In what ways will building relationships with my 5th graders impact their motivation?

Seminar Title

In what ways will building relationships with my 5th graders impact their motivation?

Building the teacher-student relationship

5th Grade

5th Grade

Science

All Disciplines

Do you ever feel your students aren’t motivated? Do you struggle connecting with your students? So did I, so I chose to look into how I could best change those things. This session will give you insight into different strategies that may help us teachers develop positive relationships with our students, and hopefully improve motivation along the way. I believe that any discipline or age can benefit from my seminar.

In my first two years of teaching, I noticed that my students seemed to not be particularly motivated. I knew this was a bad thing and that I needed to find a way to motivate them. I didn’t want to hand out candy for rewards or give out any punishments in order to motivate them, so I decided I would do what I do best. My plan was to see in what ways building relationships with my students would impact their motivation. In the past I thought I had done a fairly good job with this, but this year I was going to try even harder. My review of literature showed promise in a positive outcome of building positive relationships with my students. That didn’t come as much of a surprise. In my action research I took field notes, gave my students a survey three times throughout the first semester, and personally took a survey three times throughout the first semester. I made it a point to have a meaningful conversation with each student that I taught at least once throughout the week. In the end I showed fairly neutral results. My data showed minimal growth in motivation. However, I feel that my relationships with my students this year a stronger than they have been in past years. I am curious to see how the rest of the year goes and if their motivation will remain where it is or change.