Stop Struggling With Student Engagement, Do This Instead

Key Takeaways

have you ever looked out at your classroom and seen your students and thought man their minds are somewhere else right now well that's an experience that many of us know all too well but what if what if I told you that there were strategies that would reconnect your students re-engage them and also ignite their passion for learning well today's episode we're going to explore five actionable teaching strategies that will engage your students and create a rich learning environment grab your pen grab your piece of paper and get ready to take some notes because we're going to get started right now hey there Dr Gordon Emerson here superintendent of schools and Gallup certified strengths coach and on this channel we leverage my experience from classroom teacher all the way to the office of district superintendent to help you go further faster in your educational Journey if this is your first time with us thank you for being here and welcome in while you're here here don't forget hit that subscribe button as well as the bell notification so you don't miss any cool updates or any of our latest content or episodes so I know how you're feeling night after night we think about how do we create an environment where our students are engaged they're excited they can't wait to engage in the learning and the lesson that we're building and we're creating for them and all the while you're thinking what what are the strategies that I'm going to use and how am I going to create these authentic learning experiences well if you have been racking that around in your brain you are in the right place because today we're going to explore five teaching strategies that increase engagement we're going to give you big ideas that you can then pick and choose different subsets of those ideas and different tips and different strategies and you can make this your own you can make it who who you are you can tailor it to your expertise your passion and your natural gifts and talents so we're going to explore those five strategies so without further Ado let's get started with strategy number one all right so the very first high impact teaching practice that I'm going to encourage you to use to increase engagement and create real connections with students is in fact to connect their learning to the real world so what are we trying to do here well we want to relate our content to real world scenarios real things relevant things that happen in the world and we want most importantly for those things to resonate with our students experiences whether it be their lived experiences their familial experiences their cultural experiences their neighborhood or Community Based experiences but when we are able to connect their experiences with real world learning those connect ctions are powerful so you want to use things like anecdotes you want to use case studies you want to use relevant information relevant anecdotes of different things you've heard different things you've experienced different things that you know they've heard or experienced you want to use current events because current events are things that will connect with students and they're happening in real time so there's a real world connection so we think about how we connect these real world experiences to their experience and we tie that into our lessons and we tie that into our teaching experiences we're creating the opportunity to have a sticky a sticky learning experience and what's a sticky learning experience it's things that kids talk about for years they talk about it in their senior year oh I remember when I was a freshman we did X or we talk about hey when I was in 7th grade we did this really cool experiment we did this really cool field trip we did this really cool scenario but what you want is you want to create those sticky experiences and those sticky experiences usually have something to do with things that students can authentically connect with and so thinking about those things you want to use those anecdotes you want to use those case studies you want to use those stories you want to use those things that going to Anchor students into the experience and help them take their own personal journey through that learning process because when they see the relevance in their learning it stays and it connects it builds motivation right it builds resiliency it it increases engagement and so when those things happen naturally higher levels of thinking higher levels of inquiry and higher levels of connection and achievement can occur so strategy number one in these effective teaching practices is to connect learning to the real world let's talk about strategy number two for our high impact teaching strategies for engagement so strategy number two is incorporating Active Learning techniques so why why Active Learning well active learning fusers this deeper connection and deeper understanding of the content being provided what does this look feel and sound like Active Learning think think pair share think group activities think interactive discussions simulations different things that move beyond the simple set and get of information from teacher to student but now you get much more student interaction you get much more student talk you get much more student action and having them take an active role in their learning process where there's a lot more agency there's a lot more choice there's a lot more student voice in these conversations and so these are the things that we want to create for students because because again these sticky learning experiences is what students remember over time and that's what we really what we really want so we think about a practical example of active learning think about students collaborating on a science project a science lab where they are actively engaged in experimentation and they're working together to solve complex problems using the science lesson as the example but that's active right there's active simulations there's active discussions there's lots of collaboration so wanting students to be involved to solidify and have them actively engaged in the learning as a way to build those deeper connections and those deeper understandings of the material and so Active Learning techniques is strategy number two all right before we move to strategy number three let's talk about today's sponsor and today's sponsor is principal leader go to principal leer.com for all things educational leadership if you want blogs resources newsletters courses that can help you go further faster in your educational Journey go to principal leer.com and now back to the episode all right let's move to strategy number three and strategy number three is to differentiate instruction now we hear about differentiating instruction all the time but the reality is is that the strategy of differentiating instruction is all about being able to meet the needs of every single student in your class by understanding that they will need different instructional strategies different instructional modalities they will need us to use different techniques they will need us to take different approaches because not everybody learns the same way so as we think about differentiating what does that look feel and sound like that means using visual aids that means using varied teaching strategies using different mediums sometimes we're using a video clip sometimes we're using an audio clip sometimes we've got students up and moving around sometimes we have them doing tactile activities but differentiating instruction scaffolding using visual cues number of different things that you could utilize and as professionals I'm going to lean on you to then determine what is the best strategy what is the best tool what is the best way to differentiate that is going to meet the needs of my students in my class at this particular moment in time because only you know your students the best and so as you learn who they are as you grow into understanding who they are as you think about the first two strategies the active learning activities right as you start to really think about again how do you really create real world learning for students this is where you're starting to learn about who they are and what what makes them tick and what they connect to and then this is how you then move into strategy number three and how you differentiate instruction for them and how you start to think about them on individualized basis what do they need and how can you meet that need and so if your focus is that for you every student needs to be successful and every student has a path to being successful and you're going to explore all the different ways that you could tap into that and help them become successful that's differentiating instruction and that is a hugely important technique and strategy that I would encourage you to master as you're developing your craft as a professional educator so strategy number three differentiate instruction meet your students needs by thinking about new and different ways to engage them on a personal individual one-on-one basis using different modes different strategies and different activities critically important that's strategy number three all right before we move to strategy number four for uh go to the pin comments below because we have a free gift for you uh something that we want to use to help you hone your craft develop your skills build your leadership capacity build your Effectiveness go to that pin comment below click that link put in that information and get access to that free gift and let's move to strategy number four when I think about strategy number four I think about where the world is heading and where I think that we have got to get really comfortable embracing what it is that our students need above and beyond the core the core capacity the core knowledge we've got to teach students to be able to do strategy number four which is to Foster Collaborative Learning we've got to get really good at leveraging students ability to learn in a collaborative environment why why why because when students collaborate they are able to go deeper on topics they are able to critically assess critically think critically develop ideas they're able to go beyond their own individualized learning capacity by leveraging the skills and knowledge and talents of the peers around them and so we have got to get really good at fostering Collaborative Learning so we want to encourage students to work together like our default should be to put students working together our default should be to move away from having students work individually on projects anymore because very very few of us operate in any siloed work where we only work individually Alone by ourselves without the benefit of a teammate that's very very rare at least in my understanding and at least in my experience so we want to promote peer-to-peer learning opportunities because not only are we teaching them to be able to explore exp more critically the topics that we're asking them to look at but we're also asking them to explore the social dynamics of what it means to operate within a larger context on a team of people within a group of people where there are shared values shared Norms shared understanding shared governance and power the power dynamics that students have to learn within working in teams and working in groups there's a lot of Life Lessons by forcing students to work in collaborative teams a wide range of collaborative teams with different peer groups with different configurations sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't work and sometimes the best learning opportunity is the one it's the group that doesn't function well because we're going to keep pushing them to get a little bit better so we want to Design Group task we want to be intentional about designing group task we want to create discussions we want to Pro um we want to push students to be in peerreview sessions talk to each other critique each other give each other feedback where students can share those insights and they can learn and grow from one another but fostering that collaborative environment is for the express goal of making sure that we enhance the ability for students to think critically amongst themselves with each other independently and then coming back to each other and expanding their they learning and expanding their knowledge base because of the rich exchange of ideas with each other which inherently increases engagement for students as well so fostering Collaborative Learning that's strategy number four and before we move to strategy number five share with us in the comments below which of these strategies so far is resonating with you the most share with us which strategy you're going to use the next opportunity you have share that with us in the comments below and we're going to move to strategy number number five all right so strategy number five strategy number five is to make sure that you provide timely and also constructive feedback so let me tell a quick story about when I was uh I was a high school principal and some of my math uh Department folks were complaining about they they were having trouble getting the students to do homework so they won't do their homework they won't do their homework they won't do their homework meaning the students and this was coming from our teachers of honors and advanced placement courses College Prep courses the full gamut all of the courses that we offered across the campus but there was this un Universal issue of students not doing the homework so I just I pulled a group of students and I asked them I said tell me a little bit about why you guys won't do homework and they said well they said well Mr Amerson let let's let's just be honest our teacher gives us 10 problems to do 10 problems that we have to work out and there are at least 30 of us in their class so that's 10 problems times 30 students oh but wait Mr Amerson the other thing is they have five classes so I said that's 10 problems times 30 students times five classes I said well that literally is like 1500 problems and they're assigning that like every night they don't give us any feedback so it must not be important so we don't want to do the homework and I thought that was profound I I just had to sit back and had a Chuck on I said okay I get what you're saying so giving timely right and I don't expect principles I mean if you if you go to the go to the card I I I pin a video I talked a little bit in a different in a different episode I talk about how you don't have to grade every single assignment as a matter of fact I would encourage you not to grade every single assignment but I would encourage you to give feedback in an effective way as frequently as possible whether that's a gred assignment that's verbal feedback that is a that is a um that's a formative assessment that's an exit ticket whatever it is but giving feedback frequently is important but the students thrive on timely feedback and constructive feedback they want to know that you're paying attention they want to know that you care enough to give them some feedback so let's talk about this offer specific specific timely feedback give them regular feedback as much as possible because you want to maintain their engagement and the way you maintain their engagement is by them knowing that when they do something you're going to look at it you're going to give them some feedback you're going to give them you know a pat on the back you're going to give them add a boy at a girl you're going to give them some sort of affirmation students will do lots more of the work they'll engage a lot more frequently uh you want to use formative assessments you want to make sure that you're doing one-on-one check-ins you can use digital platforms to get this information you can literally have peer uh assessments you can have students grade each other's assignments give each other feedback there are all these different ways to create mechanisms for timely and constructive feedback so think outside the box because that constructive feedback helps students be able to aim what their strengths are what they're doing well but also identify those areas where they want to improve where they need to get a little bit better but giving that timely cont instructive feedback is a way to create high levels of Engagement and so find ways to be consistent and find ways to be timely because that is going to enhance the engagement that your students will have in your classroom thereby creating better academic outcomes for the students as a whole all right so if you stayed to this point in the video thank you so much for hanging with us and as a thank you to you let's give you a bonus strategy that you could also incorporate into your work to be that much more engaged in in your classroom environment so let's talk about building strong relationships you cannot overstate just how important it is to build strong healthy relationships within your classroom you want students rushing to your room why do students rush to your room why do they fight kick and scratch and CLA to get to your room to be able to be in that room and ready to go and ready for learning when the when the per perod starts well it's because you've built a relationship with them and they see value in the time and the effort and the attention that they're going to give to you so you have to be intentional about building relationships talking to students learning about them sharing about who you are as an individual sometimes teachers feel mistakenly that they have to be robotic and they have to be somehow very very disconnected and distant from their students and they can't be too familiar and they can't be too nice and they can't be too human and I will tell you that I just think that's a mistake um in 25 years I've never approached the work that way and I encourage everybody that I can to not approach the work that way as a matter of fact I encourage folks to be as relational and as authentic and as human as possible with students and with colleagues right because when students know that you care then a lot of good things happen right build relationships ask them questions connect with them on deeper levels find out what they care about find out what they're passionate about and when you find out what they care about and you find out what they're passionate about find ways to incorporate that back into lessons and learning activities because when they see you doing that and reflecting back to them that you've listened you've taken stock and you've actually taken ownership of wanting to know more about them and create more authentic connections with them that's where you're building relationships and when you build those relationships great things can happen in your classroom the academic outcomes can go through the roof because students will fight hard to make sure that they can achieve in your classroom and they will fight hard to take care of validating your your efforts as a teacher and then reciprocating that back by performing well for you when they have the opportunity so build strong relationships it is critically important when students feel understood and they feel valued they will go to the ends of the Earth for you to help you and them both be successful so your bonus tip is find ways to build strong relationships with your students all right so there you have it five high engagement teaching strategies and one bonus strategy for all of those who stayed to the end but I'm going to give you a challenge your challenge is now thinking about that bonus tip building strong relationships pick a student this week that you want to work to build and develop a stronger relationship with that is your challenge right now think about who that student is put their name in your minds and say I'm going to reach out and connect with enter the name there in your mind and then go do that this week go build a relationship go re go reconnect with a relationship go build a new relationship with a new student or somebody who you haven't authentically connected with yet that's your challenge for this week don't miss out on the opportunity to build a strong relationship with a student so thank you so much for staying until this point in the episode there's been a lot that we've done together and I appre appreciate all of your time and your effort and your energy as we're learning and we're growing together remember on this channel our goal is to build this community to 10,000 leaders and we're getting at the time of this video we're getting really close to getting halfway there we're almost to 5,000 folks within our community and so I want to thank you for that I want to continue to give you timely information critical insights that are going to help you grow and develop in your professional life in your professional expertise growing your skills and knowledge so if you want more information about that you can check out this next episode here that's going to give you additional insights and even more tips tricks and strategies that you can use in your classroom uh and as we move forward uh if you have gotten value out of the video give us a thumbs up like the video subscribe to the channel share it with a friend share it with 10 friends the more we get this information out there and the more that we share it and the more people subscribe the more we can do for larger groups of people so thank you again for everything that you do in the classroom and as as Educators across across the world and if you want more information on coaching resources our Weekly Newsletter you can check the description below uh and as always we encourage you to take care of yourself take take care of each other and be well and we'll see you on our next one thanks everyone