Keeping the Students Engaged
Since I started teaching, I found out that displaying various quote of the day on the board about success, wisdom, dream, purpose, seem to motivate students. My students show more respect than before.
Larry,
Absolutely! Immediate application is a wonderful way to cement important ideas and helps students retain critical information.
Barry Westling
One way I keep students engaged is after talking about a subject we will go outside look for that. It breaks the day up helping them stay engaged and be more active learning environment.
Jodi,
I really believe that a simple but effective way to reinforce the notion of the importance why students are in school can be provided with quotes, affirmations, inspired statements -- words that convey hope, success, integrity, professionalism, etc. And although it is not my motivation, I think students associate these sentiments with me, and to whatever degree that is true, it helps build trust and respect.
Barry Westling
I'm so glad to read that I am not the only one that uses this technique. I have a tall mirror in my class. I simply write the word "reflection" on top of the mirror. Daily, I write a quote on the mirror. We usually discuss the quote for a few minutes daily - usually at the start of class. The intent is to make the students think about the quote, engage me with what the quote means to them, and then engage their classmates by responding to each other. I find that it makes me seem more human and approachable, and it opens the line of communication between our classroom unit.
Lisa,
I believe in order to keep students engaged I have to keep thier interest, personalizing instruction so the student can see how it personally benefits them, asking questions frequently, randomly (so all feel they may be called on at any time), and changing the flow of delivery continuously so that there is less
opportunity to get distracted.
Barry Westling
I like to engage students as they enter the classroom with some type of question, challenge, problem, visual, etc. I had an instructor in college that used this in a class to teach elementary education. I have now applied it to my technology classes.
Kellie,
Sometimes I find a quote that's just perfect, something that may be humorous or right to the point. I think these give students pause to think, reflect, and perhaps even apply timely quotations. I always use them at the beginning of the period, and they usually remain for the entire period.
Barry Westling
they have something to strive for when they read those inspirational quotes..thats an awesome idea. Id love to try myself
Janet, I teach adults and let me tell you they love compliments as well.
I speak to each student individually by name, and if I notice they did something extra ie, haircut, perm, new clothing I make sure I mention it.
This enables the students to know that I pay attention to them, not just seeing a body.
JanetMarie,
Great example, and demonstrates the powerful effect of personalizing instruction and relating to each student as individuals.
Barry Westling
My morning bell work (for my 5th grade students) is a character education based writing prompt. I write out the prompt in black and then I write my own response in pink. The students read mine and laugh (because I was extremely hard headed as a child) and then they are comfortable in sharing their story with me in their morning journals. I also greet my kids at the door and have something nice to say to each one of them.
Biftu,
I have written a daily quote for at least 30 years. I look for pertinent quotes, cut them from the newspaper, sometimes look them up via internet. For me, it conveys a humanistic side to my personality and hopefully, student reflect on the comment, at least at the time they're reading it.
Barry Westling
