Calvin and His Patterns

There are many different actions and patterns of a self-regulated learner. Some of the best ways to be a self-regulated learner are... 

While Calvin may not necessarily come across as the sharpest tool in the shed, he is bright in his own way. He lacks motivation and support from those around him as well as personal tools to get him where he should be. Because Calvin has no support system, he may even have a support system that is bringing him down, that might actually be one of the contributors to Calvin’s indifference or even disdain for learning comes from his teacher’s attitude and outlook on Calvin and his learning. Obviously, not every student and teacher pair is going to get along, that much is obvious. However, Ms. Wormwood is often dismissive and even rude toward Calvin. In the comic below, you see that instead of inspiring Calvin and pushing him to work harder, she does the opposite and discourages him. 

In this comic, you can see Calvin upset as Ms. Wormwood gives him a "barfing face" sticker, something that he didn't even know existed. As a teacher, a huge part of your job is motivating your students and as a student, having a teacher motivate you makes you a better student. So in order to become a self-regulated learner, Calvin needs to take initiative and persist even when he feels unmotivated. He also needs to motivate himself, especially when those around him may not be motivating him as much as they should be. 

Here, you can see that Calvin has no inspiration and is relying on "last-minute panic" to sink in to get into a headspace where he can do his work. A self-regulated worker would not procrastinate their work. Instead, they would set goals to stay on top of their work and keep their selves on track to complete their assignments on time. A self-regulated learner would also plan out their work and not leave it to the last minute.  This is probably one of the harder parts of being a self-regulated learner for anyone of any age, let alone a six-year-old. After all, I know I'm guilty of waiting until the last minute to do work.