My inquiry topic is focused on motivating children who don’t like school. The topic of motivation first came up for me after entering my practicum school and finding that one child immediately told me that she doesn’t want to be at school, and would rather be watching videos on her iPad. Further disengagement has occurred almost everyday. This behavior includes vandalism, resistance to do work, behavior that is well below her age (crawling on the floor and under desks), arguments with the teacher and students, running out of class unexpectedly, staying in the washroom for far too long, and much more.
For my first blog entry I would like to disscuss social and emotional learning (SEL). Positive teacher student relationships enable students to feel safe and secure in their learning environment, and can positively impact their social and academic outcomes. Students who perceive their relationship with their teacher as positive, warm, and close are motivated to be more engaged in school and to improve their academic achievement (Hughes, Cavell & Jackson, 1999). Building a solid relationship with your students is a vital part of being a good teacher, but it is especially useful/ critical for problematic children. I noticed that this student does open up and show interest in talking to me when we don’t talk about school. Building a relationship and having conversations with this student is probably the only salvation to get her to listen to me. She doesnt always listen to me, but I am not there everyday and it is hard for me to focus on building a relationship with her while also having a class full of other students who deserve my attention. I can see this also being tricky as a full time teacher. One teacher with so many students is a lot to juggle. I will continue to keep focused on building a positive relationship with this student, and hope for the best.