Now in My Twenties

Looks like it is my unpopular belief that candy is one of the worst motivators in teaching. Let’s just think about this for a bit. Candy, literally pure SUGAR, is a common method teachers use to motivate students to work. Forget the fact that candy is a direct way to harm a child’s health; candy is no different than any other type of currency for children. You are paying them to be students. Teachers using the candy-motivation strategy are failing their students. They are sending the wrong message. If your goal is to help students motivate themselves, it won’t be accomplished by throwing candy their way. It is such a short-term effect that using it in the classroom won’t make any difference in student motivation. If, in fact, student motivation is your goal, then you need to create an atmosphere of positive learning. If you want students to care, if you want students to motivate themselves, the motivators you offer them as a teacher should not be extrinsic, but rather intrinsi...

This post is a little late in timing. I know graduation was back in May—and to all those who graduated, congratulations! It wasn’t easy. Hell, it was really hard. But that’s okay because you did it and no one can ever take that away from you. But now that it’s been a few months; now that you’ve had a chance to settle in; now that you’ve seen a little bit of The Real World, I’m sure you have found yourself questioning at some point or other, “Is this it?” and maybe even “what now?” I know because I am still asking myself those questions too. Now, I might be wrong. You could be doing exactly what it was that you had set out to do after graduation. You could be making the big bucks; travelling the world; finding the love of your life; moving to New York, et cetera, et cetera. Or you could be at a grayish cubicle day in and day out with a nondescript job title earning little more than $15 an hour. For many of us, this is our reality. But let me be very clear, this is not a...