Jenny Yurky- The Secret of Motivation and Inspiration

I think that one of the most useful tips from this chapter is to act excited and motivated.  I think that this is important for two reasons.  The first is that if you act excited about what you are teaching, your students are much more likely to also be excited about what you are teaching.  If you show your students that you wish you were doing something other than teaching them, they will pick up on it and you will not have a successful lesson.  The second reason why this is important is because if you act like you are excited, you may actually become excited.  At the summer camp I worked at we would call this “Fake it till you make it.”

Another tip that I found important from this chapter is the suggestion to find ways to keep yourself motivated and inspired.  As we approach the end of the semester and the end of the student teaching experience, it is sometimes difficult to motivate yourself and to have those moments of inspiration where you think “this is going to be an awesome lesson!”.  At this point the end is in sight and you start to look forward to your future and your own classroom.  Sometimes I find myself thinking that I just have to get through these last few weeks.  However, these thoughts don’t stay around too long.  I remind myself that instead of saying I only have to go for three more weeks; I say I only get to go for three more weeks.  These last few weeks will be the last time that I get to work with these kids and the last time that I will have the opportunity to teach them and help them grow.  This is always a good motivator for me.

I realize that the two points I mentioned both focus on the teacher.  The most important part of teaching is the students’ learning.  As a teacher, your roll is to be an effective facilitator of learning.  Being (or acting) excited and motivated will help you to be an effective facilitator of learning and will lead to the success of your students.