Engagement is...

"Student engagement is the product of motivation and active learning.  It is a product rather than a sum because it will not occur if either element is missing." 

 ~Elizabeth F. Barkley

I don't know about you, but I get pretty giddy this time of the year.  I can't wait to get our teachers and students back into our buildings!   At our high school faculty meeting yesterday, Mr. Kittle, our building Principal, challenged us to focus on the word "engagement" in our classrooms this year.  He challenged us to think about student engagement in our classrooms and if what we are doing is truly engaging our students and meeting their needs. I don't have a classroom right now per se, but his challenge got me to thinking about what engagement looks like.    

Engagement is not...

Worksheets

Memorization

A plethora of drill and practice problems when only a few will suffice

Regurgitation of information

PowerPoint or Keynotes

Doing the same thing everyday

Teacher as the "Sage on the Stage"

Teaching the way you were taught

"Busy Work"

Watching movies

Engagement is all about...

Relevance

Relationships

Inquiry

Discussions

Collaborating

Student Choice

Creativity

Self directed learning

Empowerment

Autonomy

Active classrooms

Making students think

Opening your mind to new ideas in your classroom

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Share Your Passion With Students (Instructions Included)

As educators we all know that one of the greatest benefits to teaching are the relationships that we build with our students.  This year marks my 15th year in education and I truly cherish each and every chance I get to build relationships in my classroom.  Just the other day I received a letter from a former student letting me know how much she enjoyed my class and that she still has a passion for studying History.

It made my day.

That is what teaching is all about.  Each and every day that we walk into our classrooms we have an opportunity to make a difference!  How awesome is that?

In reflecting back over my 15 years in education there is one thing that I don't think I did very well.  I didn't really share what I was passionate about with my students.  Sure, my students knew that I loved to teach and coach.  But what about the other things that I enjoyed to do like gardening, golfing, camping?   Why didn't I share those passions with my students?  Why was I holding that information back?  I know I was always asking my students to be passionate about every single thing they did in their lives, yet I was holding back in sharing what I was passionate about.

This made me think about a day a long time ago...

I remember the day well in 1977.  It was about the middle of my Kindergarten year and  I was at the local supermarket with my mother.  I saw my teacher Mrs. Martin and she was wearing jeans!  I tugged on my mother's shirt and exclaimed, "Mom, Mrs. Martin is wearing jeans!"  Here I thought that my teacher was a superhero (still do) and wore only skirts and slacks.  I only knew Mrs. Martin in "school mode." I was always curious about the "other side" of my teachers. What were they like when they took off their superhero capes?  What did they like doing outside of school?

So here is your challenge.  As you begin this school year, I want you to share your passions with your students.   Here is a way to showcase your passions mixed in with a little technology...enjoy creating!

Challenge

• Create a new deck in Haiku Deck
• Create six slides that describe/list your passions
• No more than six words on a slide!
• Share it with your students...often. 

Watch the video below to see how to take your Haiku Deck, export it,  then upload it into a Google Presentation that will continuously loop.  Stand out in the hallway on the first day of school, greet your students and have your Passion Project playing as you students are entering your classroom.

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Creating & App Smashing with App Dice

I have to give all the credit for this awesome idea to Ryan Read.  Ryan is an Integration Specialist in Illinois and boy does he have some great ideas! I ran across his #appdice idea while perusing my Twitter stream last Spring and was immediately intrigued.

It's a simple way to get students to creating in your classroom and #appsmashing.  I wanted to create a set of my own geared towards using the iPad to create, so I  created two types of die for my set (and other sets I created and gave out to our teachers). One die has six "creation" apps, while the second die has six "showcase" apps.

For the creation apps I used Popplet Lite, Pic Collage, Doodlebuddy, Trading Cards, Skitch and Word Clouds.

For the showcase apps I used ShowMe, Educreations, Tellagami, Thinglink, 30Hands, and iMovie.

Have your students roll the "creation" app, then the "showcase" app.  Have your students create something with those two apps based on what you are learning/studying/analyzing/reading.  Have them hand in their products via Google Drive, Showbie or eBackpack. Better yet, have them publish what they created using their KidBlog accounts.

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