Motivation....

I think a lot of students at every grade level, at one point or another, struggle with motivation. Sometimes it is very hard for students to see the need in knowing how to do long division correctly. I was one of those students who felt that Math wasn't that important. We have calculators now, for crying out loud! As a second or third grader, I couldn't see the big picture and realize that I may not always have a calculator handy when I need to figure out a problem. However, if I had a short term goal that I wanted to reach and I had to learn long division to reach that goal, I was all for figuring out what my quotient and remainder would be. If teachers and parents work together to set immediate goals that can be met by the student only by learning a difficult and dreadful task, the student will be more willing to complete the task. Another personal example is of me learning how to ride a bicycle. Almost all children want to learn how to ride a bicycle and enjoy doing so. Notice that I said almost all because I fell into that small percentage of children who couldn't care less if I could ride a bike or not. My parents were determined that I would learn how to ride and I was determined that I wouldn't. We had this same debate with swimming lessons. Only when I was given an immediate prize to work toward would I participate somewhat willingly. In order for me to learn to ride that bicycle, there was a drawing of a very expensive doll that I wanted on the refrigerator. If I successfully rode my bicycle for a long enough amount of time, I could earn a part of the doll (think about it like Hangman).Eventually, I did earn the doll and I can ride a bicycle. I'm not saying that I wouldn't have ever learned if I wasn't given the tangible incentive but knowing that there was a reward awaiting me did speed the process along. Maybe the incentive for a student scoring better on their report card is a prize from a treasure chest or a homework pass. Maybe those students are allowed to be the line leader for a day. If a student can see a that a tangible goal awaits them and not an abstract goal, they will work harder to tackle whatever obstacle lies before them. I still have that doll that I earned by riding my bicycle. I still have the bicycle too!