Alisia's words validate my feelings on these matters.


>1) Motivation and determination: Alisa said of the students that: "Their

>focus makes clear that the starting place for success is within them. 

>It's not clear to me if teachers can create those conditions for

>learners or if they have to find a way to do it themselves." What do you

>all think?

>  

>


Motivation is like a seed that grows. I believe a teacher can plant and 
nurture the seed. Sometimes the seed doesn't grow. Usually it does. 
Sometimes it sits for a long time before showing signs of life. Teachers 
are not the only ones who plant seeds, of course.

I feel motivation is created through many little things in the 
environment. For example, respect the student's goals. Help the student 
formulate and refine his or her goals, but it always has to belong to 
the student. It is a very easy trap in which to fall of trying to get 
the student to accept your goals. It won't work. Other examples: giving 
frequent feedback on the progress a student is making towards a goal 
(e.g. certificates, credits, gold seals, etc.); making a big affair over 
accomplishment of large goals (e.g. commencement ceremonies, awards 
ceremonies, press releases);  create a structure within the edcuation 
program that makes completion requirements explicit and easy for the 
student to monitor; the teacher needs to be constantly talking about 
attaining goals, and helping students get there without wasting their time.

A book I find very instructive on motivation and education is Summerhill 
School, by A.S. Neill. He worked in the UK in the 1920's, with what we 
would today call severely emotionally disturbed students. In a somewhat 
counterintuitve way, Neill created conditions for motivation to develop 
in the most difficult students who had been rejected by all other 
schools. A hallmark of his approach was to accept if a student wanted to 
do absolutely nothing. He was prepared to wait until they were ready to 
do things on their own. He referred to this waiting period as "curing 
children of the toxic effects of their previous schooling." If I could, 
I would force all school teachers to read Summerhill.


>2) Supports: Think about this quote from the article: "Practitioners

>cannot create family- or faith-based support where there is none, but

>they can heed the importance of building informal support within the

>program." How important is this? How much of a supportive community

>evnironment do you think your classes are? What factors contribute to

>it?

>

>  

>

Supports can be extremely beneficial for several reasons. Students 
helping each other helps both the helpee and the helper. When students 
work together in a helping community, they are encouraging each other 
and showing each other how they are working towards educational goals, 
and this helps build motivation. It is in the supportive community of 
students and teachers that positive relationships are formed. Everything 
builds on everything else.

Working in corrections education, this is a big challenge for me. There 
has to be a lot of trust among students for them to be willing to risk 
exposing their weaknesses and accept help from another. There isn't a 
lot of trust in prisons. People there also tend not to get along well 
with others. Many prefer working alone. Our teachers provide a lot of 
individual support. We intentionally try to separate the prison 
community from the school community. We refer to them as students, for 
example, not inmates. When they bring their prison language and behavior 
to school , we ask them to leave it at the door because now, they are in 
school. We maintain confidentiality. These things create a higher level 
of trust and mutual respect. It helps strengthen teacher-student 
relationships. It makes the school a desirable place to be.

There is one more thing I want to share about teacher-student 
relationships. I was thinking about my own school days and about the 
teachers I had. I could not remember some of their names. I puzzled over 
why there were some whose names and faces and voices stuck in my mind, 
but others vanished. It didn't seem to have anything to do with WHAT I 
learned in the classes. The most valuable class I ever took was 7th 
grade typing, but I couldn't remember my teacher's name to save my life. 
Rather, it was all about the strength of the relationship I had with the 
teacher. I'm not sure whether it is absolutely essential for learning 
that there is a strong positive relationship (remember my typing 
teacher) but I did realize that if I want to be well remembered, I'd 
better have good relationships with my students.

Tom Woods
Community High School of Vermont