As a teacher, I am constantly asking myself how I can get more of my students to succeed in my classes. I have many students who do well naturally. They work hard, turn their work on time, and they seem to enjoy being in class. Among those students, I have others who really struggle throughout the whole school year. These students have difficulty getting motivated to even start on their course work. I find that these are the students who are usually late to class, and who have a hard time staying on task. I teach classes in a computer lab, and this alone creates a lot of challenges. Some students would rather play on the internet than learn with the rest of the class. Those who struggle are often on my mind. After studying Behavior analysis this week, I realize that I have been focusing on negative behaviors of these students, while I should be focusing on teaching them productive behaviors for my classroom. Maybe there are some of them who have never been taught how to succeed or get things done, and this is why they exhibit behaviors that appear to be negative. While I teach them positive behaviors, I can reward them when they exhibit these behaviors. By doing so, I may eventually be able to replace those negative behaviors with positive behaviors. This would in turn lead to these students learning, and being a productive part of the classroom.
I still am asking myself, how I can effectively recognize and reward good behavior in my students. Verbal praise is an option, but will that be enough? What other rewards systems could I implement? Anyone have any ideas?
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Brandon,
ReplyDeleteI can relate to your comments this week. I think one of the greatest challenges I face as a teacher is to find an avenue that will allow for each child to feel success both academically and socially. One idea I have used is a student profile sheet(I did not call it that or none of them would have done it). I would have the students tell me about themselves, likes, dislikes, what they think is a reward, how they like to be taught, what they don't like/like about teachers, schools and so on. I would read these and try to provide experiences that matched interests. I did not go overboard, just kept the ideas in the back of my mind. With you being in the computer lab you could set it up as game, survey or something much more fun than I did. The one thing I learned this week is that in order for the positive reinforcement to work it has to be individualized and motivating to the student.
Good Luck!