Throughout the winter there is always a lack of students’ focus and motivation to complete assignments. This could be attributed to several things like the lack of sunshine, events, sickness, or the lack of things to look forward to. I feel the main reason that the winter trimester has the most impact on our student body is the lack of events that we have to look forward to, as well as the unstructured school week. Every week is not the same, one week we may have a long weekend due to a holiday or a planned day off, and the next having two snow days in a row.
As a second-trimester senior, I feel this is connected to the lack of events throughout the season. The only significant event that occurs is the winter carnival. This is not enough to keep students motivated due to the lack of students who are actually in attendance at the dance. People do not value winter carnival nearly as much as other dances like prom or homecoming. All of the main sporting events or events hosted by other clubs occur within the other trimesters. Not to mention that during second trimester is the time for everyone to get sick. It is hard to continue the learning process when every week we have some people in and out of classrooms due to the sickness that continues to find its way through the hallways. This also impacts the motivation to continue coming to school and being present because when we are coming back to school and are unable to connect with our peers it feels more individually daunting to continue the cycle every day.
This is combated in the other trimesters because at the end of the week in the fall we as students come together outside in the football game environment with the warmth and excitement that is incomparable to anything else. We come together in support of one main goal while also interacting with our peers. We have continued opportunities to come together to laugh and make different memories with our friends. Throughout the winter we are only able to come together indoors with different activities that do not compare to the same excitement or energy level.
In the spring we have other activities to look forward to, we have prom and the end of school to keep the focus and motivation to end the year strong. Not only that but we can break up the stress by easily enjoying the outdoors, where we don’t have to worry about layering up and making sure to keep warm. Teachers are also able to incentivize our students’ focus’ by bringing the class outside and continuing the learning in a different environment that keeps students wanting to learn.
While I know this is not an easy problem to solve I feel like one of the easiest ways to combat this is by trying to find what motivates each student to keep learning. Whether that is making it through the week to finally be able to hang out with friends again or by having more events to attend we should try to advocate for students to be able to achieve their wants while also continuing to focus inside the classroom. I feel like the winter becomes the same cycle week after week of nothing interesting going on keeping the students unmotivated and uninterested. Especially with the inconsistent weather of Michigan and the elements we are unable to continue the week normally most of the time. Although we are unable to fix that problem there are other aspects we may be able to tweak to keep students attention through the trimester.
Even with just a few new and exciting events I would be able to boost morale enough to push us through the lull of the second trimester. Even just connecting with new people and finding what motivates us as individuals we would be able to bring the student body back together which I feel would be able to boost everyone’s happiness.
