Student Motivation

Student motivation is a critical educational issue that districts all around the country should deal with on a daily basis. More and more students are unmotivated for several reasons, for example they might have problems at home, they lack good teachers, parents don’t encourage them enough or they just began to lose interest in school or don’t find school amusing. Students should be the main priority to a district or school but instead money is. Districts are so focused on saving money that they just don’t care much about their schools, and schools more often try to save as much money as they can since their city has cut how much money they are getting, thus impacting how schools handle their money. Schools in a desperate way to keep their school open have to make critical changes to how they run their school knowing that their staff and students will suffer greatly. Schools are now cutting off teacher’s salaries, they have shut down their transportation to students, they have to shut down during and after schools programs, they don’t buy new materials for students, and they have to close down tutoring for students who need it. All of this issues impact the students dramatically in on way or another. Teachers, more than any district or school wide programs, have the most power to motivate students because they’re on the front lines (Annie Condron). She explains that teachers can influence students in a way that kids can actually understand. She is a teacher and she gives ways in which other teachers can motivate their students for example to praise students in big and small ways, expect excellence, or assign jobs. I found these methods really interesting, it would be nice if my teachers could use 1 or more of them. Especially when giving students a job in the class, which they have to be present and be active everyday in order to keep it. Michigan was rank number 3 in teacher salary, with the average of $56,000 a year in 2006(Thomas White). But