What are the possible actions you could actually take to enhance the flow of chi within your students in your classroom? How could these actions enhance your students’ intrinsic interest in learning?
I had to laugh at myself as I read the end of chapter 7. While reading, I felt anxious and overwhelmed thinking about everything I need to do, making it difficult to concentrate on the text. As a habit, when I feel overwhelmed, I try to go outside or take a walk to get centered again. I decided to sit outside to finish the rest of the chapter. I had no idea that chi is what contributed to my flow of reading and internalizing the text! Or, that my tendencies to go outside decreases my self-consciousness and increases my chi. This experience helped me develop a new kizuki, or new perspective on self-consciousness/ ego and its potential negative relation to flow and learning.
Since chi stems from the natural world, I believe that students would benefit from using nature as a starting point for learning. There are endless opportunities for students to learn about the natural world and still meet “the standards.” I think all students can gain an appreciation of nature and experience how it creates a flow within us and between each other. I believe nature itself is intrinsically motivating. Some concrete examples of actions are: nature walks, nature reflection journals, field trips, and exposure to different perspectives from around the world regarding nature and the role we play in preserving it and using it to benefit our lives. These exposures to nature in different contexts will allow students to explore their own chi and develop methods to step away from their self-conscious and embrase flow.
Have you experiences flow in any learning activity? How did it happen? What did you learn from it? I have experienced flow many times in my life. One activity that came to mind when reading this chapter was playing sports. I experienced flow when playing tennis. Whenever I was getting a lesson, playing with friends, or playing in a match the time just seemed to fly by and even though the sport is very challenging I was fully immersed in the activity and did not feel like I had to put in a lot of effort. Playing tennis was rewarding because I saw myself grow as a player. I can’t really explain how it happened it just sort of did, I am guessing because I was interested in the activity and have always placed a high importance on sports. I also had the support of my mom who played tennis and the coaches that I had over the years who encouraged me, which I believe helped me experience this flow. From this experience I learned that a state of flow is possible in many different aspects of my life if I feel that the activity is important, challenging, and I have a support system. I also learned that it is possible to go from performance to mastery oriented. I went from being performance oriented to being mastery oriented because when I first started playing I just wanted to be the best and win all the time, but over the years I really became mastery oriented, I was putting in the effort to play and practice because I wanted to improve myself and my own game and was less obsessed with winning.
Have you ever experienced flow in any learning activity? How did it happen? What did you learn from it?
When I think of Flow Theory, I think of one instance when I was translating some Old Norse homework. If I remember correctly, I was translating Old Norse mythological accounts in the class textbook. I started working on this homework in the early afternoon and remained quite focused as I consulted the glossary, my dictionary, and my grammar notes. My concentration on this task was only interrupted when I noticed that it was getting too dark for me to see the text and that I was becoming increasingly hungry (turned out I skipped dinner).
One reason I was able to get into a flow pattern of work was because I had an individual interest in the material. From a young age, I have enjoyed reading Norse mythology, and through this exercise, I had the chance to read some of these stories in their original written language.
Another reason why I was able to get into this flow state of working was because I had a high sense of self-efficacy in relation to this activity. While I was only just learning this language, the textbook glossary and my grammar notes gave me enough support to produce meaning. Also, the fact that I had succeeded in other language classes also prepared me for believing I would succeed in this homework.
Study Question: What was the biggest crisis that you encountered as an educator as a result of the lack of student motivation? How did you cope with it?
During the fall semester, I was teaching a character education class to students in grades Kindergarten through sixth grade. All of my grades seemed to be quite motivated, except one student in my 6th grade class. I understood that they were at the age where they were becoming, “too cool,” for character education, but I really wanted to inspire them. One student especially would test me every single day, and it really took a toll on me and how I viewed myself as a teacher. I would become so frustrated because I would plan this great lesson, and find an emotional video for them to watch, and then have a discussion and an activity to go along with it. All of the students would be motivated except one girl who constantly made a joke out of it. Even when we would have small group discussions, we would go around the circle and students would share something personal to themselves, and then when it came to her she would make a joke or say she didn’t want to participate. I was so frustrated, because she is typically a great student, and there was nothing that I could do to motivate her. I even played trust games, which all of the students would be so excited about, except her. I would leave school so angry, because it felt like no matter what I did, or what I tried, and no matter how personal, fun, or emotional I tried to make the lesson it just did not work for this student. I honestly never found a solution. I did have her sit out of an activity one day because of her remarks. She was so angry when she couldn’t participate, but I wouldn’t allow her to participate if she was making fun of other student’s responses. I dealt with this by trying to focus on the students who did love the assignments, because otherwise I was just continually disappointed.
Study Question: What was the biggest crisis that you encountered as an educator as a result of the lack of student motivation? How did you cope with it?
I still refelct on a day that happened at the beginning of my 2nd semester. The class had just broken up into small groups for some collaborative work and one student just kept sitting at her seat, completely silent. I went up to the student and explained she needed to join a group, which she did eventually but then it was clear she sat on the very periphery of the table and had her earbuds in while the rest of the group worked. I went up to her to explain further that I needed to see more effort from her, she very quietly and timidly said "ok I will", but as soon as I walked she retuned to the same pattern of behavior. I was just about to go over and talk tpo her again when my master teacher stopped me. He explained the girl came to school very rarely, and that it was a known fact amongst the staff that her home life was in a very bad state, and that I should basically surrender to the fact she wasn't going to do anything today. That student eventually left the school for good, but i still recollect that moment with sadness, in a way i didn't really cope with it, i just followed my teacher's advice and left her to her inner demons. I hope one day something like this happens again, but that I can actually create a happy ending to such an anecdote.
What is your experience of helping students internalize intrinsic values and meanings of learning? What did you learn from the experience?
My master teacher this past semester did a job of using 'norm enculturation' and 'social persuasion' strategies in an attempt to motivate students. However students showed little response to these tactics. For example my master teacher would discuss with students how the learning activities we are doing in class will help students in the future in college or in their future jobs. The students seemed apathetic to these approaches. During my time in high school I heard these type of speeches a number of times and was never motivated by it. No matter what teachers said or did during my time in high school I never became motivated to try harder. In my experience as a student teacher I have seen similar results when trying to motivate students. I have so far been unsuccessful in any attempt to intrinsically motivate students. I have learned that it is extremely difficult to intrinsically motivate an unmotivated student.
Study Question: Have you experienced flow in any learning activity? How did it happen? What did you learn from it?
I was teaching my 4th grade class and the lesson was on perimeter. As I could see the kids were loosing interest in the perimeter of squares, I decided to switch things up. I introduced the "Dream House" activity in which each student was given a grid of graph paper and then had to draw a blueprint of a house. Each blueprint had to consist of squares or rectangles. The students then got to label each room whatever they wanted, from candy room to video game room and even trampoline room. Even though our math section was only suppose to be 40 minutes long, students were so immersed in the lesson that it ended up going a whole hour and a half. The students were having such a great time designing, measuring and showing off their houses, that perimeter became something they looked forward to. This taught me that everything does not need to be on a strict schedule and its okay to be taken away by something you really enjoy. The students were talking about the activity for the rest of the year and loved looking at all the blueprints hanging on the wall.
What was the biggest crisis that you encountered as an educator as a result of the lack of students motivation? How did you cope with it?
In my last student teaching placement I was in a 4th grade class. One of the students in my class had a learning disability and was very far behind from the rest of his classmates.The student was very unmotivated which was one of the main problems that I felt kept him from being able to move forward. Everytime we presented the student with a task he would say “I can’t do it” even though we knew that the task was at the students level and he was able to perform it. The student would sit in class the majority of the day and draw pictures of monsters or dinosaurs. In order to help this student with motivation we decided to create a project for him that involved drawing which was what he enjoyed doing the most. We gave the student a giant piece of paper and asked him to draw a picture an imaginary animal the student then had to label each part of his animal and write down what powers his imaginary animal had. The student was then going to get to create his animal using whatever materials he wanted. This was extremely motivating to the student because it was centered around drawing and using his imagination which was what the student was passionate about. This caused the student to practice his writing more which was an area that he needed to work on. By giving the student an engaging task that he enjoyed it increased motivation.
Study Question: What was the biggest crisis that you encountered as an educator as a result of the lack of student motivation? How did you cope with it?
During my part-time student teaching experience this past semester in a first grade classroom, I had one student who consistently displayed an unmotivated attitude towards any task during Writer's Workshop. This student, who is academically capable of competing the tasks required of him in writing, would take the whole writing time (40 minutes) to write one sentence. In addition to this, he would sit at his desk and stare at his paper or talk to neighbors consistently everyday. At first I wondered if this student was barely making any writing progress because he maybe was struggling with the academic content, but after discussing it with my master teacher and reviewing some of his past work including his district writing assessment, it seemed to be a case of lack of motivation. Everyday my master teacher would become increasingly more annoyed with this student's lack of motivation and resort to calling him out in front of the class and even yelling at him to "get it together" or "get something done."I was uncomfortable during these interactions because the student did not respond well as he made an angry and annoyed expression and would even make less progress than before. I took it upon myself to have a one-on-one conversation with this student and ask him honestly why he was not getting any writing done.He simply told me that he doesn't feel like writing and he doesn't want to do it. After telling me this I tried to explain to this student why it is important we practice writing (purpose of writer's workshop), and then attempted to relate our persuasive writing prompt to what I know he is most interested in, which is zombies.
Study Question: Have you experienced flow in any learning activity? How did it happen? What did you learn from it?
I have experienced “flow” in many areas of my life, and also in various learning activities. I experienced flow throughout an entire semester of Spanish literature class because I was so determined to understand and analyze the meaning of a foreign text that it did not matter to me how much time I spent on it. As I am pursuing TESOL and hope to also get my secondary Spanish credential, I want my students to find this same “flow” when they are studying language. I learned that flow stems from interest and belief: interest in the subject matter, and the belief that you are able to gain something (or succeed) from spending time on the material. When I studied abroad in Ecuador I had to read a challenging novel (Ilona llega con la lluvia) and I dedicated hours to translating, re-reading, and analyzing the text. This experience sticks in my mind, and to this day I do not regret spending an inordinate amount of time deciphering this text. I have always had an interest in the Spanish language and literature, but a certain degree of self- efficacy is required in order to persevere. I hope that I can transfer my personal enthusiasm for language learning to my students.
Study Question: What was the biggest crisis that you encountered as an educator as a result of the lack of student motivation? How did you cope with it?
My biggest motivational crisis this year was with a student who would constantly play video games in class, refused to listen to me and was generally rude to any attempt I made to motivate him. For a month I tried reasoning with the student and doing what I could, but nothing was working. I eventually reached out to the parent and the parent and I worked together to develop a way to motivate the student to complete his work. All three of us met together and discussed why he was not doing his work, even though he was more than capable. During the open discussion he expressed how history was pointless to learn, because "the past is the past". Luckily I was going to be implementing my Action Research soon after the meeting, where I would having students make connections between the past and the present. As a result of the group meeting/discussion and the increased perception of relevance, the student did begin to slowly increase his engagement during class.
What are the possible actions you could actually take to enhance the flow of chi within your students in your classroom? How could these actions enhance your students’ intrinsic interest in learning?
ReplyDeleteI had to laugh at myself as I read the end of chapter 7. While reading, I felt anxious and overwhelmed thinking about everything I need to do, making it difficult to concentrate on the text. As a habit, when I feel overwhelmed, I try to go outside or take a walk to get centered again. I decided to sit outside to finish the rest of the chapter. I had no idea that chi is what contributed to my flow of reading and internalizing the text! Or, that my tendencies to go outside decreases my self-consciousness and increases my chi. This experience helped me develop a new kizuki, or new perspective on self-consciousness/ ego and its potential negative relation to flow and learning.
Since chi stems from the natural world, I believe that students would benefit from using nature as a starting point for learning. There are endless opportunities for students to learn about the natural world and still meet “the standards.” I think all students can gain an appreciation of nature and experience how it creates a flow within us and between each other. I believe nature itself is intrinsically motivating. Some concrete examples of actions are: nature walks, nature reflection journals, field trips, and exposure to different perspectives from around the world regarding nature and the role we play in preserving it and using it to benefit our lives. These exposures to nature in different contexts will allow students to explore their own chi and develop methods to step away from their self-conscious and embrase flow.
Have you experiences flow in any learning activity? How did it happen? What did you learn from it?
ReplyDeleteI have experienced flow many times in my life. One activity that came to mind when reading this chapter was playing sports. I experienced flow when playing tennis. Whenever I was getting a lesson, playing with friends, or playing in a match the time just seemed to fly by and even though the sport is very challenging I was fully immersed in the activity and did not feel like I had to put in a lot of effort. Playing tennis was rewarding because I saw myself grow as a player. I can’t really explain how it happened it just sort of did, I am guessing because I was interested in the activity and have always placed a high importance on sports. I also had the support of my mom who played tennis and the coaches that I had over the years who encouraged me, which I believe helped me experience this flow. From this experience I learned that a state of flow is possible in many different aspects of my life if I feel that the activity is important, challenging, and I have a support system. I also learned that it is possible to go from performance to mastery oriented. I went from being performance oriented to being mastery oriented because when I first started playing I just wanted to be the best and win all the time, but over the years I really became mastery oriented, I was putting in the effort to play and practice because I wanted to improve myself and my own game and was less obsessed with winning.
Have you ever experienced flow in any learning activity? How did it happen? What did you learn from it?
ReplyDeleteWhen I think of Flow Theory, I think of one instance when I was translating some Old Norse homework. If I remember correctly, I was translating Old Norse mythological accounts in the class textbook. I started working on this homework in the early afternoon and remained quite focused as I consulted the glossary, my dictionary, and my grammar notes. My concentration on this task was only interrupted when I noticed that it was getting too dark for me to see the text and that I was becoming increasingly hungry (turned out I skipped dinner).
One reason I was able to get into a flow pattern of work was because I had an individual interest in the material. From a young age, I have enjoyed reading Norse mythology, and through this exercise, I had the chance to read some of these stories in their original written language.
Another reason why I was able to get into this flow state of working was because I had a high sense of self-efficacy in relation to this activity. While I was only just learning this language, the textbook glossary and my grammar notes gave me enough support to produce meaning. Also, the fact that I had succeeded in other language classes also prepared me for believing I would succeed in this homework.
Study Question: What was the biggest crisis that you encountered as an educator as a result of the lack of student motivation? How did you cope with it?
ReplyDeleteDuring the fall semester, I was teaching a character education class to students in grades Kindergarten through sixth grade. All of my grades seemed to be quite motivated, except one student in my 6th grade class. I understood that they were at the age where they were becoming, “too cool,” for character education, but I really wanted to inspire them. One student especially would test me every single day, and it really took a toll on me and how I viewed myself as a teacher. I would become so frustrated because I would plan this great lesson, and find an emotional video for them to watch, and then have a discussion and an activity to go along with it. All of the students would be motivated except one girl who constantly made a joke out of it. Even when we would have small group discussions, we would go around the circle and students would share something personal to themselves, and then when it came to her she would make a joke or say she didn’t want to participate. I was so frustrated, because she is typically a great student, and there was nothing that I could do to motivate her. I even played trust games, which all of the students would be so excited about, except her. I would leave school so angry, because it felt like no matter what I did, or what I tried, and no matter how personal, fun, or emotional I tried to make the lesson it just did not work for this student. I honestly never found a solution. I did have her sit out of an activity one day because of her remarks. She was so angry when she couldn’t participate, but I wouldn’t allow her to participate if she was making fun of other student’s responses. I dealt with this by trying to focus on the students who did love the assignments, because otherwise I was just continually disappointed.
Study Question: What was the biggest crisis that you encountered as an educator as a result of the lack of student motivation? How did you cope with it?
ReplyDeleteI still refelct on a day that happened at the beginning of my 2nd semester. The class had just broken up into small groups for some collaborative work and one student just kept sitting at her seat, completely silent. I went up to the student and explained she needed to join a group, which she did eventually but then it was clear she sat on the very periphery of the table and had her earbuds in while the rest of the group worked. I went up to her to explain further that I needed to see more effort from her, she very quietly and timidly said "ok I will", but as soon as I walked she retuned to the same pattern of behavior. I was just about to go over and talk tpo her again when my master teacher stopped me. He explained the girl came to school very rarely, and that it was a known fact amongst the staff that her home life was in a very bad state, and that I should basically surrender to the fact she wasn't going to do anything today. That student eventually left the school for good, but i still recollect that moment with sadness, in a way i didn't really cope with it, i just followed my teacher's advice and left her to her inner demons. I hope one day something like this happens again, but that I can actually create a happy ending to such an anecdote.
What is your experience of helping students internalize intrinsic values and meanings of learning? What did you learn from the experience?
ReplyDeleteMy master teacher this past semester did a job of using 'norm enculturation' and 'social persuasion' strategies in an attempt to motivate students. However students showed little response to these tactics. For example my master teacher would discuss with students how the learning activities we are doing in class will help students in the future in college or in their future jobs. The students seemed apathetic to these approaches. During my time in high school I heard these type of speeches a number of times and was never motivated by it. No matter what teachers said or did during my time in high school I never became motivated to try harder. In my experience as a student teacher I have seen similar results when trying to motivate students. I have so far been unsuccessful in any attempt to intrinsically motivate students. I have learned that it is extremely difficult to intrinsically motivate an unmotivated student.
Study Question: Have you experienced flow in any learning activity? How did it happen? What did you learn from it?
ReplyDeleteI was teaching my 4th grade class and the lesson was on perimeter. As I could see the kids were loosing interest in the perimeter of squares, I decided to switch things up. I introduced the "Dream House" activity in which each student was given a grid of graph paper and then had to draw a blueprint of a house. Each blueprint had to consist of squares or rectangles. The students then got to label each room whatever they wanted, from candy room to video game room and even trampoline room. Even though our math section was only suppose to be 40 minutes long, students were so immersed in the lesson that it ended up going a whole hour and a half. The students were having such a great time designing, measuring and showing off their houses, that perimeter became something they looked forward to. This taught me that everything does not need to be on a strict schedule and its okay to be taken away by something you really enjoy. The students were talking about the activity for the rest of the year and loved looking at all the blueprints hanging on the wall.
What was the biggest crisis that you encountered as an educator as a result of the lack of students motivation? How did you cope with it?
ReplyDeleteIn my last student teaching placement I was in a 4th grade class. One of the students in my class had a learning disability and was very far behind from the rest of his classmates.The student was very unmotivated which was one of the main problems that I felt kept him from being able to move forward. Everytime we presented the student with a task he would say “I can’t do it” even though we knew that the task was at the students level and he was able to perform it. The student would sit in class the majority of the day and draw pictures of monsters or dinosaurs. In order to help this student with motivation we decided to create a project for him that involved drawing which was what he enjoyed doing the most. We gave the student a giant piece of paper and asked him to draw a picture an imaginary animal the student then had to label each part of his animal and write down what powers his imaginary animal had. The student was then going to get to create his animal using whatever materials he wanted. This was extremely motivating to the student because it was centered around drawing and using his imagination which was what the student was passionate about. This caused the student to practice his writing more which was an area that he needed to work on. By giving the student an engaging task that he enjoyed it increased motivation.
Study Question: What was the biggest crisis that you encountered as an educator as a result of the lack of student motivation? How did you cope with it?
ReplyDeleteDuring my part-time student teaching experience this past semester in a first grade classroom, I had one student who consistently displayed an unmotivated attitude towards any task during Writer's Workshop. This student, who is academically capable of competing the tasks required of him in writing, would take the whole writing time (40 minutes) to write one sentence. In addition to this, he would sit at his desk and stare at his paper or talk to neighbors consistently everyday. At first I wondered if this student was barely making any writing progress because he maybe was struggling with the academic content, but after discussing it with my master teacher and reviewing some of his past work including his district writing assessment, it seemed to be a case of lack of motivation. Everyday my master teacher would become increasingly more annoyed with this student's lack of motivation and resort to calling him out in front of the class and even yelling at him to "get it together" or "get something done."I was uncomfortable during these interactions because the student did not respond well as he made an angry and annoyed expression and would even make less progress than before.
I took it upon myself to have a one-on-one conversation with this student and ask him honestly why he was not getting any writing done.He simply told me that he doesn't feel like writing and he doesn't want to do it. After telling me this I tried to explain to this student why it is important we practice writing (purpose of writer's workshop), and then attempted to relate our persuasive writing prompt to what I know he is most interested in, which is zombies.
Study Question: Have you experienced flow in any learning activity? How did it happen? What did you learn from it?
ReplyDeleteI have experienced “flow” in many areas of my life, and also in various learning activities. I experienced flow throughout an entire semester of Spanish literature class because I was so determined to understand and analyze the meaning of a foreign text that it did not matter to me how much time I spent on it. As I am pursuing TESOL and hope to also get my secondary Spanish credential, I want my students to find this same “flow” when they are studying language. I learned that flow stems from interest and belief: interest in the subject matter, and the belief that you are able to gain something (or succeed) from spending time on the material. When I studied abroad in Ecuador I had to read a challenging novel (Ilona llega con la lluvia) and I dedicated hours to translating, re-reading, and analyzing the text. This experience sticks in my mind, and to this day I do not regret spending an inordinate amount of time deciphering this text. I have always had an interest in the Spanish language and literature, but a certain degree of self- efficacy is required in order to persevere. I hope that I can transfer my personal enthusiasm for language learning to my students.
Study Question: What was the biggest crisis that you encountered as an educator as a result of the lack of student motivation? How did you cope with it?
ReplyDeleteMy biggest motivational crisis this year was with a student who would constantly play video games in class, refused to listen to me and was generally rude to any attempt I made to motivate him. For a month I tried reasoning with the student and doing what I could, but nothing was working. I eventually reached out to the parent and the parent and I worked together to develop a way to motivate the student to complete his work. All three of us met together and discussed why he was not doing his work, even though he was more than capable. During the open discussion he expressed how history was pointless to learn, because "the past is the past". Luckily I was going to be implementing my Action Research soon after the meeting, where I would having students make connections between the past and the present. As a result of the group meeting/discussion and the increased perception of relevance, the student did begin to slowly increase his engagement during class.