When students ask me about student motivation, I remember my parents dropping me off for my first day of school. I was excited because the rest of the kids in my neighborhood already went to school. They were a year or two older than me. I remember telling everyone, "I'm going to go to school; it's going to be awesome!" So it was pretty awesome. I learned the alphabet. I learned how to read. I learned a bunch of songs. I got to hang out with friends. Recess was cool. I was very into school. I loved school. I spent a little time there and I came home, watched TV, got to hang out with everybody else. So I was happy with that.

Eventually though, the return, it started to change. The time I spent in school, it didn't give me back as much as it used to. So school became boring and eventually I hated school. I hated going there. It just became pointless. What I wanted to do was just go home, I wanted to finish up whatever I had to do, my homework or whatever, and I just wanted to go watch The Simpsons, or play video games. I just wanted to get away from it.

Speaking of video games, when I started substitute teaching I was in a classroom and a student was there and the class was just doing their thing, the VP came in the classroom, Vice Principal for those who don't know, so the VP came in and the VP he's in charge of pretty much disciplining the students, that's what the VP does in most American high schools.

And so there he was, he came in, he saw this kid, he was sitting there doing his work, he had a shirt on and the shirt had Mario jumping up and grabbing a mushroom, right? He stops the class, and he tells the student, "Come here! Come here!" so the student walks over, doesn't know what the heck's going on. And then he says "What's that shirt? What's that shirt about? Got a mushroom on it?"

And so the student then explains "Well Mario grabs mushrooms in the video game." And then the VP was like "What? Mario grabs mushrooms - that makes no sense at all."

And I'm like - I've played Mario my whole life, so of course Mario grabs mushrooms. It's just like, what the heck? So he's loOKing at it, and I understand what he's seeing; mushrooms - possibly promoting drugs - in school, but it's Mario grabbing a mushroom.

Eventually I hit freshmen year in high school and every day was like that VP, when that VP told that student to flip his shirt over because he was wearing that Mario jumping after the mushroom shirt. It felt like that, like each day was like that, so it was terrible. And also what happened, I actually started having teachers like the first teacher I actually just hated. Ever come to that point where wow, teachers are OK or boring, but eventually there's that teacher where you're just like "I just hate that teacher." Or my "I just hate that professor." Right? So I hit that, I hit that in freshmen year in high school and I was like "OK, something's got to change."

If you can relate so far, appreciate that things have changed for you. As children we are filled with wonder and curiosity. We want to learn about the world. We want to experience new things. We do not feel bound by authority. We hope school will expand our awareness and our abilities. When it falls short of our expectations we feel disappointed. Many students feel resentful and do their best to avoid it all together. These are not feelings to ignore because these feelings will determine the directions you choose. I was able to graduate from both high school and university with honors because I did not ignore the mixed feelings I had about school. The students who try to ignore these feelings end up feeling even more resentful and eventually quitting because they are busy fighting different parts of themselves inside.

If you want to find out more about how to motivate students, come check out the study skills webinar. Get 5 solid game changers to help you get better grades more quickly and easily, right now - http://faststudyskills.com