The key to motivating students is an enthusiastic and heart-felt
educator. This is a philosophy I adopted during my field experience
at Ball State. Mainly through tutoring at Northside and the YOC along
with my participation, I learned students need motivation and positive
feedback to be successful.
During my tutoring and participation I had the chance to get to know a
few students quite well. I came to realize quickly that students
do not learn the same way and at the same rate. Professional educators
need to be aware of the differences in their students approaches to learning
and create lessons adapting to these differences. Middle school and
high school are both critical times for students concerning their future.
If their educator does not motivate them, or help them succeed in any way,
their chances of dropping out becomes very high.
To be a successful teacher I feel it is not only important to know and
understand the content, but also to enjoy teaching it. When the students
see a teacher with enthusiasm it sparks their interest in that subject.
Using a variety of instructional strategies can also help the students'
developmental skills as well as making the content more interesting.
This is something that I tried hard to incorporate during my participation.
My goal was to make my lessons different than the average ones and get
the students engaged in activities that I felt they would enjoy as well
as being beneficial to them. The amount of information a student
learns, and their overall success lie in the hands of the educator.