It’s amazing the improvement that students will make when they’re interested in the material, as opposed to when they try to keep their eyes open during a monotonous lecture. So, how do you get them engaged? What’s the magic secret? Here are a few things that worked for me.
Use what you know about your students.
Start early when it comes to learning about your students. On the first day of class, give out an interest inventory for them to fill out. Don’t just stick this in a drawer somewhere. Use what you know about them to your advantage. If you know that the most important thing about James is that he loves basketball, then maybe he would be more willing to focus on your calculus problem if it were related to sports. If you know that Thalia wrote “MUSIC IS LIFE” four times on her paper, maybe you could open your poetry unit by analyzing song lyrics. You have to tailor your lessons to the specific and ever changing needs of your students.
Plan activities that get them moving around.
We all know the scene in Ferris Bueller's Day Off where Ben Stein is putting everyone to sleep. Don’t be that teacher. No matter what course you teach, you should mix it up a bit. A mentor of mine once told me that the classroom activity should change every 7-10 minutes. That’s long enough to know if they grasped the concept and short enough to keep them from getting bored. Remember that your students learn material in different ways, so you should take it upon yourself to present it in different ways. Make sure that at some point, most days you get them out of their seats and working with their hands. This will keep them engaged and it won’t give them as much room for behavior disruptions.
Have fun yourself.
Students can tell when you’re just phoning it in, and this shows them that if you don’t care about the material, then they don’t have to either. But if you show them things you’re passionate about, then you can let your geek flag fly. Looking back on teachers that I’ve had, my favorites weren’t the ones who gave us worksheets everyday; my favorite teachers were the ones who were enthusiastic about the subject they teach. There’s a reason you were drawn to teaching 7th grade history. Don’t be afraid to show it.
Bring technology into the classroom.
Anyone who has spent any amount of time with a teenager knows that they’re glued to their cell phones and tablets. You’re never going to be able to police phones, so use them to your advantage. Have students do research on their own devices. Use programs like Poll Everywhere to get student responses up on the screen. Give assignments where they have to create films outside of class. If you get creative with it, you can get them interested in your class and also show them how to utilize the tools at their disposal.
