Connecting+with+Students

=Connecting with Students=

These are some questions that arose from a guest speaker. What are your ideas? And **please sign your posts**. :)

1) How do we keep in touch with students' passions?

 * paying attention when students are talking about what they do in their free time.
 * observe your students instead of sitting back in your desk.
 * ask questions like "What did you do this weekend?"
 * go see the movies that the students see, listen to their music, go to their sporting events and after school events, remember you are not much older than them....it's not going to be a real stretch to watch what they watch and listen to what they listen to..remember you were only in high school 4 years ago:) user:AmandaGSpanish
 * Participate in student/staff basketball games, go to after school events, fundraisers (and although you may want to, first semester, I recommend you stay home and work on lesson planning, and do this stuff closer to Winter break and into second semester)user:cartierm
 * To piggyback on these ideas...simply watching 10 minutes of MTV helps me know A LOT about what my students are into...we also share "good news" at the start of every hour. This helps me know what's going on in their lives and about what they are passionate. user:decortem

2) How can we combat becoming less and less in touch with our kids as we age?

 * staying technologically on top of things (we grew up with technology so hopefully this will be natural)
 * read magazines, go to movies, staying in tune with pop culture
 * show your students that you are interested in learning about what they are interested in, ask them!
 * ask the kids questions! teenagers LOVE to talk! user:AmandaGSpanish
 * bring in photos and things from when you were in high school (such as music) user:emilylewis

===  3) One idea that stuck with me was the idea of motivating students by setting goals that students believe are both worthwhile and attainable. How do we actually do this? I need more practical knowledge of how to set those goals that are worthwhile and attainable and how to convey them to students as such.===
 * you can't set one goal for the whole class - it's going to be more of individual thing
 * in urban settings and less privileged schools foreign language will seem useless to the students, focus more on the students becoming more culturally aware.
 * even in rural schools if the students don't see foreign language in their future motivation is very hard!
 * make a goal to relate foreign language to students lives...ask kids what they want to do whey the grow up..will they need to know another language when out in the working world, business, doctors, teaching, marketing, science etc. foreign language is needed in all of this. make foreign language fun, maybe they cannot see the connection to their lives, but you can control the connections they see in your classroom, get them up, dancing, singing....they will be resistant, but they secretly love it, they just don't always admit it. user:AmandaGSpanish
 * I agree with Amanda! They say they hate singing and dancing, but you know they go talk about the things they do in your class with other teachers. My students have even asked to sing/dance/do an activity again. Watch out! Don't overuse the activity they love, or else they soon will loose interest. Keep it so that it is a fun surprise, and always keep on the look out for more activities to try! user:cartierm
 * Have your students set personal goals instead of setting them for the students. Let them decide how they will achieve their goals or what they will do if they're not being met. Take awhile to get to know classes before you set goals. Each group will be different. user:decortem
 * have students set goals that are not only related to your class. remember that even though they are your students in your foreign language class, these students spend a majority of their time outside of your classroom. let your students dream a little about the future and what they might do with it! user:emilylewis

=== 4) I really don’t know what to do with students who simply refuse to give anything. How do you help them? Is that not really a problem? Do most students have days like that but not the entire school year?===
 * how do you reach out to the students with no motivation when we were all very motivated high school students
 * if grades aren't motivating what is?
 * "we have been learning this for 5 weeks you should understand by now" you may have been teaching for 5 weeks but were the students really learning??
 * when you notice a students didn't turn in an assignment confront them, maybe if they know you believe in them that will create motivation!!
 * ask other teachers that have the student if s/he is the same in their classes. find his/her motivation for trying in other classes.
 * get parents involved
 * realize that no matter how passionate you are, how much extra help you are willing to give, some students just wont do their work, you can talk to parents, counselors, other teachers, but I have learned that some kids just will not respond. it does not mean you give up on them, but you also cannot take it personally if don't see results. mostly it is a pattern of behavior, i have had students this entire year who have done nothing, and then sometimes students will go through something like a sports team they want to be on and have to maintain a certain GPA so suddenly you see their grades improve and when the sport is over, grades go down etc. user:AmandaGSpanish
 * My first option is to talk to the student, and figure out their motivation. Try to connect your content area with his/her motivation, and see if that improves. If not figure something else out. Let them know you are there to help and support, but you can't drag them along kicking and screaming. I've told kids this I won't go 90 and only expect you to go 10. Make yourself available to them, before/after school- and not to simply talk about their grades. A lot of times kids need to trust you as a teacher and then you may see dramatic improvements in their grades- once they know you are invested in them, and not just the grade they earn in your classuser:cartierm