Reflection # 7. Affective filters

From your experience, what are some of the affective factors that you encounter in your classrooms? How do they interfere in learning?How do lower the affective filter?

Teaching high school I found that maybe the most common affective factor that interfered with students’ learning was inhibition; teenagers have very high wall of protection around their developing –many times wounded- egos. Those inhibitions come out in different ways, sometimes even in the form of extreme extroversion or I’m-in-total-control-in-here attitude, borderline aggression, etc. What do I do in general to create an environment where students feel at ease? The main thing I do is to lead by example, the second is to really, genuinely, care for them and see them as people, trying to see beyond their outer faces and masks. Besides being my students in my classroom (perhaps giving me a very hard time), they are people with who knows what problems in their lives. Do I get ALL my students ‘hooked’ this way? No! And that’s where the ones that don’t pass are. But at least, I think that in some way I’ve been a positive presence in their lives and perhaps as a result, they will someday complete their education and do well in life. Just few days ago, I met a former student at a Target store. The kind of nightmare student no one wants to have, I’ve had her for only one semester (thank goodness), she had come from another district where her Spanish teacher was a friend of mine who told me about the student background (lived all her life in foster homes, had had a baby that was in foster home too, etc, etc, etc), she was 17 and didn’t know what Prom was…Well, anyway, I saw her at Target and hugged her, said hello and stuff and I said, well, good to see you Laporacha. She was almost in tears; she said: “Oh my God, you remember my name!, what was your name?- ‘Ms. Arzoumanian, honey, it’s really hard to remember’- I said”. I think (or hope) that the fact that I treated her with warmth and respect meant something for her. Anyway, that brings me to the modeling I did for my HS students. From the first day, I started learning their names (keep in mind that a HS teacher has an average of 140 students) and for the first few days or weeks I wouldn’t let them tell me their names, but I would ask for the first letter, for example, or do “wait, that’s Matthew, that’s Kate…you are…Stephanie?, no, no that’s Stephanie over there, right?...wait! don’t tell me yet! First letter? J? Jennifer!... And I’d tell them that when you are learning something (anything) you usually don’t learn it at the first try, but that it’s a process, sometimes long. Also, in the process, you are going to forget and make mistakes and that’s totally fine and can even be FUN. I also would allow and even promote making fun of some things about me (in a respectful way), like me saying “somefing” or “atteshon”. There was always humor and laughter in my class (but when I got mad at them, they would respond immediately).

I also would take any opportunity I had to put myself in the position of the learner and my students in the position of the teacher. I would for example ask about the right pronunciation of an English word, or ask them about something regarding computers, I once asked a male student once about what gel he used for his hair (for my husband) and that’s the gel my husband uses until now, I’d ask girls about good stores to shop, or make up tricks, etc. And believe me; I learned a lot from my students! One student I loved (but he was “bad” in other classes) made me a graffiti sign with my name for my classroom and at the end of the year he made me one with my son’s name for his room! Ok, people, I better stop here; I really get carried away when I start talking about my students J Sorry, but I really like to talk about my students. But the point here is what I did to help lower their effective filter.

Many of you work with children. What are some of the issues concerning motivation with children? How do address motivation in the classroom? Can you motivate them or does motivation come from within?

I think that what I said above helps also with students’ motivation. When there is a good relationship between students and teachers, the kids feel good about themselves and want to keep on ‘performing’ well (intrinsic). They also want to ‘please’ the teacher. Also, when a class is ‘fun’ and they feel at ease, they are motivated to be there and try their best.