Around this time of year, there is a tendency to be two types of students, extremely motivated ones, and ones that are just burnt out. More often than not, students are burnt out. 

After the first month or two of school, the holiday season also referred to as winter starts approaching. This leads to shorter days and much colder weather. Some students could experience what is known as seasonal mood changes, better known as seasonal depression. Which could factor into the lack of motivation portrayed by many students through these cold months. 

Colleen Bevacqua says that she as a teacher notices it tends to be a lot harder for students to focus around this time. She thinks that there are “a variety of reasons, the anticipation, excitement, and for some anxiety of the holiday vacation.” 

In adjustment to the lack of motivation, she tries to do “more interactive lessons… and keep students engaged. This puts more responsibility on them so there isn’t time to slack,” she says. 

Mrs. Bevacqua doesn’t feel exhaustion or that she loses motivation due to teaching but because of “running my young kids all over. They play football then that runs right into basketball,” she says. She then states “so for me it’s the hustle and bustle of keeping up on house chores, getting them where they need to be, making sure they do their homework, feeding them, on top of trying to be the best teacher I can be.” 

By the time Thanksgiving break comes around Mrs. Bevacqua is ready to be off and feels our district is very lucky when it comes to getting a week off. “Most school districts only get 2 ½ days off. I just think we all need to power through and make the most of it!” 

Some other students see it this time of year as a motivator instead of a burnout. 11th-grade student, Michaela Palaniuk doesn’t tend to see students motivation change and believes that “if they usually work hard in the beginning of the year they’ll stay motivated because they want to do well in school” 

Sophomore Jillian Smith also says she doesn’t think students burn out “because of Christmas.”

Palaniuk further states that personally, she doesn’t feel the lack of motivation and among most of her peers she sees they all stay motivated because they “just want to get everything done before Christmas.”