Tag: engagement

• Random Teacher Thoughts

  Listen, I know I said I was going to post lesson plans here, I’m working on it okay? But I have so many other teacher thoughts swirling around in my ever-running brain that these posts keep taking precedence over the lesson plans. But they’re coming. I promise!

  Over the last few days I’ve found myself consistently talking about my experiences as a teacher (whether that was against the will of whomever I was speaking to is beside the point). These conversations have broken some thoughts free that I want to share.

  1. You are not your mentor teacher. My mentor teacher was truly one of the best teachers I’ve ever seen in action. Nearing the end of her career, she had mastered that nurturing yet stern personality all successful teachers seem to have. I compared myself to her every year for my first 3 years teaching. But you know what I realized? I’m not Mrs. Taylor and that’s okay! She’s amazing, but just because my teaching approach is different, and I’m a little less nurturing and a lot more sarcastic does not mean I’m less of a teacher than her. Don’t compare yourself to veteran teachers when you’re still trying to figure out who you are as a teacher yourself.
  2. Bad days are only days. I’ve seen a lot of teachers perpetuate a cycle of constant negativity in this career. If you let whatever happened Monday affect your mood on Friday? That’s a you problem my friend. Troubleshoot whatever the problem was that made your day suck and move on from it. Hell, maybe even learn from it.
  3. Always do a Sunday reset. I realize that this is slowly turning into an advice column. That wasn’t what I intended when I started but whatever I’m just going to go with it. I can’t tell you how much better my weeks got when I started focusing on Sundays being productive and rewarding. Every Sunday I make a “to clean” list and a “to do” list and these lists consist of everything I need to get done to make my Monday morning easier. For example, pack lunches is always on my to do list. My to clean list is probably absurdly long to the average human but I like my house to be in great condition at the start of the week, it clears my head. That’s just an example of my reset. Becky, the teacher down the hall could go to yoga and brunch with her besties as her Sunday reset and that’s excellent too! Whatever clears your mind and has you feeling positive for the start of the week.
  4. Grading at home is for the birds. Don’t do it people! I know you feel like you don’t have time at school. And if you’re like me and have, at several times in your career, had upwards of 160 essays to grade you know it’s not realistic to cram that into your prep periods (if you get them). But my advice is to take them to your favorite coffee shop or get with a teacher buddy and pick a fun place to sit down and grade together. Commiserate if you will. Just don’t take away from your home zen with crap from work. Remember my post about not getting burnt out? Yeah, add this to the list of ways to avoid that.
  5. The big kicker: They won’t all like you. Man when I started teaching, whether I would admit it or not, the students liking me was a big priority. I knew from my practicum and student teaching that building relationships was pivotal when it came to having success with lessons and engagement. But I didn’t really realize it’s impossible to be liked by 150 little humans. They won’t all like you, your personalities may clash, and that’s okay! Do not waste your energy getting Tommy to finally laugh at one of your jokes. Worry about supporting your students in any way they’ll let you, not being homecoming queen (The Teacher’s Version).

  Well I guess that’s it for what’s on my mind today. I’ll post that lesson plan soon. But for now, see ya later!

  February 2, 2025

  advice, coach, education, educator, engagement, experience, instructionalcoach, learning, rapport, school, students, teachers, teaching

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• Bad Habit #2 Engagement is More Important than Curriculum

  Alright, I’m going to get on my soapbox a little bit here because two things I will absolutely geek out over? Engagement and anything related to an english curriculum. Engagement is absolutely pivotal in educating today’s youth. Especially in an era where these children have access to just about anything at their fingertips. I will argue this habit until the cows come home. I wrote my Master’s thesis on how engagement is directly correlated with preventing negative behaviors in the classroom. So I’ve put in the time and energy to prove how important this is. There are a few key books I cited for my thesis and that I use in my novice seminars as well that I will bring up in other posts as we dig deeper into engagement. One of the books I constantly revery back to is William N. Bender’s “20 Strategies for Increasing Student Engagement” it’s the best, and I’m telling you right now to go out and get it if you’re trying to spice up your lessons. So for the rest of this post I’m just going to give you all the reasons why engaging your students should be the most important thing to you and hopefully I’ll have convinced you by the end.

  Reason 1: They will grasp the information faster. Think about a time you were doing something you were really interested in. The time flew and you were hyper-focused right? Now think of a time you were learning about something you were completely uninterested in, the time dragged on right? Or maybe you found yourself doodling on your paper instead of actually listening to the teacher. Well, despite what we think, no matter how much we love our subject matter, students aren’t inherently going to be in love with it as well. If they’re engaged in whatever the lesson is the first thing that you will notice is that they will be actively listening to you. Have you ever had one of those days where you’re pretty sure you reiterated the directions 5,000 times? Same. If your students are engaged, there will be no repeating! A modern day miracle if you ask me. Another thing you will notice is when students are engaged they’re more likely to understand the concept you are teaching (the first time you teach it) because they are actively participating. They’ll grasp concepts faster because they are excited about what they are doing. That’s a win!

  Reason 2: You will have less distracting behaviors. Trust me on this, I’ve done the research and tested the hypothesis. Literally. I wrote my entire master’s thesis on this and based it around a relatively boring topic that I was teaching my students at the time. Taking a topic that may be a potential snooze fest and putting in the time to make it fun, interactive, or exciting for students is going to be such a game changer when it comes to your classroom management.When you have an engaging lesson, a truly engaging lesson, you will have virtually no behaviors to deal with in your classroom. This is not forcing all 35 students to take turns reading paragraphs in To Kill a Mockingbird. You have to open the class period with some kind of fun hook to engage students so they’re absolutely fired up and can’t wait to read about Boo Radley. Then have them do the meat of the lesson that may require a little more focus, and then finish with something even more engaging than your hook. If you’re stoked throughout the lesson and your students can tell how excited and passionate you are about what you’re teaching them they are going to see that and feed off of it. So have fun! It’s not illegal.

  Reason 3: They deserve it. Just because the expectation when you were in school was to sit at your desk, shut up, and take notes, does not mean that’s the most effective approach. Times have changed, and with that so have the youth in America. As a teacher your sole duty is to educate children. To pass them on to the next grade level with as much knowledge as they need to have in order to be successful in the next grade. If that’s your goal (it should be) than engaging your students is imperative. So many education courses in college show you that scene with Robin Williams, you know the one…”O’ Captain, my Captain…” Ring a bell? I know so many teacher’s that would clutch their pearls at the thought of hopping on a desk, let alone allowing students to do so. If that’s not your jam, think of a different way to be equally inspiring and exciting, maybe without violating OSHA. Student’s aren’t going to look back and remember a math formula because you said it was important, they’ll look back and remember it because you made it important. You made it fun.

  I realize I gave you a bunch of reasons why engagement is important and absolutely no way of how to implement engagement strategies in your classroom but I promise that’s coming! Each week I will post a lesson plan that includes all kinds of fun engagement strategies to help push your students to be successful and enjoy whatever it is you’re teaching them. This month I will be posting lesson plans from a unit on To Kill a Mockingbird because in true, english nerd fashion, this is my all time favorite book. I mean, don’t even get me started on how ahead of her time Harper Lee was. But, unlike me, about 85% of America has trouble getting through the first 100 pages. SO each week I will post lesson plans for one cohesive unit that will help make this book the most interesting read your students will ever do. Till next time!

  January 13, 2025

  coach, education, educator, engagement, learning, lesson planning, students, teacher, teachers, teaching

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