Who has time for engagement?
This is an interesting post from one of my all-time favorite bloggers, Angela Maiers.
The post cites a book by Eric Jensen entitled Engaging Students with Poverty in Mind. The post talks about how vital engaging students is to retention of material.
Big shocker, right?
Yet, there is a lot of pushback around engagement or eductainment. I get that. It's a lot of work to try and engage or entertain students. It's exhausting always feeling like you have to be on stage as the ring leader.
I get that.
But unfortunately, that is how this generation learns best. And I would argue that's how most of us learn best.
However, sadly, that's not how most of us teach best. It's easier to make copies of worksheets or guides supplied to us by the text book company. It's easier to find lesson plans on the internet. It's easier to just read the directions and go through the motions. But it's not engaging to these kids.
Now, to be fair, the article explains that there are several other words that "engagement" goes by: feedback, project based learning, cooperative learning, and interactive teaching.
So if we all referred to engagement as interaction, we wouldn't have so many eyes rolling when we bring up the topic.
We might even have a few more students tuning in to our lessons.
*****
Speaking of unengaging lessons, here is an example from the much maligned Common Core math series.
There is so much wrong with this type of question and activity. I like that it's trying to combine math skills and writing skills. I like that it's working toward divergent thinking, allowing students to come up with the sentence in their own way that shows the problem.
But there's a whole lot that I loathe about this.
First, it is making a simple problem far too complex. It could have ended right after "How many cars did he see?" Or maybe even after they have written the number sentence.
Second, isn't there a better use of the student's time and thinking other than having to devise a ridiculous sentence to "Explain how the number sentence shows the problem." Where will students ever have to do this? When was the last any of us out in the real world had to do this? If they're interested in getting the student to write, why not ask the student to write a sentence estimating how many cars might be in the school parking lot or in the city in which he lives? Wow. Then you could actually do a little bit of actual research as a class (like walking to the parking lot and having students count the parking spots and seeing how many are empty?). When was the last time you had to deal real research of some sort in the real world?
Unfortunately, whoever devises textbooks and their materials has spent too little time in an actual classroom teaching real kids.
In fact, this textbook company could do well to read this short article, 5 Powerful Questions Teachers Can Ask Students. Any of them (and they're listed below) would be more engaging and thought provoking than the ludicrous example from the Common Core.
#1. What do you think?
This question interrupts us from telling too much. There is a place for direct instruction where we give students information yet we need to always strive to balance this with plenty of opportunities for students to make sense of and apply that new information using their schemata and understanding.
#2. Why do you think that?
After students share what they think, this follow-up question pushes them to provide reasoning for their thinking.
#3. How do you know this?
When this question is asked, students can make connections to their ideas and thoughts with things they've experienced, read, and have seen.
#4. Can you tell me more?
This question can inspire students to extend their thinking and share further evidence for their ideas.
#5. What questions do you still have?
This allows students to offer up questions they have about the information, ideas or the evidence.
******
Love this one. The power of the internet. Let's hope it works to bring this sick girl some joy.
******
I was just having a conversation via email with a colleague about this. She was concerned about what her students were putting online. This is always a concern.
Students need to learn to not share everything. Then they need to learn to behave more appropriately so there isn't anything they need not share on social media. But don't judge them too harshly. I think we all had to learn that as we grew up.
That still doesn't mean, though, that we should make use of the most engaging (there's that damn word again) platforms for learning available to us.
I know what some of you curmudgeons are thinking, "yeah, but that's not real learning or teaching."
If that's so, then why do we English teachers practically kill ourselves teaching Shakespeare to our students, yet no English teacher I have ever met harbors the illusion that we will so enthrall our kids with the Bard's excellent prose (and it is the best ever written) that they will promptly go home and read Hamlet or King Lear or The Tempest on their own up in their rooms.
That's asinine. We actually hope they go home and just read anything, Stephen King, Jody Paccoult, or J K Rowling.
Yet, why do we teach them Shakespeare? We do that because we hope they will be getting the skills to think critically, evaluate a complex text, and form a conclusion.
Those skills will come in handy in college.
The same is true for social media. If I have students peek at what social media can do for them as a learning tool or being part of a learning community or to connect with others, that doesn't mean I expect them to do that on Twitter or Instagram when they walk out my door.
But the potential is there. Students need to see how vastly different their use of Twitter is to mine. They vent or share (mostly) trivial information. I use it to connect with other like minded educators and to get a plethora of professional development sources. In fact, here is a great link to How Twitter Makes Me A Better Educator.
For the record, here are 12 ways you can use social media in your classroom
12 Ways Teachers are Using Social Media in the Classroom Right Now
- Tweet or post status updates as a class. Teacher Karen Lirenman lets students propose nuggets of learning that are posted for parents to read.
- Write blog posts about what students are learning. Teacher Kevin Jarrettblogs reflections about his Elementary STEM lab for parents to read each week.
- Let your students write for the world. Linda Yollis' students reflect about learning and classroom happenings.
- Connect to other classrooms through social media. Joli Barker is fearlessly connecting her classroom through a variety of media.
- Use Facebook to get feedback for your students' online science fair projects. Teacher Jamie Ewing is doing this now, as he shared recently.
- Use YouTube for your students to host a show or a podcast. Don Wettrick's students hosted the Focus Show online and now share their work on a podcast.
- Create Twitter accounts for a special interest projects. My student Morganspent two years testing and researching the best apps for kids with autism (with the help of three "recruits"), and her work just won her an NCWIT Award for the State of Georgia.
- Ask questions to engage your students in authentic learning. Tom Barrettdid this when his class studied probability by asking about the weather in various locations.
- Communicate with other classrooms. The Global Read Aloud, Global Classroom Project and Physics of the Future are three examples of how teachers use social media to connect their students as they collaborate and communicate.
- Create projects with other teachers. (Full disclosure: I co-created Physics of the Future with Aaron Maurer, a fellow educator I first met on Twitter.)
- Share your learning with the world. My students are creating anEncyclopedia of Learning Games with Dr. Lee Graham's grad students at the University of Alaska Southeast. The educators are testing the games, and the students are testing them, too.
- Further a cause that you care about. Mrs. Stadler's classes are working tosave the rhinos in South Africa, and Angela Maiers has thousands of kidschoosing to matter.
******
Speaking of social media, here is another cool article 10 Social Media Sites For Education
10 Best Social Media Sites For Students & Teachers
- Twiducate: Described as a “walled garden,” this site is billed as a safe site for teachers and students to collaborate. It’s easily accessible and allows teachers to create a class community online using a class code rather than an email address. It also allows teachers to have total control over who is a member and what gets posted. And, it’s free.
- TweenTribune: Want to join up with a site that hooks kids on current events? TweenTribune lets students stay up-to-date with current events from the Easthampton student whose tongue froze to a metal pole to a proposal by New Jersey’s governor Chris Christie to lengthen the school day and the school year. It gets students in the news habit and offers a chance for them to comment on the days events. Unfortunately, it does have advertisements (though, what news outlet doesn’t). It sticks to the upbeat news of the day–don’t log on expecting the latest on the Syria conflict.
- Blackboard: This the industry leader in course management systems, but it isn’t something you can adopt on your own. The decision to use Blackboard is usually made at the district level, though occasionally by individual schools. Blackboard is an incredibly powerful, safe and comprehensive platform. Many newer teachers will already be familiar with it from their teacher training programs. The downside is cost. This is a very expensive platform, but you pay for quality. That said, it will lack some flexibility for its most tech-savvy teachers.
- EDU2.0: This is for teachers looking to integrate course management systems like Blackboard, without the cost. Edu2.0 starts out by offering all it’s premium features on a free trial basis. At the end of the trial period, those features turn off and you can still use the basic platform for free. These features will be plenty for the average user, but may be enough for “power users.” Edu2.0 is cloud-based and requires no significant investment in storage capacity.
- Wikispaces Classroom: Collaboration is second nature to Wiki users and Wiki Classroom proves it’s no exception. Wiki Classrooms are private social networks complete with news feeds and communication tools. It’s safe because you decide who’s invited — students, parents, administrators. You can assign, collaborate on, discuss and assess projects all within the site. It can even handle multimedia. The best part, Wikispaces Classroom is free.
- Edmodo: Here’s another excellent, free classroom management system. It includes news feeds, assessment tools, communication capabilities and security features.
- Skype: Too many educators overlook the potential of Skype in the classrooms. It is the one site that can literally bring the outside world right into your classroom. You can host authors, visit science labs or talk to pen pals from across the globe.
- MinecraftEdu: The secret of MinecraftEdu is its ability to harness the power of video games to engage learners. This game allows students to collaborative, explore and problem solve all while learning about history, economics, science and math. Teachers can customize it to fit their curriculum.
- Sumdog: This gaming site is kind of like flashcards on steroids. Elementary school age kids love this site. The social aspect is the ability to add friends to their accounts. Kids will race home from school to play them online. It has fun levels and clever characters.
- Twitter: Not everyone loves Twitter in the classroom, and there may be good reasons for that. However, it makes the Top 10 because students love it and they use it. Setting up a GroupTweet account lets you moderate who joins and what gets posted. It is also important to keep the account strictly business
*****
And now for a little humor - This is the Science Project to End All Science Projects.
****
Ever wonder if your students learned anything? I mean you taught the lesson, right? But did they learn anything? Trust me, I've been there. Many times.
Here are some things to try the next time you're wondering that -
****
This is a job application after my own heart. I need to use this somehow in my College Comp 2 class for our college and career project.
I mean, come on, it just doesn't get any cooler than this!
****
Want to know why a vast majority of professional athletes end up broke after their careers are over? It's because colleges give them a chance at a free education and let them pass with work like this!
The message is clear to athletes: the university doesn't really care about you. If you can help make them tens of millions of dollars by helping their football or basketball teams to championships, they don't care if you get even the rudimentary skills needed to be successful when you graduate. And remember less than 1% of all athletes who play college athletics ever go on to the pros. So if this essay merits an A- what kind of education is being handed to the 99% of college athletes who enter the work force with their degrees?
****
This is hilarious. 15 odd inventions from the past. And some people think we're foolish today.
No comments:
Post a Comment