As an 8th grade special education teacher, this article made me realize (again) that many students have different talents. I have to tap into my students interests and current skills to enhance their learning of the English curriculum.
According to Csikszentmihalyi's study the comments made by the young men all dealt with the feelings they had when they were competent and appreciated. When they were in control of themself, they had a general feeling of well-being. The one comment that hit home for me was from Buster - he was the prize winning mountain biker when talking about the feeling when he was performing mechanical work. "If, say I'm, say I'm replacing my exhaust and my dad's ther eteaching me how to do it and that' ssomething i can learn and then I know and I can pass that on to my kids and it's just something, it's kind of like attained knowledge I guess that you can get from you know, just from doing."
I teach mostly boys, I need to be able to tap into teaching English by "just from doing." I know with this particular group, language is difficult for them. I have to disguise teaching the skills they need to acquire so they feel competent and with control over their learning. This year will hopefully, be in the Flow for them during English as well as myself when we all work together to meet the curriculum.
But, "Reading Don't Fix No Chevys", but hopefully, reading about skateboarding and dirt biking will help my students enjoy English more and feel capable of meeting the curriculum while in a Flow.
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7 comments:
I had the same reaction as you to this article, Mary. As a female teacher, I need to become more aware of the needs of my male students in the classroom. I realize that this may require me to change some of my teaching methods, in order to fully engage these students. The hard work is well worth it when a students makes a comment like "Wow, this is fun" or "I don't want to stop working on this" to demonstate that he/she has achieved flow during a lesson.
I think it is very important for students to experience intrinsic motivation. Your students can learn the things your teaching them if they do it for themselves. By reading about skateboarding, they probably won't even know they are reading. I bet you could have them write a paper about whatever it is they read about skateboarding and they wouldn't argue about it as much if you had them write a paper about a book they didn't even want to read! Once our students learn to do things that THEY like, and not what we make them do, they will be more motivated to do so many other things.
Yes, you do need to become more aware of the needs of your male sudents. SImilarly, as a male teacher, I need to become more aware of the needs of my female students. Basically, all teachers need to know that flow differs from gender to gender and student to student.
Sometimes, the materials and experiences selected can create an uneven learning experience. We need to design experiences that embrace all students and urges them to enter a zone of flow.
That is so true!!!! Male teachers usually know how to relate to the male students and know what they need. Females do the same. It is important that educators can relate to both genders and know how to reach all of them.
You hit the nail on the head. Female teachers need to become more aware of their male students and vice a versa male teachers need to become more aware of their female students. We want the students learning experience to be a pleasurable one and if we can do that by incorporating flow into our daily lives than that makes life just that much easier. Teachers have to take that extra step to make that happen, but in the end it is worth it.
And we also have to be careful to realize that not all male students are motor heads or jocks and not all female students fit other stereotypes. As we adapt to fit the needs of genders, we have to try to meet needs of most, if not all, learners!
I agree that it is vital for students to feel connected to their reading. This would be a great way to keep them interested in what they would otherwise view as painful tasks.
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