Extrinsic and Intrinsic Motivation

An event in my schooling in which I was inspired to perform was in my college debate class. She did something very simple but most college professor failed to do. She greeted me and my colleagues at the door everyday. Even more than that, she greeted us all by name. When I felt like a "number" in my other college courses, I felt like a important person in Ms. Peterson's class. She also learned about our weekend activities and would ask about them before class started. For example, I played softball in college, and she always asked how it was going and said specifics like saying which team we played. She truly cared about us. It definitely didn't go unnoticed, even 10 years later.

A time when I felt completely deflated was in my sophmore biology class. The teacher taught through only lectures and note taking, which is not ny preferred method of learning. Also, he was not connected to his students. He was, in fact, quite the opposite. I remember coming hom crying to my mom about how rude and mean he was. I remember he say, "Don't take chemistry next year because you will fail. Did you not learn anything?" Those words are still so clear to me today. He made me feel incapable, but looking back, he was the problem. I didn't try after awhile because I didn't want to listen to him. In a Ted Talk by Rita she says, "Kids don't learn from people they don't like!" That is so true! I loathed this teacher, so I refused to listen to him. To restore my faith, I had many talks with my mom. After that, my chemstry teacher, Mr. Woo, turned out to be the complete opposite of Mr. Bowen. I quickly learned and even loved chemistry. Mr. Woo taught us with hands on lessons and always provided us with positive praise. He immediatly restored my faith in science teachers and my ability to be successful in science. 

As a teacher, I will be sure to always put relationships first! The students won't remember all the lessons I taught, but they will remember how I made them feel. I will greet each of my students at the door and by their name just as my teacher did for me. I will praise them daily for all of their improvements. I will avoid teaching through only lecturing as many kids don't learn this way. And I will remember that if a student isn't getting something it is likely the way I am teaching it. I need to reach them a different way, even if that means just flipping a number line from horizontal to vertical. One student might better understand the increase in numbers if it goes up vertically.