Now that it’s been two weeks since spring break, students are more focused on the next vacation: summer. Students and teachers are seeing a lack of motivation in the classroom.
Not only do students struggle to regain motivation after spring break, but also as sports seasons finish up or begin again, student-athletes feel a sense of urgency to stay on top of their work. But that urgency can be overwhelming to students like Braely Martinez (10).
“The biggest struggle is having to balance school and soccer and getting all my work done but still maintaining good grades,” Martinez stated.
Since the season is picking back up for Martinez, she needs to find ways to keep up her motivation while she continuously goes out of state for club soccer as well as leaves school for the school soccer team.
“There’s a lot of times where I have to leave early for soccer, I miss some school or I have practice after school and I can’t get all of my homework done,” Martinez explained.
Alongside her, she has teachers like Aurea Fehringer (staff) to help keep her grades up. Fehringer, Martinez’s advisory teacher, is known for going out of her way to help students get caught back up in school after being absent.
“Many times when students come in to get extra help to understand expectations or when we can point out patterns of mistakes, they catch on easier. I see improvement in their explanations or if they don’t earn full points, they can usually look at their written feedback and make corrections on their own,” Fehringer said.
Not only is Fehringer open to help, but she also sets students up for success by working with their busy schedules. Like her, fellow science teacher Sarah Gray (staff) has found many ways to help students boost their grades as well as their motivation.
“I often talk to each of my students and am aware of any extracurriculars they may be in or other life situations that may be occurring. This helps me to know how to support each student in their success. Allowing students some extra time on work or walking them through an assignment for clarity goes a long way. I also try to learn each of my student’s learning styles, which helps me understand how to teach them,” Gray explained.
As a student-athlete, Martinez continuously tries to stay on top of her work to feel accomplished. She sets goals with herself to keep her grades up.
“I have to keep good grades to play soccer, so I use that as motivation to keep my grades good,” Martinez said.
Though changes made in due dates help students, the helpful hand of motivation goes side by side with those said changes.
“I start to lose motivation because summer is almost here and I just started soccer, so I’m trying to focus on soccer,” Martinez said.
Whether students are involved in sports or not, motivation tends to decrease by the end of the school year. Teachers like Fehringer and Gray who adjust due dates and work with students one-on-one can be beneficial in combating the decreased motivation.
