Room 6 KGH
  • Home
  • KGH Site
  • Breakout-Edu
    • Measurement
    • Polygons
    • 3D Shapes
    • St. Patrick's Day
  • Fun Links
  • Poetry
  • Iditarod
  • Projects
    • Balloons Over Broadway
    • Thanksgiving Project
    • Language Games
    • Minecraft Project
    • Gingerbread Stories
    • Sitka Spider Project >
      • Bold Jump Spider Information
    • Animal Research
    • Book Talk
  • Portfolio
    • Portfolio
    • Leadership in Ed. Tech
    • Diff. Inst. Blog
    • Mechanical Tech Blog
    • Promethean Training
  • Maker Learning
  • Makerspace
    • What is a Makerspace?
    • Benefits of a Makerspace
    • Makerspace Projects
    • Makerspace Rules
    • Makerspace Supplies
    • Makerspace Resources
    • 100 Minutes of Making
    • Maker Mondays
  • Biomimicry
  • Programing
    • SSD Tech Guidelines
    • Ozobot PD
  • 2017-2018
    • Sydney
    • Olen
    • Cali
    • Calvin
    • Coulter
    • Damien
    • Danielle
    • EJ
    • Evelyn
    • Jema
    • Kayeil
    • Kieran
    • Landen
    • Leah
    • Nathan
    • Rihana
    • Ronan
    • Sky
  • Food Drive - Donation Counter
  • Storage

Leadership in  Ed.Tech

Week 1

9/4/2015

3 Comments

 
Picture

Essential Question: How do we keep our lessons engaging? Does Innovation play a part in it?



Teachers can increase engagement by making learning irresistible.  It’s about engaging students by tapping into their interests and making learning and work enjoyable.  Author Dave Burgess writes that there are 3 critical elements of an engaging lesson: presentation, content and method/technique (Burgess, 2012).  Educators can apply innovation and brain-based education practices to these 3 elements to increase engagement.  

Brain-based education is based on the neuroscience behind active engagement of both practical strategies and behavioral principles. Brain-based learning involves learning about the brain and how it functions to find the best learning strategies. (Jensen, 2012) 

Method/Technique
Engaging lessons recognize that students are constructionists and should be active participants in their learning.  Learning is interactive and builds upon prior knowledge.  Engaging lessons increase the range of experiences available to students.  Engaged learning also involves timely feedback. Teachers often have to mix things up to keep students engaged.  

Content
Achievement is driven by interest.  Engaging lessons allow students to find and explore things that they are drawn to.    Teachers can get students to invest with real passion and real curiosity.  By tapping into interests, teachers can maximize multiple intelligences and student learning.  An engaged classroom is a place where both students and teachers learn, invent, explore, teach, collaborate, and share. Engaging lessons build on students’ intrinsic motivations.    

Presentation
Engaging lessons take into consideration students' attention spans. A traditional lecture is typically less engaging and therefore less effective then immersion into the content.  Another way to increase engagement (and is brain-based) is to incorporate movement into learning. Brain-based learning is all about active learning. To increase engagement teachers can build in emotional influence such as risk, excitement, urgency and pleasure.  

Environment

Dave Burges, points out that teachers need to “create a safe and supportive kind of environment in which creativity, learning and fun can coexist and flourish”.  (Burgess, 2012)  Before any lesson can be engaging students need to feel safe.  As Concordia University points out “brain-based education is about eliminating barriers and allowing the mind to work without distractions” ("Bringing Brain-Based Learning Theories into the Classroom," n.d.).  Outside factors such as poverty, nutrition, hormones, sleep, etc. can all affect engagement and the brains ability to learn. Often outside factors are outside the control of the teacher but the teacher can increase engagement by creating an environment that embodies respect, embeds social skills and empowers the learner.

Innovation
Innovation most defiantly plays a role in engagement.  Our students live in a world that looks very different from the world we grew up in.  Our students challenge us to be innovative and to make education stimulating, challenging and rewarding. We can’t leave the 21st century outside the classroom.  We need to build upon the technology strengths of the generation.  We have a responsibility to our students to prepare them for the world they will grow up in.  To be successful our students need to be innovators. 

Sustaining innovation and engagement is not an easy task.  It takes planning and energy.  The book Hacking Education shares a quote from Michael Jordan, basketball player and entrepreneur “If you run into a wall, don’t turn around and give up. Figure out how to climb it, go through it, or work around it” (Barnes & Gonzalez, 2015).   Keeping our lessons engaging and innovative can at times feel like a marathon of never ending walls.  Those are walls that I will gladly tackle if it means that it will help my students get closer to their finish line.  

 
  

Resources

Barnes, M., & Gonzalez, J. (2015). Hacking Education: 10 Quick Fixes for Every School (Hack Learning Series). Cleveland, OH: Times 10 Publication.

Bringing Brain-Based Learning Theories into the Classroom. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://education.cu-portland.edu/blog/reference-material/bringing-brain-based-learning-theories-into-the-classroom/

Burgess, D. (2012). Teach like a Pirate: Increase student engagement, boost your creativity, and transform your life as an educator. San Diego, CA: Dave Burgess Consulting.

 

Jensen, E. (2012, February 14). Understanding Brain-Based Learning. Retrieved September 3, 2015, from http://www.jensenlearning.com/news/what-is-brain-based-teaching/brain-based-teaching

3 Comments
Sally
9/5/2015 10:08:06 pm

"Engaging lessons allow students to find and explore things that they are drawn to."

This is a great point we can measure our lesson by. If the students are up and running with something that draws their interests we have delivered our message in the lesson.

Reply
Sunshine Winn link
9/6/2015 12:31:53 pm

I love that you incorporated brain-based research because that is at the heart of engaging students. The many factors that can hinder or help out a student's learning environment is so immense. That socioeconomic boundary that kids face is a tough one. They are all coming to school with differing backgrounds and baggage. It is something that we always have to keep in mind when teaching because it is what makes that child who they are. Their passion and energy will thrive when they feel safe and appreciated, listened to, and successful. Allowing them to attempt their education with familiar and fun ways can really assist in creating that environment for these students.

Reply
Theresa
9/6/2015 02:48:55 pm


Cindy- Those are great elements of an engaging lesson that Dave Burgess points out. I really agree on content and presentation. Not all students are going to be interested in the topic you are trying to teach them. You have to make it interesting by tapping into their interests and learning styles. Presentation is another good one. It you are not excited to present it to the students then how can you expect them to be excited about learning it. You need to show excitement when you are presenting. Environment is another very important one. Students need to be able to feel safe in a classroom and know that their ideas and voices will be heard. All great ones!

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    Author

    Write something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview.

    Archives

    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015

    Categories

    All
    Week 10
    Week 10 Reflection
    Week 11
    Week 11 Reflection
    Week 12
    Week 13
    Week 1 Reflection
    Week 2 Reflection
    Week 3
    Week 3 Reflection
    Week 4 Reflection
    Week 5
    Week 5 Reflection
    Week 7
    Week 7 Reflection
    Week 8
    Week 8 Reflection
    Week 9
    Week 9 Reflection

    RSS Feed

Room 6 KGH 2017

Photo used under Creative Commons from symphony of love
  • Home
  • KGH Site
  • Breakout-Edu
    • Measurement
    • Polygons
    • 3D Shapes
    • St. Patrick's Day
  • Fun Links
  • Poetry
  • Iditarod
  • Projects
    • Balloons Over Broadway
    • Thanksgiving Project
    • Language Games
    • Minecraft Project
    • Gingerbread Stories
    • Sitka Spider Project >
      • Bold Jump Spider Information
    • Animal Research
    • Book Talk
  • Portfolio
    • Portfolio
    • Leadership in Ed. Tech
    • Diff. Inst. Blog
    • Mechanical Tech Blog
    • Promethean Training
  • Maker Learning
  • Makerspace
    • What is a Makerspace?
    • Benefits of a Makerspace
    • Makerspace Projects
    • Makerspace Rules
    • Makerspace Supplies
    • Makerspace Resources
    • 100 Minutes of Making
    • Maker Mondays
  • Biomimicry
  • Programing
    • SSD Tech Guidelines
    • Ozobot PD
  • 2017-2018
    • Sydney
    • Olen
    • Cali
    • Calvin
    • Coulter
    • Damien
    • Danielle
    • EJ
    • Evelyn
    • Jema
    • Kayeil
    • Kieran
    • Landen
    • Leah
    • Nathan
    • Rihana
    • Ronan
    • Sky
  • Food Drive - Donation Counter
  • Storage