On April 14, 1992, a baby was brought into the world healthy and cared for by two loving parents.

Motivation is the key to supporting and advancing the learning of children and young people within my class. Motivation affects the nature of an individuals behaviour, the strength of the behaviour, and the persistence of the behaviour. There are many approaches to motivation: physiological, behavioural, cognitive and social. It is the crucial element on setting and achieving goals.

It took three hospital visits for the doctors to finally diagnose the correct problem, epilepsy. Through misunderstandings, Lia was not given the appropriate medication dosages and combinations to help with her epilepsy. At the age of three, Lia’s doctors, Neil and Peggy Ernst, sent her to foster care in hopes of better medical care by the parents; however, the seizures never stopped. By four years of age, Lia had been admitted into the hospital a total of 17 times and had over 100 outpatient visits. Lia’s worst seizure lasted about two hours and put her into a coma.

Seizure disorders, according to the Mayo Clinic (2015), affect approximately 1 in 26 people in the United States. Persistent, or chronic, seizures result from a condition called epilepsy, a neurological disorder of the central nervous system. It can affect anyone regardless of age, but is more common during early childhood and after age 60. Given the number of people that seizure disorders, such as epilepsy, affect, it becomes helpful to gain a foundational understanding of the disease, including some of the causes, symptoms, and treatments available.

During my time as volunteer at Somerset Dade Academy, I was able to work closely with the elementary and middle school teacher. During each visit, I was able to follow Ms. Lee’s daily routine. In the morning, we had 30 minutes to plan and get her cart ready with supplies she needed for the day. Also, we would both create various model artworks to inspire her students to create something more original and imaginative. She wheeled her cart through certain elementary classes depending on her schedule. Depending on the grade level she was assign to that day, we were able to teach her students the fundamental concepts of arts and major art movements, all in 30 minutes. Every three weeks, she would focus on a concept, artist, or art movement. Additionally, she would assign vocabulary words, which her students would copy and also had access to them online on Quizlet. At the end, she would administer a summative test on everything they learned for the past three weeks. On the other hand, Ms. Lee’s middle school classes were different, more one-on-one, and it was a one-hour period. Her students were able to recreate impressionist and expressionist artworks, such as Monet’s Water Lilies, Van Gogh Starry Night and The Bedroom on wall-sized canvases.

Through this experience, I learned that is vitally important that children in school have a creative, stimulating classroom environment. Such an environment will stimulate their minds and make them much better learners and thinkers. The classroom environment should include lots of books, visual materials and different activities in order to help them learn the material as best as possible. All these requirement should be aimed at attracting and keeping the child’s interest and promoting questioning and discussion. Expecting children, particularly young ones, to sit at a desk all day and learn is not the way to go. Children, particularly young ones, need to move around and do different activities in order to keep them engaged. Having an environment where they are being taught in ways that are fun and reel them in, will stimulate the students to do well and strive to do better.

I remember three years ago, my family and I went to Palm Springs for the first time. That night I was fascinated, not from the beauty of the Palm desert, but the fact that my brother would have a seizure exactly twenty minutes after falling asleep. His brain acted like a clock-working machine. Exactly twenty minutes. Now what chemicals could his body be producing after falling asleep for twenty minutes that would trigger the seizure, I do not know, but I wanted to find out. Moreover, I had to alway keep an eye on my brother throughout the day, especially after he started losing control of his body and falling down without warning. The first time he experienced this, he could have cracked his head open if my father was not nearby to catch is forceless body. There is nothing more stressing than waking up nervous for tests and project while witnessing my own brother shaking uncontrollably. These are some things that clouded my thoughts and focus everyday when I was trying to pay attention in class. Right now, I could not be more than thankful that my brother hasn't had a seizure for months. The changes started taking place right after Christmas of last year, just like a Christmas

Pediatric epilepsy is a common condition in the United States. Around 326,000 children experience epilepsy under the age of 15, and there are around 200,000 new diagnoses yearly (“What Happens during a Seizure”, 2014). The age of onset can begin as early as infancy and is most common during childhood. In some cases, there is no specific cause for epilepsy. However, the most common cause is a birth defect or developmental disorder. Those that have experienced head trauma, brain infections, or a minor brain injury can also lead to seizures, or epilepsy. The developing brain is more prone to seizures therefor there is a higher incidence in the pediatric population (“Pediatric Epilepsy & Seizures”, 2016).

There have been many silent killers that have concerned mankind since the dawn of time. It is underestimated and underdiagnosed but it is the most frequently prevalent neurological disorders. Epilepsy and all its forms is as much of a concern today as it was thousands of years ago. Our oldest description that defines the symptoms of epileptic seizures was written two thousand years ago BC (Magiorkinis E1, 2010). Epileptic seizures are the result of excessive and abnormal nerve cell activity in the brain. This puts them at an increased risk of death due to the brains abnormal control of secondary organ systems. The risk increases as people age. Worldwide the overall percentage of epileptic diagnosis encompasses nearly three percent of the population

Motivation can be defined as the desire or inspiration to carry out specific tasks or to do something. Motivation is required when goals are being set and more so in their execution. In a work setting, motivation can be defined as a process through which individuals choose between alternative forms of behavior with the aim of achieving personal objectives. The goals sought by individuals can be extrinsic or relatively tangible such as monetary rewards and promotion, or intrinsic or intangible such as self esteem or job satisfaction (Armstrong, 2006). In learning, the desire to attain good grades is what motivates a student to study hard everyday as they prepare for the exam. On the other hand, for a teacher to put his best foot forward, he

Teaching might even be the greatest of the arts since the medium is the human mind and spirit.” During my past career as an art teacher at Intel Academy, introducing and demonstrating aesthetic techniques and materials have thrilled me as much as completing an art piece. Through workshops and demonstrations, I learned how to communicate and suggest better ways of developing their ideas and expressions. Some children had difficulties encountering art due to their behavioral problems; however, respecting their accomplishments and encouraging their process of following the curriculum became a part of the solution. My decision to apply to masters program in art education was pursued as I faced these

At the age of 3 months old, Charlotte Figi had suffered a seizure that was the first of many, her parents were instantly concerned because of the duration and intensity of the seizure’s that their infant was suffering from. Charlotte would suffer from an average of three-hundred grand-mal seizures a week which doesn’t include the numerous minor seizures that she would have everyday in between those more invasive seizures. She was hospitalized and went under numerous invasive procedures in order to confirm a diagnosis, the doctors found

Motivation is the number one driving force behind anything and everything an individual does each day. “Motivation is the desire to do the best possible job or to exert the maximum effort to perform an assigned task. Motivation energizes, directs, and sustains human behavior directed towards a goal.” (Honor, 2009). Motivation can determine the outcome of projects, goals, and can set limits on what an individual can obtain or what they believe they can obtain. Motivation often is the deciding factor on how successful a project in an organization is, and an individual’s needs and desires can both influence a person’s motivation greatly. Motivation can also determine how well an individual does in school, college, or university.

The era of accountability has heavily swayed public schools towards narrowing the curriculum across content and disciplines. Student test scores have become the measure in which states, districts, schools, classrooms, and teachers are deemed “excellent.” Also, many schools have been confronted with budget cuts that determine the content offered in schools. Unfortunately, arts programming across the United States’ K-12 public education has been minimized and/or not given the proper attention it deserves. To strengthen the argument for arts education, researchers have developed the integration of Universal Design for Learning (UDL) to curriculum and lesson planning. I argue that the integration of the arts in classroom curriculum with early childhoods students can provide benefits not only for students but teachers. Arts education centers on allowing both students and teachers to engage in creativity and bring out their multiple intelligence. I recognize four reasons why arts education is a valuable tool with young children: (1) arts can be used across subjects and context (interdisciplinary), (2) it touches on the needs of different learners (multiple intelligence), (3) flexibility that allows creativity in the classroom, and (4) shifts away from traditional methods of rote learning.

A theory that supports motivation is the self determination theory. In the self determination theory people need to grow and gain fulfillment by a drive in them. Self Determination is the process of deciding how to act on ones environment. When one is trying to overcome a challenge or encountering a new experience a person wants to gain the knowledge to succeed over the new challenge. When self determination theory is in focus internal factors are at play; a person is primarily focused on the need to gain knowledge or independence. There are three factors that contribute to a student’s self determination and the needs are linked to the student’s

What is motivation? What influences it? The term motivation can be defined in different ways. Motivation can simply defined as “ a need that, if high, is evident in a strong desire to achieve, to excel, to reach a high level of excellence” (Lefrancois 430). To become motivated, one must have a positive attitude to a variety of learning skills. Some factors that influence motivation include our peers, friends, parents, and environmental settings. Division four being high school division, attention is focused towards learning and what methods can be used. Students at this stage are more eager and develop a sense of what he or she wants to do and accomplish in upcoming adulthood. With a division comes a group of intelligent theorists. All