We Almost Need a Disaster Plan for Education

You can’t ask students to succeed in a world that isn’t succeeding in itself.

                                                                      (Keogh)






Motivation down the drain:

Covid has ruined many things, but one major takeaway is the loss of development within a child. The social aspect of interaction and being able to talk to other people than just your family members gets tiring after a while. The amount of screen time kids are spending on their laptops day in and day out staring at a screen and listening to lectures does not help their case. 




Before the Worldwide Pandemic hit. Students would thrive off the idea of being able to leave school early due to senior or really any type of privileges. They had the motivation to actually do their work because they got something in return. Now, with Covid-19 around and every student already at home, they simply just don’t care anymore. There's no reward or praise given to them to make them want to do their work. Going through high school, you looked forward to the years ahead where you got those certain privileges that allowed you to leave. The conditions were simple; keep your grades up and you get to go home. As we know, kids would do anything to go home early from school, but now the tables have turned and the majority of kids are dying to get back into the building. Simply due to the fact of loss of motivation to want to do the work, all that kids do day in and day out is sit and listen to lectures through a screen. Trying to do chemistry without hands-on labs is a disaster waiting to happen.




However, what do you tell the kids in 2020/21? “You get to log off 10 minutes early from a zoom meeting”? Yay! No; wrong answer, students want to be able to experience the feeling of walking out the doors, smelling the fresh air and realizing they get to go home because they worked for it. Not because they finished their hour and a half long zoom call a little early.

The text written above has shown that motivated students tried when there was something to work for.




                         (Why We Lack Motivation to Work during a Global Pandemic)




What's new?

This week I read a couple of articles learning about the negative effects of motivation loss due to Covid-19. The idea focuses on what’s happening to students' minds set during school and how they simply are not putting effort into trying anymore.



A point that I came across from a student's perspective from one of the articles is that while keeping students home and keeping them safe from a global pandemic might be ideal, “it has made it exponentially harder for her to stay motivated and learn. Her online classes are lecture-heavy, repetitive and devoid of student conversation. Her grades have dropped from A's and B's to D's and F's. She stays up too late. She sleeps a lot. She misses her friends”(Richards.) This is just one of the thousands of millions of students who are in the same exact situation. Even parents who want to try to help their kids are worried. A parent has even said that "This is the first time I've felt helpless"(Richards). This was  concerning because if parents can’t even help or figure something out then the student is also likely to be confused as well. Students are downward spiraling and digging themselves into holes because no one seems to care. The loss of social interaction has affected students' emotional states. In the long run and as we can already see it will 100% start to affect how students perform academically. “And as the pandemic heaves into a winter surge, a slew of new reports show alarming numbers of kids falling behind, failing classes or not showing up at all” (Richards).




With all of this motivation loss during this health crisis, it made me wonder if there were ways that students could possibly help themselves in their own situations. So I looked up some ways that students can incorporate motivation into their daily life. 

The University of Michigan's Behavioral Science Team provided some tips to help students try to escape the real world for a little while at least. Take a look at the following 5 examples down below.

1. Remind yourself why you care.

The same drive and purpose you’ve always had are still inside you, even if school doesn’t feel as important right now.

First, think about your why … why you are in school, why you care about your actions.

• Think of the major or careers in which you’re interested. How does the school work you’re doing now help you make progress toward your career goals?

• Think of what you value about yourself. Maybe you are creative, patient, detailed, the organizer of social gatherings, or comfortable working independently. How does this relate to how you want to act during this remote school period?

2. Set small daily goals.

Goals give us direction. They’re best when they’re concrete and achievable. Aim for five daily to-dos.

Start by writing a list of things you would like to do this week, in each area of your life:

• What is essential for each class?

• What about your self-care would feel good this week, like healthy eating, exercising, and sleep habits?

• How can you stay connected with friends and family?

• How will you unplug and relax?

3. Pair your work with something fun and interesting (ish).

Sometimes the things you have to do just aren’t fun … but there might be ways for you to make them slightly more interesting.

• Set the scene for your work. Pick a comfy spot, light a candle, play a song you love.

• Make a video call spot with a comfy chair, a pleasing backdrop.

• Ask a friend to be a study buddy so you can talk through assignments or check in on progress.

4. Think about how you can go on autopilot.

Building up habits is easier when you don’t have to decide to do them over and over (and over) again.

You probably have more flexible time than ever, but that also means you have to keep choosing schoolwork over and over again. Meanwhile, you might feel like you have to say “no” over and over again to things you’d rather be doing. Exhausting, right?

Get out of that cycle by setting yourself to autopilot. Make it more automatic to choose what you need to do and easier to say no to temptations.

    Here are some ideas:

• Set a time trigger: Pick a daily or weekly signal that it’s time for a specific task. Do one school to-do list item over breakfast every day. Set Tuesday morning as a time for lecture videos and readings for your hardest class. Write for an hour after lunch every day.

• Phone-free hour: We know how easy it is to scroll your feed while also on Zoom. Put your phone in the other room, even if for only an hour of studying at a time.

5. Remember to take a breath.

Sometimes taking a break and coming back to something helps you face it more easily. Maybe you need a few days to just take care of yourself.

    Here are a few related ideas:

• Release any guilt for not being productive. Take each day as a chance to start fresh.

• Consider what limits you might want to set on how much you watch the news or read stories about coronavirus.

• Reach out for support if you’re struggling (see “extra help”). And when you’re ready, make a plan and keep moving forward. We will all get through this together. (Derry, et. al.)

These helpful tips could even possibly help you. Motivation and having that drive is what makes you do the things you love to do. Don't give up on them.

Works Cited

Derry, Holly, et al. "The times are strange, but you only need to handle right now." Center for Academic Innovation, University of Michigan, 2020, https://ai.umich.edu/blog/are-you-a-student-disrupted-by-coronavirus-and-feeling-unmotivated-we-have-five-ideas/. Accessed 11 January 2020.

Keogh, Olive. The Gloomy World Occupied by Women in the Workplace. The Irish Times, 25 Oct. 2019, www.irishtimes.com/business/work/the-gloomy-world-occupied-by-women-in-the-workplace-1.4059253. Accessed 13 Jan. 2021.

Richards, Erin. "Students are falling behind in online school. Where's the COVID-19 'disaster plan' to catch them up?" USA Today, 17 December 2020, https://www.usatoday.com/in-depth/news/education/2020/12/13/covid-online-school-tutoring-plan/6334907002/. Accessed 11 January 2020.

Why We Lack Motivation to Work during a Global Pandemic. 8 Apr. 2020,

    www.welcometothejungle.com/en/articles/lack-motivation-during-corona-crisis. Accessed 13 Jan.

    2021.