C4T #4

This post was entitled Motivate Students to Learn without Rewards and Mr. Prater wrote about behavior management and how it tells us that we need to give something back when we take something away. We do not always get the polite students in our class, so how do we handle that? Some students will come from a less than ideal home so how do we motivate them? Grades are never enough and Mr. Prater rejects physical rewards, incentives, and bribes because they will not result in long-term changes in behaviors. However he says there are three alternatives that are easy to implement into the classroom and they are: Showing genuine care for your students, Demonstrate a constant excitement about personal learning, and introduce appropriate challenges.

My comment: Hi, I am a student in EDM 310 at the University of South Alabama. Your post was so inspirational and helpful for me as a prospective elementary teacher! I agree that genuine care has to be shown towards our students. I have heard that teachers are not only teachers, they are counselors, friends, brothers, sisters, etc. to those that do not have a person of that role in that child’s life. All students want to know that they are cared about and the outcomes in the classroom I would think would be more positive! In our EDM 310 class we are learning lots about technology in the classroom and how it engages and motivates students more. Like you said above, grades are not enough motivation anymore so therefore, we have to come up with other ways to motivate our students intrinsically.


Mr. Prater's post this week was titled "Loving the Unloveable Student". From the title you can probably guess what this post was about. Mr. Prater was informed that he was going to have to teach math to students that had been held back and at first he was not happy about it. His principal asked him the question, "what are you going to do about it?" so he decided that he was going to love these students not mope about it. Because of his attitude change, the students excelled and some went on to be doctors, lawyers, and teachers.

My comment: Mr. Prater, I am a student at the University of South Alabama in EDM 310. Your post was so inspiring to me, as well as many others from the comments I see! You have definitely put into perspective for me on how important it is to love on our students not matter what. We never know what they can accomplish if we show them love and respect. I love the story about the young man who was so excited because his father took him out for pizza because he did well on an assignment. That shows me the importance of staying in contact with the parents about the students’ progress. This was so inspiring, and I will definitely apply this love concept into my classroom! Thank you