Week Two

How do we keep our lessons engaging?

We all went to school to be teachers, we learned the content and we studied the different methods but we never really talked about presentation. The way that we present the material, the way that we deliver it can make all the difference. The image to the left comes from the book How to Teach Like a Pirate, Dave Burgess the author talks a lot about the circle on presentation.


At length, Burgess talks about the "hook" as a way to keep students engaged in his class. The hook can be any number of things including; objects, people, internet, moving outside of the classroom, music, movement, art, real-world application, life-changing lesson, student choice, news, current events, physically transforming the classroom, messages on the door or board, costume and props, involving the audience, technology, class contest, food, and extra-credit. All of these are amazing examples of how to get students involved and engaged in the lesson. I personally have only tried a few of these hooks, however I am inspired after reading all about them in our book. It is the end of the school year, but my goal is to use more of these hooks next year as I deliver my lessons.

From the online website Edutopia I found an article about a special education teacher who was forced to teach math - a subject that they were not excited about teaching. But after talking with the co-teacher they came up with a way to make the lesson more engaging for not only themselves but the children in the classroom. This teacher had the students to write story problems that related to them (forget about how much carpet we should buy or how much fence is needed to enclose the apple trees) this teacher made the lesson interesting to the students by giving them a choice and letting them create the story. Another suggestion from this article was to have students make story books like a babies board book - simple and easy to read with nice big pictures. This activity also helped to keep the students engaged because they were collaborating and creating.

Does innovation play a part in this?

Being creative does not come naturally, you have to work at it. For every creative, interactive and over the top lesson that is a success there will be multiple failures. Dave Burgess writes in his book How to Teach Like a Pirate that he's taken many years to develop lessons that grab students attention. In fact he states that its been sixteen years of "failures and lessons that blew up in my face." (Burgess, 625/2084) Yes, innovation plays a part in capturing students attention but as teachers we must accept the fact that it will take practice.

Multiple times throughout the book, Burgess mentions the connections that he strives to make with his students. He believes that without a sense of trust and a feeling of safety from his students nothing else matters.  That connection between teacher and student is the glue to all of the innovating lessons to come.

In an article from Nation at Hope, they write about the importance of "a more balanced approach to teaching and learning" by developing the social emotional learner first and then focus on the academic learner. We know that students learn best when they feel safe and this focus is a shift in education, we need to focus on the whole child to help them become the best they can be.



Sources:
Edutopia Article:  https://www.edutopia.org/article/learning-math-seeing-it-story
Burgess, D. (2012). Teach like a pirate: Increase student engagement, boost your creativity, and 
transform your life as an educator. San Diego, CA: Dave Burgess Consulting.
Nation at Hope Article: http://nationathope.org/report-from-the-nation/chapter-1-how-learning-happens/