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One key issues in talking about teaching is "engagement." This often gets lumped into the idea of "edutainment." In fact, when I asked several teachers last year what they think students should unlearn, several mentioned that students should unlearn that the teacher has to entertain them.
I see both sides of this, especially as a teacher. I know that every part of the learning process doesn't have to be fun and games. Some of it, especially when you're front loading a concept, has to be "boring" (as in traditional lectures).
I also know, though, that it sucks to not be engaged. As a teacher and student, I've been through numerous boring presentations (the man who the school used to hire to teach us about blood born pathogens comes immediately to mind) where I've thought I'd actually rather be having a root canal. I wouldn't want t subject anyone to that.
Regardless of what side you're on when it comes to "edutainment," the less engaging you are, the less students will enjoy your class and the more you'll hate your job.
Now I'm no entertainer. At all. But I can get fired up for just about anything I teach (except, perhaps, works cited, sorry Mrs. Mattson). That passion is a great place to start engaging students.
The next step is to be interesting. Again, if you're vanilla or just want to deliver content, you're going to struggle here.
Even when I have to give lectures, such as when I try and front load students with information prior to a read, I try to used relevant and entertaining examples. I was visiting with a colleague the other day about irony. It reminded me of how I used to introduce it to my students. Sometimes I'd play the Alana Morrsett song "Isn't it Ironic?" and focus on her examples, most of which are not actually ironic at all. They're just unfortunate (such as "rain on your wedding day" or "meeting the man of your dreams and then meeting his beautiful wife").
Then I'd give notes on the three types of irony and punctuate each with examples from one of my favorite columns on the Star Tribune, News of the Weird.
So even when I had to present a traditional style lecture, I still tried to make it entertaining and interesting. Did every kid master the concept of irony? Nope. But I had most (if not all) laughing and shaking their heads by the end of the introduction to irony.
This whole rant on "entertainment" was triggered by this very interesting article from edutopia called "Kids Speak Out on Student Engagement."
In visiting with students, #3, "Connecting the real world to the work we do/project-based learning" is always one that comes up as being vital. You've been there before when something new is introduced and you roll your eyes and think, "When in the &^** am I ever going to have to use this?" The best teachers answer that very question before you walk out of the classroom that very day.
If you've ever been in one of my classes, you know how I feel about #4 "Clearly love what you do." That hasn't been a problem for me.
Here is another link I came across that shines some light on this topic: Secrets of teachers who love their jobs: always be a learner.
Amen!
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Good old Philip Zimbardo. Mr. Forney, this one is for you!
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This will come in handy when we write our persuasive essays and our analytical papers. I think, given the immediacy of Youtube in our 1:1 school, it would be interesting to have students spend a class period finding an example of each of these.
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An interesting app for teachers, Explain a Website.
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An Unschooling Conference? Now this is really interesting.
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The ubiquitous Jim Burke asks an interesting question on his blog: Is your class more like an essay or a story?
That alone could spark some lively debate.
But does it really even matter?
Whether your class is more of an essay than a story, the real question is whether it makes sense and your students leave having learned or otherwise been changed by it. This leads to other questions: If our class is an essay, how is each day similar to a sentence, and each week akin to a coherent, substantive paragraph that contributes, over time (the course of a unit, a semester, the year), to a complete essay that was worth the time it took us to read it.
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One of my favorite writers and thinkings, Thomas Friedman, has an interesting column on the school systems of Shanghai.
Here is an interesting observation Friedman made from a recent trip to Shanghai
When you sit in on a class here and meet with the principal and teachers, what you find is a relentless focus on all the basics that we know make for high-performing schools but that are difficult to pull off consistently across an entire school system. These are: a deep commitment to teacher training, peer-to-peer learning and constant professional development, a deep involvement of parents in their children’s learning, an insistence by the school’s leadership on the highest standards and a culture that prizes education and respects teachers.
Shanghai’s secret is simply its ability to execute more of these fundamentals in more of its schools more of the time. Take teacher development. Shen Jun, Qiangwei’s principal, who has overseen its transformation in a decade from a low-performing to a high-performing school — even though 40 percent of her students are children of poorly educated migrant workers — says her teachers spend about 70 percent of each week teaching and 30 percent developing teaching skills and lesson planning. That is far higher than in a typical American school.
And in Shanghai the training isn't all for the teachers. Teng, one teacher there, told Freidman this
Teng said his job also includes “parent training.” Parents come to the school three to five times a semester to develop computer skills so they can better help their kids with homework and follow lessons online. Christina Bao, 29, who also teaches English, said she tries to chat either by phone or online with the parents of each student two or three times a week to keep them abreast of their child’s progress. “I will talk to them about what the students are doing at school.” She then alluded matter-of-factly to a big cultural difference here, “I tell them not to beat them if they are not doing well.”
I often have a hard time just getting parents to show up to conferences twice a year!
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Now before we all fall in love with China's impressive test scores and school systems, here is another take on it: Nine-hour tests and lost of pressure welcome to the Chinese school system.
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And finally, this masterpiece. Thanks to our orchestra teacher, Mr. Druse, for sharing. This totally made my week.
And here is another one from them.
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