highest quality care the students is capable of, including bettering themselves to improve their own skills.
I hope to motivate my nursing students by telling stories from my career at the bedside , using humor and being passionate about what I'm teaching.I'm crazy about the birth process & feel that comes across in the classroom.
Carrie ,
With the amount of studies that are being done these days to show patients how friendly hospitals are, this type of training that you are providing to your students is more important than ever. Good Job!
Philip Campbell
Nancye,
Professional experience is more attractive than chapter 2 out of any book. Don't ignore chapter 2 but make sure that the students get both, it will add to their education.
Philip Campbell
Show them you care, take time, listen and share your real world experiences with them
LET THE STUDENTS KNOW HOW IMPORTANT THEY ARE IN THE CLASSROOM AND HOW IMPORTANT THEIR OPINIONS ARE TOO.
Ubaldo,
Good Point. Thanks for your comment.
Philip Campbell
I find that in relating the students to Medical Law and Ethics if I let them relate the legal or ethical issues to daily life it sparks an interest that was not there before
