Engaging+Students

**ENGAGING STUDENTS**

//For each of you to be able to walk away from here with one idea about how you can make your classes more engaging during your final practicum!!//
 * GOAL:**

In wanting to explore this question, I did some searching of my own as was amazed at the number of people that are willing to speak out on this topic. Much of what I saw was ironically NOT engaging but there were some presentations that left me motivated to get back into the classroom.

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If you have seen the internet phenomenon of Shifts Happens, you will recognize some of the forward thinking questions within this great video.

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 * Need to rethink how we are engaging students
 * is it relevant to their needs
 * digital immigrants teaching digital natives (some of you are natives so it may be easier)

If this is an area of interest for you, please join the conversation in our district: sd 42 conversation


 * **1st task:** Take 3 minutes and come up with 5 common things that need to be included in a good lesson that you are planning for next term.
 * Fun, engagement
 * **2nd task** : Take 5 minutes and come up with 5 common things that engage YOU when you are in a classroom or a presentation.
 * **2nd task** : Take 5 minutes and come up with 5 common things that engage YOU when you are in a classroom or a presentation.


 * Are the two lists the same?** Should they be the same???

Your sense of what is engaging MUST be a lens that you use to evaluate your lesson!

If you don't think it is exciting, NO ONE else will!!!!!

=Is TEACHING an **ART** = __//or//__

= //a SCIENCE???// =
 * how you answer this colours everything you do in teaching and learning


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 * Ken Robinson clearly argues the need for more teaching of creativity in education (worth 20 minutes of your time!!!)

__//My Humble Keys to Engagement// __

 * With -it- ness
 * self-awareness - you can be an out of touch geezer in front of the class as long they know that you know you are a geezer
 * Passion
 * If you're not excited about it, why should I be
 * Connectedness to students
 * I don't care what you know till I know how much you care - If you love kids, you are 3/4 of the way there.
 * Connectedness to content
 * modeling your love for learning often ignites students (how many of us went into teaching because of a great teacher)
 * Sense of humour
 * laugh loudly and laugh often (mostly at yourself)


 * There are 6,437,643 other very important strategies for creating engaging classrooms but I ran out of time

Some clips I stumbled across in my internet meanderings.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VhKKsvG1n6Q&feature=related http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8AOKi29fte0&feature=related Both clips show some practical tips on how to engage students from experienced teachers

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aU5aIm0C-bY&feature=related Kelly Hupfeld Resiliency Skills and Dropout Prevention I believe this starts in kindergarten – studies show that gr 3 is a great indicator of whether they will stay in school or not

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aw7Vu0nkTd0&NR=1 Student produced clip – very impressive and I bet many grade 6 and older could do something of the same caliber

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wi1OK5l9yo4&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MJ9TMqTxkMY&feature=related

=Engaging Learners Presentation=

• Welcome

• Apologies: Haven’t taught for 2 years so bear with me

• Overwhelmed when I started looking into things.

• Could spend a whole course on this!!!!

• GOAL: For each of you to be able to walk away from here with ONE idea about how you can make your classes more engaging during your final practicum!!

• I am reminded of my first lesson I ever taught!!

o Windsor High School

• Who am I? o Started in education in 1968 (found kindergarten fairly easy) o Spent next 7 years in 6 different elementary schools (New Jersey, Ottawa) o Finished back here in BC o UBC undergrad – Engineering o Teaching applied to SFU (didn’t get in so I already know you are all smarter than I am) o Education at UBC o Taught Physics 11,12, Math 12 junior sciences, Secondary VP elementary VP, Elementary Principal for 6 years and now in charge of Adult Ed and Online learning, home schooling and the prisons o Pretty well been there done that in education so I must be really stupid because I still don’t know everything

• I am excited to be able to explore ideas with you guys today around I think one of the most important topics in education. IF YOUR get a handle on this, the rest takes care of itself. • What is amazing about this is that it is not personality dependent because I know so many DIFFERENT teachers who have it • And I know many more who don’t and they don’t realize it

SO WHO ARE YOU??? ELEMENTARY?? SECONDARY?? Previous Careers?

How has it been so far?

Has it been what you expected??

Can you do this for 25 years? I hope that the thought of engaging with children is exciting to you.

If it isn’t now, then you need to re-assess what you are doing!

If it excites you but scares you at the same time, then join the ranks!! I don’t get scared by it anymore but I am certainly humbled by the effort that it takes and I don’t take for granted that I can just show up!!

Well, when Donna asked me to come to chat with you guys, I was pumped. This has always been a topic that has grabbed me and it is actually part of my professional growth plan for this year: I think there is a large part of the teaching force (myself included) that come out of school with energy, ideas and passion. Somehow, over the years that becomes depleted for a wide variety of reasons. There are some exempleary people for whol that does not happen. So my goal this year was to learn from them WHY and then to work with staff around how they can rekindle and reenergize their teaching practice (the key is that I need to do this in such a way that still honours all that they do and know – ie patronizing is a BIG no no!!!)

I did a whole bunch of research this past weekend.

This is such a powerful topic because we all know how important it is: I was doing some research into all of this.

I wanted to be prepared for you guys so I was looking into what the experts had to say.

I was asking colleagues, my kids, I reflected on my own experiences,

I even googled it - I was talking to my wife the other day and I was laughing because there were some videos on how to engage learners and they were the MOST boring videos I had ever seen (such irony – I was hoping that I would not suffer the same fate in front of you).

In doing all of this, I finally realized where the answers needed to come from.

If you want to be successful in your practicum next term, this is a subject that you NEED to take very seriously and you need to draw from within your OWN experiences.

You can implement a bunch of canned lessons and hope they fly. That might work once or twice but

YOU NEED to be able to KNOW what is engaging and why if you want to connect with kids over the course of your career.

So

How much experience do you each have in education?

16 + years at a minimum.

If you haven’t learned what engages people in 16 years, then all hope is lost.

Seriously, you are all experts on what engages one person (THAT IS YOU), now you just need to extrapolate that out so that you can capture a few more people. One of the biggest mistakes is that we get lulled into a sense that everyone thinks like us.

1st task: Take 3 minutes and come up with 5 common things that need to be included in a good lesson that you are planning for next term.

2nd task: Take 5 minutes and come up with 5 common things that engage YOU when you are in a classroom or a presentation.

Are the two lists the same?

How are you going to make your 2nd list part of your first list?

CHANGING GEARS:

IS Teaching a SCIENCE or an ART?

How many think a Science? - form a group and in 5 minutes, decide what your most important points are

Howe many think an Art?

Then I will give you the answer!!!!

Everyone needs to watch Ken Robinson’s video for homework (20 minutes). It inspired me!!!!!

Need to be planned and make teaching exciting and relevant to the learner - Science

Variety Program Relevant Program Connected Program Passion Person Energy Person Relational Person Aware Person

I don’t care what you know until I know what you care!

Fleas jumping

Glasser – Quality School

Science and Art/ Art and Science

WITH-IT-NESS!!!!!!!!!!! Can’t say it enough. I think some of it is innate but I love the fact that it can also be learned as I have seen teachers develop this tremendously over their careers

P.S. I can’t believe I am this old and I am on this end of the teaching spectrum - it was only yesterday I was doing my practicum in North Van and then staring teaching in Pitt Meadows

See the notes from email with Stewart

Connecting kids to curriculum and curriculum to kids withitness novelty - inconsistently consistent passion say it in 6 minutes stories principals of learning varied instruction and assessment tools student voice realtionship - trust - they won't care how much you know until they know how much you care colourful ownership WHY are you doing this? Treat them like adults!!!! EXPECT high things

have them stand up learning styles modalities

go deep and not shallow

be a step ahead of the kids

safe idea environment - respect for people and their ideas

needs to be part of a network and they need one great mentor

honest reflection - learn from it

PARKER PALMER

Don't try to be anyone else

So what did I do (or at least ATTEMPT to do)?

First and foremost, I wanted to convey that I was excited and felt privileged to be with you. In this way, I connect with you and hopefully you connect with me (I realize this isn’t the case for everyone so I need to do what I can to address the different learning styles of those in this room). Some of you love to see it written down (thus the powerpoint but don’t want to do it to the degree that it takes AWAY from what we are doing).

PROGRAM

PERSON

Parker Palmer – Courage to Teach

R. My first question is to find out whether you find your field of study exciting overall, even though the area you are teaching may be more technical and even "boring" to some extent. We do know that instructor enthusiasm is an important factor associated with student learning. I really delight in my field of study, both at a personal level (helps me make sense of my life) and a professional level (very exciting way of understanding and approaching the world collectively, asking penetrating questions and posing alternative courses of action).

I am assuming that you have a textbook for this course that contains the basic information and technical knowledge of the course/field. Is that right?

Two of the first considerations, then, are to ask (1) what are your aims for the course? and (2) what do you hope for by way of student outcomes? Is this about you presenting material and students memorizing that material to be tested on quizzes and exams? Is this about understanding to be judged from students' ability to show they can apply the material? Or will you be looking for a combination of students' knowing basic information by memory and application of that material to cases or problems? And what skills do you hope to have students develop as a result of your course? Writing, working problems, doing analysis, making applications?

It is critical that you find ways for students to be actively engaged in the course/class material and presentations. Using small groups is one way - discussions, problem solving, case studies. Students making presentations in class is another. Students writing frequent responses in class is a third. Students must be active to learn - and that can happen in lectures, if the lectures are well developed and energetically presented, with good examples and carefully chosen stories, and enough time for questions. Sometimes in science courses, it is useful to present short biographies of scientists--past and contemporary--to show how they made discoveries and what the importance of those discoveries has been.

A book I would strongly recommend for ways of fostering student engagement in the classroom is John C. Bean, Engaging Ideas: The Professor's Guide to Integrating Writing, Critical Thinking, and Active Learning in the Classroom. (San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. 1996.) I have found what Bean has to say quite helpful. He writes clearly and offers many ideas for engaging students. The book is widely used and frequently cited.

A Philosophy of Transformation

Learning to be an excellent teacher is a career-long undertaking, because a great teacher is never a finished product but rather always in the process of becoming. T.E. Cronin

Teaching, at its most elegant, grows through dialogue and conversation, whether it is with students, peers or mentors. It is our hope to build a community of teachers within this course who will learn from and inspire each other through discussion of teaching beliefs, values, approaches, strategies and experiences. We call this “transformation” because this course is about growth, change and lifelong learning. Great teachers are passionate teachers who inspire their learners, but they are also driven by a desire to continually transform themselves, no matter their level of expertise, into the best teachers they can possibly be.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wi1OK5l9yo4&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MJ9TMqTxkMY&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VhKKsvG1n6Q&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aU5aIm0C-bY&feature=related Kelly Hupfeld Resiliency Skills and Dropout Prevention I believe this starts in kindergarten – studies show that gr 3 is a great indicator of whether they will stay in school or not

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aw7Vu0nkTd0&NR=1 Student produced clip – very impressive and I bet many grade 6 and older could do something of the same caliber

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dGCJ46vyR9o&feature=related Classroom video in lecture hall with students showing sheets of paper

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8AOKi29fte0&feature=related

A couple of good practical tips on how to engage students from experienced teachers

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_A-ZVCjfWf8&feature=related

This one is great, it is a mixture of the ethnography one and Shift Happens.

Find out where they are at

Solicit their ideas – you need to have a gut level understanding - if you can’t see how others view you, you are going to struggle to reflect and effect change in your classroom - Program or Person dependent? - Art or a Science

My situation: not ideal No prior learning knowledge of where you are at Only get to see you for one small segment Goal: To have an impact on you (I want to be engaging) but also to leave you with something with which you can grow for yourself (otherwise it is just entertainment)

Variety Program Relevant Program Connected Program Passion Person Energy Person Relational Person Aware Person

William Glasser – Quality School – motivating students through non-coercive means