I read the article entitled Ten steps to Better Student Engagement and watched video entitled Classroom Management Tips for Teachers.
I liked the article very much. The main point of the article was that when you are on and your students are on you have more energy at the end of the day. I totally agree - thinking back on some bad days at school, I come home totally exhausted. It definately takes more energy to get through a bad day than a good one. On good days, I am a totally different person when I get home. The article also included a list of strategies to help maintain an atmosphere of good days. They are as follows: create and emotionally and intellectually safe environment, cultivate your engagement meter, create appropriate intermediate steps (for projects, for example), journal writing/blogging, create a culture of explanation instead of a culture of the right answer, etc. This list of strategies includes things that should naturally develop over time for teachers, like the engagement meter, and things that could be implemented to help a classroom run smoothly, like journal writing. I like the idea of journal writing. I can see how it would be beneficial for both students and teacher. The idea is that at the end of a lesson, students would write an entry about what that days lesson was about, what they understood, what they struggled with. The teacher would then have the oportunity to read them and make adjustments. I really like this idea, but I think it would be difficult to implement within the time I have for a class period. It would be better to use with block scheduling.
The vidoe also had some good suggestions. I especially like the middle school science teacher who greet each of his students at his door every day with a hand shake and a question. He asks each student a different question and doesn't let them enter the room until they answer it correctly. I love this idea, but fear that some of my students would never get to enter the room...
Thinking about my inquiry plan, I would like to focus on managing student behavoir. I think I can do this more effectively by finding ways to build a more personal relationship with each student. Both journal writing and playing the "walmart" greeter every day could help me accomplish this, if I can find a way for them to work in the limited time that I have....
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This semester I have developed a "conversation calendar" with my students. Basically it is a spread sheet that has three columns. The first column is a place for them to write something that they learned, thought about, connected to, or had a question about from the lesson. The second column is where I respond to this. And the third column has three faces- a smile, a straight face, and a frown for them to monitor their own engagement (they are remarkably honest). I have 41 undergrads and it is hard for me to learn about them. This has been a wonderful way to get to know them and also give me an idea how they are processing the material. I collect this once a week and I learn so much through this. This might be a good thing for you to do for your inquiry.
ReplyDeleteYou found some good items to try and implement. I do a bell ringer, quotes and and questions, that goes into their journals. But giving one at the end of class would be good to monitor what they got out of the class. Being a greeter sounds good but hard to implement at the high school level, having only a few minutes between classes to prepare then dealing with abscences and excuses for missing work. It's good though that there are ideas out there that we can tweak.
ReplyDeleteI'm pretty certain that you chose the same video to view that I did. I agree that the science teacher in the video had a great idea with the handshake/question, and it seemed to work well for him. I used to teach high school, and I tried this for a while. My students were not as eager as his, and the line would be backed up down the hall when the tardy bell rang. So...good luck with your endeavor, but don't blame yourself if it doesn't go as smoothly as the example in the video. :)
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