Get Down on Your Knees

I am a young educator and I could say that the past 6 years that I've been in this vocation have been a roller coaster ride for me. For someone who had no formal education about education and got into teaching just because I felt this is what I should do (much to the disappointment of my parents who dreamt of seeing me soar "higher"), as expected, my first few years were like an experiment. Correction, until now I am still "experimenting".

Teaching has its highs and lows but for me, one of the hardest challenges that I have to deal with almost every single day are students who seem to lack the motivation to maximize their potential. I was reminded of this again tonight.

I am amazed and in awe of those educators who seem to have that gift of being a good motivator. It is a gift that I am still praying and working for until now. I am not the type of teacher who befriends nor becomes a friend of my student and I see this at times as a reason as to why some of my students are unmotivated. When that emotion starts to eat me up, I consciously stop it from dragging me down and remind myself to focus on the real problem that is, how do I motivate the unmotivated students? 

The bad news is I still don't know the answer to this question. But the good news is after 6 years of teaching,  I am still willing to learn and I am not yet tired of finding a solution to this problem.

While I was researching on ways to motivate my students, I chanced upon this blog Motivating the Unmotivated by Ken Wilson.This is a good read for educators like me. In his entry, he gave 10 specific and practical ways to motivate the unmotivated students. He is a Language teacher so most of his examples are related to this subject. But what I like about his entry was the fact that he gave specific and tangible examples. Examples that he either observed or did in his class. I have to admit though that I've heard some of it but never tried them in my class. What struck me the most was number 3) get down on your knees, here is an excerpt:

I asked her afterwards if she had been trained to get down lower than the student in this way and she said no, she just did it once when she was listening to a student, and the student seemed more confident asking her for help. Since that accidental discovery, she continued to do it, and now felt the class were more comfortable about telling her about things they were having difficulty with.

I am indeed inspired to give it my all , to be a magis, to be a better teacher because I am given the opportunity to make a difference in this world and my students deserve only the best.  

No doubt that this will be a tough job but I am sure that it will be worth it.

I am an educator. I teach, I care and I inspire lives.