Greetings Colleagues,
Thank you for joining our cyber professional learning community. We will utilize this interactive technology to discuss important issues surrounding our primary goal this year of improving student achievement by raising the quality and rigor of our pedagogy. This will be a forum for sharing best practices, asking questions, receiving needed insight, and building every participant's capacity to plan, execute, assess, and reflect upon the craft of teaching. We thank Dr. Angela Hinton for her efforts in the conception and launching of this blog. Are you ready for our first discussion? Sure you are. Let us begin. Our topic of interest for our inaugural discussion is STUDENT ENGAGEMENT. We are asking each member to respond to the following questions?
- What are the characteristics of an engaging lesson?
- How do you increase student mastery and retention of content?
- How do you get your students fully engaged in your lessons?
- What does an engaging lesson look, sound and feel like?
- Please share your memories of a master teachers who taught you more than you ever thought possible.
- What implications does this discussion have for your classroom this year?
Eric D. Simmons, Principal
Engaging lessons really have two components. First, they have the students attention and second, they KEEP the students attention. The most engaging lessons that I do in the kindergarten classroom do not involve me continually "teaching" in front of the class, but when I am providing experiences for my students and allowing them to "discover" the lesson through hands-on experiences. And...
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion, the key to providing hands-on, engaging lessons is planning.
Dr. Hinton summed it up pretty spot on. For me, student engagement is fairly easy as it is a staple of Orff music. Orff music is learning by discovery and active participation. The most engaging lessons are lessons where students either create (in groups) or teach each other.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite teacher was an English teacher in high school. English was a tough subject for me and not only did she make it enjoyable, she made me feel like I could learn it. I felt capable of understanding English lessons while in her class.