Google 15% - Motivation 101

Aaron Conner
Proposal Outline
Needs and Opportunities
The clock ticks over to 2:00 pm and all of the students know that in ten minutes they will
be free to go home and relax and play at their house. They are all giddy with excitement and
ready to take a break from the busy day in fourth grade. A young boy is all smiles and talks with
his friends as the bell rings but he has only been wearing this smile for a few minutes. The rest of
the day has been more than a struggle for him as he moved from being sad, to unfocused, to
angry, to hungry, to frustrated and around again throughout the day. The teacher works hard to
remain intentional with this student even though she has eighteen others to teach and mentor to.
The next morning the smile evaporated and a glazed over look and drooping demeanor replaces
the bright child that stood there not a day earlier. It will take the entire day for the teacher to raise
this boys spirits back to a normal level only for them to crash back down on the following day.
Unfortunately this is not a theoretical scenario but rather my reality for the past year in
my placement at Trace Crossings Elementary. Many students were unmotivated and had a very
hard time working and succeeding in class due to their poor motivation. Most of the students
have personal electronic devices and those who do not have personal devices have access to a
class set of Nooks at school. They use them for many tasks in class and are allowed to take them
home. I saw this as an excellent opportunity to provide purpose, direction, and motivation for the
students through their devices as I was only in the class for one day a week. I decided to use
Kidblog as it is a safe and easy way for me to communicate with the students.
Audience / Clients / Users
Ms. Whites third grade class of Trace Crossings Elementary will be the target audience
for this project. I have worked with Ms. White for a semester now and through many
conversations have discovered that the primary need for her students is a boost in moral. She
absolutely loves her students but cannot seem to keep all of them motivated for the duration of
the year. There are 18 students in her class and I will be checking in on them during finals week
of this spring semester to assess their motivation levels, as well as visit with them. My hope is
that this type of digital motivation sharing will catch on and teachers everywhere will begin to
use technology as a medium for inspiring their students.
Timeline
Monday, Feb 24 Meet with Ms. White and discuss details of project.
Tuesday, Feb 25 Familiarize self with Kidblog and choose a layout template.
Wednesday, Feb. 26 Post initial blog and discuss purpose with the class
Thursday, Feb. 27 Post motivational blog for students
Friday, Feb 28 Post the Friday question of the week for students to respond to
Monday, March 3 through Thursday, March 6 Post motivational blog with pictures
Friday March 7 Post second Friday question and discuss the motivation throughout the week
Monday, March 10 through Thursday, March 13 Post motivational quotes and stories
Friday, March 14 Post third Friday question and talk about demotivation
Monday, March 17 through Tuesday, March 18 Post thought provoking blogs
Wednesday, March 19 Final class at Trace. Give motivational talk to class and inspire them to
continue to motivate themselves and each other.

Product
During the past semester I was able to implement my Google Project for three weeks.
During this time I posted 15 different posts attempting to post once a day including the Friday
question of the week. Over all I had 149 comments on the blog which is almost ten per post
which really motivates me to continue on which projects like this. Below is a picture of the main
page along with an example of a daily post.




Reality Check
This Google project does not really require much as far as equipment goes. I will be
using the website Kidblog as a basis of communication with my class at Trace Crossings
Elementary. The students all have been issued a class set of Nooks that they can access the blog
from and even have the opportunity to take the devices home. They can also check the blog on
the class set of computers or while they are in the computer lab at school. The website is free to
use so no money needs to be spent and all I will need is access to pictures, quotes, and videos
which I can access from my personal computer or any computer for that matter.

Conclusion
The whole reason that I am working on this is because I have been blessed with tons of
motivation. My mother and father were always very supportive and showed me Jesus when I was
young. With the love of my parents and purpose shown to me by God, I have been confident and
motivated in my life. Even after my father was killed in action, I was still motivated to live up to
his standards and honor him with my life. I have seen countless people and even young children
without a drop of motivation and it kills me. The potential that God has set in them is wasted if
no one will step in and show that young person how to find a purpose and help them with the
means to see it through. I want to be a blessing on others as I have been blessed and show
students their purpose by providing motivation and direction. God gives the purpose and if I
could just direct and motivate a few children at a time toward that heavenly purpose, what could
our future hold? I plan on using motivation as a tool to better people as long as I live but while I
am here in college and observing with elementary schools such as Trace Crossings, I will use the
tools and opportunities I have to the best of my abilities. The students I see and work with are the
future of our country and of humanity. If the leaders of tomorrow are growing up without a
purpose, without a passion and without motivation, how can they lead the next generation? I
would love further support in this area and truly believe that the best way to impact our world is
through our young people. They are the future. Investing in them is setting everyone up for
success.
Reflection
I am pleased with this project as a whole based solely off of the responses I received on
the website from the class. They were all very excited to answer the questions that I posed as
well as comment about their lives. They were very engaging with each other and often carried on
conversations based on the post that lasted days. There are obviously many areas that I wish to
improve on for when I do this with another class. First I would like to learn a little more about
techniques and topics that are best for motivating young students. As an Army Cadet, we are
taught about leadership and motivation but that is not always applicable to young children. My
methods worked with them but I think I can hone my skills and come up with an ever more kid
friendly way to motivate and inspire these young students. I think that another area of
improvement could be consistency. During the three weeks that I implemented this project, the
students took two field trips and I only saw them for a total of three days. They still responded on
the days that I was not there but on the days I was in class, the response was the highest. I would
like to have been with the class every day and led a small discussion before they left on
motivation and give them questions to think about or challenges to try during their week. I think
that the format of the blog was solid and worked well. I tried putting an inspiring picture with
every post and tried to write just enough to capture the students attention but not so much that
they were overwhelmed by the length of it. I really enjoyed this project and will continue to look
for ways to motivate students as I teach.