What was the title of the resource (Podcast) you decided to review?

Motivating the unmotivated student by Tom McIntyre.

Provide a two paragraph overview of the information contained in the Podcast.

 Among brighter kids there are many non-motivated kids we think they are so bright and so capable why want they put forth the effort? And for a lot of them it is the praise that they receive previously. We see this a lot with youngsters saying, that they have been told “I’m gifted” “I’m a Brainiac” everybody tells me I have the gift and then they get faced with work that requires effort on their part and if a young student hasn’t been told specifically what they have done to be successful they’ve just been told you’re smart. They would see gee for smart kids this stuff comes naturally. If I have to put forth effort, that proves I’m not smart. And so kids that avoid challenging work and seek out less challenging work.

 The way we actually believe that we are encouraging students could backfire. The praise we use, praise kids and they will respond, and they do respond only if we have certain components in our praise. In certain times we sabotage our own efforts with the type of praise we give. If a teacher has a student in class who is demonstrating some kind of fear of failure what does that teacher do? First off they need to conduct their own functional behavior assessment if the school base support team and the committee and special ed aren’t involved in their analysis of what is the function, the cause, the purpose, the reason, the drive behind this behavior. You want to start conducting one of your own. Do and ABC evaluation, what came before it, what’s the antecedent, what just happened after it, the consequence and that will tell you what sparks the behavior. 

Why did you choose this Podcast?

I chose this podcast because I like to and wanted to know what motivates the unmotivated student. The different strategies Mr. McIntyre suggested were very good and interesting I enjoyed listening to the podcast. With becoming a teacher/special education teacher one day I am going to need these tips because there are going to be unmotivated students in the class room every day that either feel like they are too smart for what they are learning or like they are not smart enough for what they are learning.

Concerning the information in the Podcast - Was anything surprising to you?

No not really. The strategies he gave were good and down to earth and seemed to be by the book. Nothing seemed to be surprising or sounded to be out of the way of something a teacher wouldn’t or shouldn’t do.

In your opinion, describe two of three of the most important things you learned from listening to the Podcast.

 One thing I learned about is praising students. And what I mean by that is encouragement of them doing something well. Or “praising” them for something good they have done. When a teacher praises a student they respond well, and they will more than likely continue to respond well in the future as well. Avoiding criticism until it needs to be done and telling them that mistakes can be a good thing for learning.

Giving best efforts is another thing, we want to focus on efforts rather than accuracy. When we focus on grades, some of these kids aren’t getting the best grades anyhow. We can create strong grades by saying to the students “give it your best effort” “mistakes are ok to make and we will learn from them” It’s not failure when you make a mistake, it is learning.

How could you use the podcast information in YOUR classroom?

Every single thing that Mr. McIntyre suggested and offered for us to do with students or youngsters as he would say would be great to do in the classroom. Taking all of them and putting them into acting will show positive results in the class room and show that it can make a difference in a student’s life.

SUMMARY:

  Learning how to motivate the unmotivated student from Tom McIntyre’s perspective was interesting and enlightening. He was knowledgeable about several different ways to help a teacher keep a student motivated. Praising students and encouraging them to just give their best efforts no matter the outcome were two of my favorites that he explained in the podcast. I believe encouraging a student to give it their best shot helps them do their best because they will surprise themselves with the results that they get.