One of my first teaching experiences was teaching science at a summer school for under-privilaged middle school students held at my high school. There were no grades, students were there because they wanted to be and it was also a way for my private high school to give back to the community and make connections with students who would rarely get the opportunity to apply and come to my high school. Around the 4th of July all of the 8th grade students wanted to go to the fair, they may have even skipped a day of camp to go. I had an assignment due that no one turned in. I don’t remember the details, but it turned into a stand-off, I was calling the head of the camp, trying to find some leverage (since there were no grades), and they were holding fast to not doing the assignment. I was at a loss of how to proceed without the threat of failing them on an assignment. In the end I think the class time ended and they went on to their next class. In that moment I felt that I had failed as a teacher. I was unable to motivate my students to do the work, not for a grade but because they were engaged in the subject matter. Going on to teach math to high school students and astronomy to undergraduates who were taking the class as a GE requirement, I have struggled to make the subject matter relevant outside the classroom. How do you make astronomy relevant to a communications major? How do you make precalculus relevant to somebody who wants to study English Literature?
Motivating students has always been difficult for me because I’ve always loved school and loved learning. I never pretended to be sick, I would actually try to not be sick so that I could go to school. Taking classes, especially math and science, were like learning a secret language that I could listen to and hope to eventually understand. In high school I would follow my friend who were a year above me in math to speak with their teachers, and just listen to their questions and answers, in college I would listen to my friends work through math proofs that I would encounter the next year. My first “fun” class in college was stellar astrophysics.
As I read this chapter in the book, I tried to pin point, what exactly is it that has motivated me? Here are a few things that I’ve come up with:
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For 4th-8th grade I attended a Waldorf school. Waldorf has an entirely different curriculum for any other school that you have encountered. I had 2 hours of “main lesson” in the morning which rotated through approximately month long blocks of all of the academic subjects. Then, after snack time my day was filled with classes like handwork (e.g. knitting, crochet, sewing), wood work, gardening, PE, and painting. In main lesson we took notes and wrote up books which summarized what we had done the day before complete with titles, illustrations, and borders. We were not graded until 8th grade, instead we received comments on our work. While this made for a hard transition to high school, I believe that I was never forced into academics or into homework when I really wanted to be playing outside. For this reason, school was never a chore and I never felt burned out by it.
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I went to a very supportive and academic high school. I was encouraged to see teachers outside of class during our scheduled tutorial time. Teachers were addressed by their first names making them more approachable and class sizes were generally under 20 allowing for more personal interaction. I believe that they would have made every effort possible to reach you had you been in danger of failing a class. I believe that it was in high school that I became comfortable with going to office hours and seeking help outside of class.
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I chose my college because of its lack of GE requirements (one freshman writing intensive class, 1 quantitative class, and 25% of your courses outside you major category). The only class that I took that I did not choose was a US history through primary documents class my freshman year. This meant that I was always engaged in my courses. Again my college classes were small. My professors graded my homework and were available for office hours.
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I was never told that girls weren’t supposed to be good at math until I had chosen it for a major in college. I think this meant that I didn’t enter my classes thinking that because I was a girl I had a higher chance of failure.
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I have struggled most in classes where I felt that I couldn’t keep up with the reading (humanities classes generally). I am a slow reader and I felt that I had to sacrifice understanding for speed. This led me to avoid most English and History classes in college.
School has never been easy for me, but it has been attainable with hard work and I have been very fortunate to have been in supportive environments. I am most motivated by a class which challenges me to do my best work but one in which I feel supported by the instructor. I struggle most in large classes with teaching assistants where the professor is not accessible.
I think that in the format of meeting students in person and then bringing classes online, this support an personalization can be possible. I believe that an important piece of the online class is not just to do the assignment, but to receive individual feedback on your work.
This took ~1 hour for reading, 1 hour for writing.