Day 17- Student Engagement

As I posted earlier this week, we are nearing a time in the school year when students and teachers start to get a bit more comfortable with each other.  Some folks might say that we are in the waning phases of the "honeymoon" period.  Others might say this is when students have a tendency to "show themselves."  I look at it as students and teachers getting comfortable with each other.  The excitement and prestige of the the beginning of the year is wearing off and it is now time for us, as teachers, to keep the feeling, the rush, the excitement from the beginning of the year going for as long as we can.  We should keep figuring out ways to keep students engaged and motivated for as long as possible.  Let's keep the ride going for as long as we can.  Keep the wave of excitement and eagerness flowing until we need to reinvent what we are doing again.  So with this idea in mind, we will turn our focus to a few very easily researched articles on engagement and motivation.


The first few articles are from Edutopia blogs.  Funded by the George Lucas Foundation, I get to hear a lot about them on NPR and local radio stations.  The first article is just a resource list to several other articles.  I haven't read them all, but I will.  The articles are organized by how you can use them which is located at the top of the article underneath the headline banner.  Their second article is yet another list of links to more articles.

The next article is from the Marzano Center for Learning Science.  If you don't follow them on Twitter, you might want to.  Great ideas and great resources.  The article gives teachers five VERY EASY ways to keep your kids interested.  I like the idea of mild controversy and competition.  Every once in awhile we do need to keep kids on their toes.

So to you I query: Are motivation and engagement separate or linked together much like the "DNA" of keeping kids interested?  My thoughts are not important but alas, I will provide you with THREE resources for student motivation.

Te@chthought is a great site to provide teachers with ideas and help answer some questions one might have.  This article provides a list of "21 Simple Ideas to Improve Student Motivation."

The next two articles come from Mindshift KQED blogs. One provides some more simple methods for how to motivate students while the second gives a bit of deeper exploration to the idea of motivation.

When it is all said and done, how you want to keep kids engaged and motivated is up to you as a teacher.  You get to make choices.  If you want to keep the positive vibes going then read the articles above and get some ideas to keep it flowing.  If you would like to slow things down for now and then pick back up later in the year, read the articles then.  Or better still, find your own resources and feel free to share them here.  If you don't want the read the articles, well, I can't force you.  I can just say best of luck and I hope it all works out in the end.  I just wish that I had this many resources at my finger tips when I first started in this gig.

And now for something completely different...almost.

#WMMSCHAT

Wednesday, September 24, 2014

4-5 PM EAST COAST
(questions subject to change)

Welcome to #wmmschat, please introduce yourself and tell me how you keep yourself motivated.

Q1) With the school year coming into full swing, what changes are you noticing in your students level of enthusiasm?

Q2) What is the difference, if any, between student engagement and motivation?

Q3) What are some signs that your students are not engaged in your lesson?

Q4) What are some signs that your students are fully engaged? (What does the engaged class look and sound like?)

Q5) Agree or not and explain: To increase engagement, I must increase the challenge of my lesson?

Q6)  What is one simple task, you do to get student's quickly engaged in the lesson?

Q7)  How are you going to sustain interest in your class for this year?  What are going to change?

Enjoy the weekend.  No post tomorrow.  Go Orioles!!!