Motivation

I am motivated by many things.  I am motivated by seeing myself do well and growing and expanding my pool of knowledge. I am motivated by grades and getting good scores and impressing other people.  I am motivated by fun and promise of good times ahead if I succeed.  I am motivated by negative things hovering over my head and threatening me.  I am motivated by goals and ambitions that I have for myself.  I am motivated by many, many things. Some things that motivate me might not be the best reasons for me to be motivated (fear, stress, fulfilling other people’s desires…) and some things are great reasons (goals, ambitions, expanding myself…).  I believe a lot of the things that motivate me, will motivate my future students.  When I am the creator of the motivation, however, I want there to be positive reasons why the children want to do well.  I will motivate them in as many positive ways as I can because I know that different people are motivated by different things.  I will have “fun” things to look forward to, I will have a grading system, I will have them create self goals, I will let them know when they are doing exceptionally well (perhaps even give their parents a call when they are doing very well),  I will spotlight exceptional things, etc…  I think children can all be motivated to their best, they just need the right kind of motivation.