Motivation

Why are you here (in the teacher education program, in this class, at UVU)?

I am in the education program at UVU because I need the skills that the professors teach us in order to become a successful teacher. The education program is so important because it teaches us more about being in the classroom and how to deal with the obstacles that we will face. Educational Psychology is one of the required classes in the education program, but I am very excited to be in this class and to learn more about what educational psychology is. I have been at UVU for 4 semesters now and in the education program for two and I love it so much!

What motivates you?

Success motivates me especially in school. I cannot wait for the day that I graduate, not just to be done with school, but to know that I did it and that I accomplished something HUGE! When I say success I do not mean wealth or fame or a big fancy job. When I say success I mean meaning, knowledge, and experience. My motivation is the image of myself being happy as a result of my accomplishments and I plan to work very hard to reach my goals.

Why do you succeed? Why do you fail? (Use terminology from attribution theory)

I succeed when I believe in myself and when I work hard. When I focus more on my internal locus of control I try my hardest to think about the positives so that I do not get discouraged. So many times through school I have told myself that there is too much work and that I am not smart enough to get through my classes. It has taken a lot for me to change this habit. I now think of my accomplishments and I have trained myself to look at the positives instead of the negatives.
I fail when I become discouraged, when I let others influence my opinions, and when I do not believe in my abilities. It is hard to go through college and not let external factors get in the way or influence me. There have been so many professors that people have told me are the worst and that I should drop there class. I am not one for dropping courses, so when I go to their class I usually have a bad attitude about the teacher before I get to know them. After being in the class and when I get to know the teacher's philosophy, I find that I have a great respect for them and that it was not fair of me to judge based on what others have told me. This type of influence can greatly set me up for failure.

Do the goals in your course contract reflect mastery goals or performance goals? What does this say about you?

Before I decided that I wanted to be a teacher I was not very excited about college. For my general classes I would deffinately say that my goal were more on the performance side of the spectrum. I was looking for a grade, not really interesting in developing a life long knowledge about Biology. It is disappointing to me that I would sell myself out in this way. Yes I went to class, but I feel that I lost out on a great learning opportunity by not setting mastery goals for myself.
As a future teacher, I now treat every class as it is the most important. My education means a lot to me and it will reflect the type of teacher that I will be. I want my students to know the importance of setting mastery goals and how we should meet our full potential always instead of selling ourselves short!

How do you need to change your motivations and mindset for this class in order to become a great teacher?

For this class I need to remember to be teachable, even through the frustrating moments where I think only I could be right. Some education classes I go into with the impression that it will be the same as my last education class. We learn new and different things in each of our education classes with little repetition and I need to remember that. I think that by being open minded and teachable will result in me becoming a better teacher becuase I will be more willing to listen to and address the concerns of my students without becoming offended.