Its nearing the end of the year.... We know the end of the school year is near because we are thinking in terms of days rather than weeks or even months. State testing for our school is under way or coming to a close. We're tired and all of our students are tired too, but school is still not over. How can we keep from pulling our hair out as well as keep our classes under control? One word- Engagement.
As an administrator, I see a jump in referrals to the office during the remaining days due to a lack of student engagement. Yes, we are all tired but school is in still in session and the students are still here. So what can we do to keep them engaged now? If you have finished the state test for your content then help out your school and your peers by turning your focus to other content areas that have yet to be tested. If all of the state testing is done, then now is the time to have fun with your classes. That is not to say that we haven't had fun thus far, but now we can do the lessons that had to be put to the side in order to stay focused on our states tests.
All of us have things that we are passionate about and want to share with our students. The problem is that these things don't always fit neatly into the regular school year. These passions or fun lessons are what can keep students engaged and excited about coming to our classrooms. Try some new ideas or technology that you have been hesitant to do. Even if it doesn't go as planned, it will still be fun for you and your students as well as be a welcome change of pace. If we run out of ideas then we can ask our students what they want to learn about. All of this will take planning of course, but the hard work up front will keep our students engaged and classroom discipline at bay.
4 comments:
My son is in HS and his testing is over...he passed all of his SOL's (phew) and he is having trouble staying focused on school at all. Thankfully, he only has 3 weeks left, but he has checked out mentally already. His take on the situation is "teachers are just giving us busy work". Sadly, he is probably correct about some of his teachers. Some still see worksheets done silently at their desk as a way to keep the kids under control. That certainly isn't keeping kids engaged.
Well said Ed! I have been running up hill to get buy-in on this concept. We, in New York, still have a couple assessments for our advanced eighth graders but we can relax and do a few fun lessons that we may have passed over.
We need more understanding of our students and try to avoid situations that result in referrals.
This is the time to relax, have some fun and celebrate our amazing successes.
@ Ed
We'll said. We are now into exam week and the end is next Friday. One area principal has a fun habbit of locking away the VCR carts and scheduling teacher observations for the last two weeks of the year. He says he wants to see students working on culminaing projects. I would imagine it helps with year end engagement.
I think many of us forget that we did have things we wanted to teach but didn't have time for in the school year. We have an "Art Connections" curriculum where I missed several lessons and I plan to do a few of these in the upcoming weeks. It's also a great time to preview what's next for our students; when we present tasks and ideas as,"wow, this is going to be tricky but a fun challenge" younger students can't wait to jump in!
Thanks for the reminder Ed. In the midst of finishing assessments, writing report cards, I certainly can use any inspiration I can find :-)
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