Motivation in the Classroom

     When talking about various factors involving the education of children in the classroom, I have found that I believe one of the most important factors is motivation. I believe this because I think that children are capable of any assignment that fits into the curriculum. Where I think many students run into a problem is when they do not see the value in learning about a particular subject. Many people, me being one, are able to do their work simply for the fact that there is a grade given. I personally would try my hardest for any class just because I could pass it. Beyond that I believed that passing classes was vital to going to college which I thought was the way to success and happiness. I still feel this way and I still use this for my personal motivation, but I know that that is not the case for everyone. The question becomes, how do we motivate students to try harder and want to succeed in the classroom.

     I tried to find some answers to this, and I think I got close with this article. In this article the author talks about using the things that motivate students so much to relate the material and get the students to care about the lesson. I believe that relating information in this way may be the best way to influence intrinsic motivation. I believe that students would really benefit from an attempt to associate information with something they care about. This could be something about a pet they have or a car they own. It can even be something on TV. I once went to a teacher's conference and the speaker mentioned that he had a student who believed that he was incapable of taking notes and keeping up with information and keeping  it in a organized manner. Because the student did not believe he could do this, the teacher accepted it and did not push the student. That is until the teacher found out that the student watched professional wrestling and kept a detailed notebook of every wrestler and their profiles, skill sets, and moves. He also kept a detailed record of the story lines  This student did this not because he had to but because he wanted to and cared about the information. This tells me that if a student cares about something they can be dedicated, they can work hard, and they can succeed at something.

     It is because of this that I believe motivation is so important to the success of students, and that I believe that relating information to something the students care about can really change how a student performs.