Tag Archives: engagement
Keep Your Chin Up: Positive Imagery for Teachers
My daughter is a competitive figure skater. One of the things her coach asks her to do before she competes is to visualize herself skating her program and landing her jumps. Even during practice, my daughter and her coach use these visualization exercises to convince the mind to rely on muscle memory and training.
These positive mental images replace the negative I can’t messages that athletes sometimes have with those of success. At competitions, meets, matches, or games, so much of an athlete’s performance comes down to her own belief in herself. Continue reading
Grading and Student Engagement
The personal connection between student and teacher is vital to student achievement. When that personal connection exists, the student is more likely to be engaged in the learning and willing to perform the tasks the teacher sets to achieve lesson objectives.
Look around your classroom at the students who have habitual behavior problems. Are they engaged? Do they complete assignments? Do you think they look forward to class? Do you have a personal connection with the student? Continue reading
Classroom Supplies for the Disorganized Student: A Help or a Crutch?
“With students who lack motivation, the wise teacher picks her battles wisely. It is best to avoid hassles over whether a student has necessary supplies until after the student experiences success.”
-Dr. Allen Mendler, Motivating Students Who Don’t Care, p. 26
For students who always leave folders in their lockers or never have a pen, Mendler advocates having donated supplies in class for all to use, return, and replenish. Continue reading
I Am Thankful for My Challenging Students
Dr. Allen Mendler recently visited Inside the School to record some online professional development seminars. During one of his seminars, Mendler said something that I couldn’t help but write down. Mendler said that he witnessed this kind of conversation between a teacher and a challenging student:
TEACHER: I just want to tell you that I’m really glad you’re in my class. I know that it’s not your favorite place to be, but I’m trying hard to make sure that I’m the right teacher for you. I’ve tried many strategies to teach you, but so far they haven’t been working very well. I’ll keep trying more so that you can learn. I want to thank you for being a part of my class. You are making me a better teacher.
Let’s be honest: you are making me a better teacher isn’t what I would say when talking to a challenging student.
But it should be, because it’s true. Continue reading
Dealing with the ‘Math is Hard’ Complaint
As a mathematics instructor I have heard this complaint more times then I like. We allow ourselves to be brainwashed by this belief. It has become so accepted that saying it is as common as “How are you?” “Fine.”
Math doesn’t have to be hard. It is a tool: the tool of science and economics; the tool of problem solving and the algorithmic approach to issues. One of the many beauties of the tool is, it has been around for thousands of years, and although we find and develop new aspects, it is largely unchanged. I approach teaching math by trying to show the students that what they are learning is all within their current knowledge. Continue reading
Six Ways to Make a Classroom Lecture Interesting
Back in the day, when I was a beginning teacher, I was convinced that my students would love my three-class-period Shakespeare lecture as much as I did. My students quickly let me know that three days of note taking, no matter what the subject or how interesting the details, was way too much for them.
Over the years, my students have taught me how much lecture they can tolerate and what holds their attention the best. Continue reading
Should Students Be Allowed to Use Digital Devices at School?
I taught high school for 10 years and I’m still a certified teacher. I know that battling academic dishonesty in the classroom is like battling a Hydra. Every time you think you’ve lopped off the cheating monster’s many heads, it sprouts two more.
Yesterday on Twitter’s Tuesday #educhat, educators discussed student use of digital devices in the classroom. For the most part, cell phones aren’t allowed in schools; however, some schools are beginning to not only allow them, but also to encourage students to use their mobile devices in the name of learning. I had a guest post about using cell phones as clickers last year. I haven’t tried it myself, but I know that the technology works in classrooms Continue reading
Recognize Student Achievement, both in and out of School
Two of the best hours of my teaching career occurred on a Saturday morning at a dirt bike track. I went to watch my student Sean, whom I’d had in class before. He was a junior and still struggling in my English class. I was a couple of years older and a whole lot wiser than I had been Sean’s freshman year.
We butted heads two years before. I wanted Sean to turn in homework, but he didn’t want to do anything. I begged, pleaded, and called his mother when she finished waiting tables. I praised each little step Sean took in the right direction and silently gnashed my teeth when those steps didn’t turn into progress. He passed English 9, but only because I pushed and pulled him through it every day. Continue reading
How to Encourage Challenging Students to Turn in Homework
Alicia was a student of mine. She was a smart girl with a giant chip on her shoulder. The kid could write, though. Once you got past the angsty teen stuff, her poetry was inventive and full of symbolism. Despite her best bluster, we became reluctant allies. She liked that I read her work and I liked that she worked.
We still had trouble when it came to Alicia turning in assignments. She wasn’t a fan of the day-to-day reading and writing expectations I had for my sophomore English students. She had no interest in reading nonfiction and less interest in creating plot diagrams. Continue reading
Is It Ever O.K. to Bribe Your Students?
Once upon a time I was a new teacher. I had bright ideals and shiny, new lesson plans. I knew my stuff and I was ready to inspire the next generation of English 11 students.
It took me just three weeks to buy my first bag of mini-sized candy bars to use as a bribe for my students. Three more weeks and I was buying big bags of candy. Still three more weeks and the Halloween candy was on clearance.
I was five pounds heavier and my wallet was five pounds lighter.
Continue reading
