Before I Say “Try Harder,” I Want to Ask “What Do You Need?”

One thing I have been thinking about after our recent classes is motivation. Before starting this program, I probably would have described motivation in a simple way: a student wants to learn, so they participate. If they are not interested, maybe they just need some encouragement.

Now I am realizing that it is not always that simple.

From our discussions about relationships, confidence, interest, and student development, I started thinking about the children I worked with before becoming a teacher candidate. There were times when a child did not want to join an activity or seemed uninterested. At the time, it was easy to think, “They just don’t want to do it.” But looking back, I think there could have been many different reasons behind that behaviour.

Maybe the activity was not interesting to them. Maybe they did not feel confident. Maybe they were having a difficult day. Maybe they did not understand what they were supposed to do. Or maybe they simply needed an adult to connect with them first.

This is something I want to carry with me into my own classroom.

I do not want my first response to be, “Why aren’t you participating?” I want to learn to pause and think, “What might be happening for this student right now?”

I also connected this to the idea of interest in learning. As teachers, we cannot expect every student to be excited about the same activity. One child may connect with learning through drawing, while another may be interested in building, movement, stories, numbers, or technology. Learning about students can help us find those connections.

For me, this changes the way I think about the teacher’s role. A teacher is not only someone who plans lessons and explains information. A teacher also helps create an environment where students feel comfortable enough to try, make mistakes, ask questions, and try again.

I am still learning how to do this. But one thing I am starting to understand is that sometimes motivation does not begin with the activity. Sometimes it begins with the relationship.

Sonia Sultana