Spring Break

This spring break I stayed home on Long Island and did not do too much but relax and get a mental break. I did, however, have the opportunity to observe a teacher in my high school teach students self defense. I thought this would be cool to observe since I can experience what a class would be like on a friday during 9th period, the last period of the day. This experience opened up my eyes to how hard it is to get the students motivated to participate especially during this time slot. It is the end of the day at the end of the week, and students just do not want to focus. The class was majority young females aging from 15 to 17. Most of the girls participated, but some did not, and these girls my teacher referred to as being "high maintenance." I can see why he gave put them in this generalization. These girls were all tan and wanted everything done for themselves. My teacher had to pull teeth to get them to do the self defense techniques. He participated with them and made sure they got them done. When he walked the class to see how the other students were doing, these girls immediately stopped doing the techniques and went on to talk about what their night plans consisted of. This observation made me realize that at the high school level students barely want to participate. I am willing to take on this challenge and motivate the students. I believe that every student will participate if you make the class fun and entertaining no matter what time of day or what time of week it is. I actually knew the girls and started a conversation with them explaining the benefit of learning and practicing these techniques. They all agreed with my examples of why it is necessary to practice it over and over. They ended up getting enthusiastic with these and enjoyed the lesson. My teacher asked me what I said to them to get them motivated and I simply told him, "I cant give away my golden nuggets, they will land me your job one day." My mentor smiled and said," Thatta boy."