Motivation always needs to be taken into consideration when discussing students.

This is the
critical first step in understanding why students act the way they do, and understanding the
underlying cause for these behaviors allows educators to see the whole child as an individual
instead of just a point on a data chart. Too many times I have seen students placed into an
intervention class, which should be scaffolding remedial reading skills, because the student is
failing a class only to find out that the student is reading above a 12th grade level when tested.
The students failure, therefore, has nothing to do with understanding the material and everything
to do with his or her motivation.
Motivational theory is an authentic component in determining a course of action for an
individual students overall academic success. Many of theories I learned about support the need
for a differentiated classroom, and now I consider the motivational components for learning tasks
and how I choose tasks is based on different learning modalities so that students have increased
access to the content, process, and displaying their product in various ways to demonstrate their
understanding of a given topic. Finally, as the current department leader and a future school
administrator, understanding adult motivation will prove to be an indispensable method in
improving communication and ensuring that individual needs are being met to create and sustain
a positive and production working environment.
Furthermore, the characteristics of a positive classroom culture are demonstrated when
students are actively engaged in the class, high expectations are set for all students, the
classroom is organized both in regards to where materials are located and students
understanding of procedures and daily operations and conduct for behavior is clear and has been
jointly created by both the teacher and the students (Danielson, 2007). The teacher needs to be
able to manage routines, manage the physical space, create a visible culture of respect and

establish a culture of high expectations and learning. In order for students to demonstrate
meaningful growth, they need to feel comfortable asking questions when they do not understand,
they need to be able to assess themselves, and have feelings of accomplishment and success.
Students need to be pushed out of their comfort zone, but not to a point which only results in
increased levels of frustration.
One of the ways that I address this in my own classroom is by getting to know my students as
individuals and understanding how they learn best. I get to know their parents; I ask about their
new sneakers, and I always remember their birthdays. These things that take place outside of the
classroom help create a supportive and nurturing climate inside the classroom.
Throughout this graduate experience, I have become a proponent of professional learning
communities and a participatory style of leadership because I have seen through my course work
that student achievement is an interdependent process. In my own practice, I am currently
working on having students self-manage with more fidelity. I am continuing to work on
encouraging students to plan and organize their own learning by helping them to set mastery
goals, and measures that identify whether or not they have met those goals along the way. This
has required more time being built in for self-reflection in addition to the quick formative
assessments which really only give me feedback on whether or not the student has mastered a
given concept. Since I teach 10th grade, I should be moving away from the model that the
teacher is the only evaluator of student achievement and growth in order to get my students
prepared for the level of accountability they will encounter in college.
References
Danielson, C. (2007). Enhancing professional practice. (2nd ed.). Alexandria, Virginia USA:

Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.