Engaging Students

I think it’s so important to engage students no matter what you are teaching. If students aren’t engaged they’re not going to willingly participate in the lesson.  It will also mean a lot more to students if they’re interested and engaged in the activity. As the teacher I want to make every day exciting. If the teacher isn’t engaging or having fun with the lesson neither will the students. Even on bad days I hope I can fake it until I make it. One idea the book gave to help engage students was focus student products around significant problems and issues. Like the example with the construction site students will more likely be involved if it’s a real issue in their lives. I think it also help to be able to see it hands on. The students were able to observe and watch the construction site every day. I like the idea to use meaningful audiences, especially different audiences in the school. It’s important to help students discover how ideas and skills are useful in the world. I know I don’t learn much from reading a text book. It goes in one ear and out the other. The example of the Holocaust reminded me of a video I watched in college about it. It was only about a 5 minute slide show of different pictures and a few captions. I learned more in those five minutes about the Holocaust than I ever did in school reading about it in a text book. It also stuck with me and I can still remember it. It had a lot more meaning to me than reading about it from a text book. Students need to be able to make connections in a meaningful way. I also liked the idea of looking for fresh ways to present and explore ideas. How boring is it to do the same thing over and over. That’s not exciting or engaging at all.