The Grind!

After a weekend that went by way too fast, we were back at school today finishing up the final week of our first quarter grading period. As I ran the tests from Friday through the scanner, I was pleasantly surprised by the high scores from a majority of my students.  However, thinking back to discussions on Thursday, I noticed that some students performed very poorly on the test and I believe it is due in large part to a lack of motivation. I have football players who just want to pass in order to play, kids who are grounded and just want their phones back, and students who refuse to do anything regardless of any attempt I make. As a result, I think I am going to do my research project on fostering intrinsic motivation in high school students by working with a small number of students who seem to be lacking motivation. I will need to determine their level of motivation, what their goals are, and push them to find an internal motor to drive them in their education. I am currently in the process of looking for measurement tools to help me (surveys, questions, etc.) to guide me in the process. I am glad that I am taking this route and hope to find some answers to the question of "What happened to intrinsic motivation in high school students?".