Exploring Apathy and Motivation in Teachers and Students as Professional Development

"I'm up there talking and they don't even care."
"10 out of 26 kids turned in a rough draft. I told them that they'd lose points, and the next day only 2 more kids turned one in."
"I planned the hell outta this lesson and it totally bombed. I thought they'd be excited, but they were like, 'Whatever.'"

And then we play the blame game:

• it's their home life; they don't value education
• they're always multi-tasking and can't focus when I'm just trying to teach them
• their other teachers never collect homework so they're used to doing nothing
• last year's teacher didn't teach them anything so they're not ready for this class

Image courtesy of kirkh from Flickr

So whether I've heard these things or said these things, that doesn't matter. It doesn't change the fact that student apathy exists. It also doesn't change the fact that teacher apathy exists. In our case, though, as teachers, it's the apathy to evaluate our own practices and determine what our role is in student motivation.

Because I had numerous conversations during the first semester about student motivation--in the hall, in the lunchroom, in my office--I knew this topic was on teachers' minds. When veteran teachers--those teaching over a decade--start to compare the current level of apathy they're facing and claim that "it's never been this bad," it's worth examining. Is that true? Is there some new development we need to be concerned about regarding student apathy?

Beethoven vs. English 101

A Composer Composing

Composers vs. Composition. There's a connotation there: composers are artists, they are musicians, they are creative. Composition, on the other hand, is that class we take; it's studious; it's tedious; it involves a desk, a lamp, some white noise, a can of Diet Pepsi or a mug of lukewarm coffee. How can we help our students to think of themselves as composers?

My sons (are not droids)

The medium. That's one place to start. An artist has tools at his disposal. Composer John Williams of Star Wars and Indiana Jones fame had violins and trumpets at his disposal. Digital composition offers our artists tools. Do they want sound? An image? A video that works as a metaphor? A hyperlink to another composer whose work has inspired their own? There's a creative freedom with a digital medium that can foster our artists' creativity. On paper, a students' creativity--or lack of it--can be exposed, but that isn't so wrong. We need to see those flaws, too. But what if the images, links, videos and hypertext aren't crutches for students, but instead opportunities?