Lately, I have had a number of conversations with teachers about whether entertainment can help you engage your students.
It is not uncommon for a teacher to lament the fact that they feel like they are spending more time trying to capture and hold the attention of their students than they are in meaningful learning.
Some blame the rise in popularity of gaming, others the amount of time students spend online, still others fast changing TV shows and movies for the apparent decrease in the attention spans of their students.
Either way, I think that is helpful to understand the following:
According to this US News Article, the latest Gallup Student Poll found that student engagement dropped from 75% in year 5 & 6 students to 44% for students in grades 9-12.
These sort of statistics are nothing new; but what concerns me is when these statistics hit the web and news papers and then decisions are made by politicians based on them.
According to the article, Gallop asked 500,000 public school students in grades 5-12, questions to indicate their level of agreement with statements such as, “My teachers make me feel my schoolwork is important,” and “At this school, I have the opportunity to do what I do best every day.”
As we kick off a new year I though I would share a video that challenges the norm about what is generally taught about goal setting.
But before we do that let me just say Happy New Year! A few readers who regularly follow this blog have sent me emails wondering where I had gone. I haven’t updated this blog for well over a month.
Towards the end of last year I decided to completely unplug and only fulfil the existing commitments that I had previously made.
I wrote on this philosophy of rest at the same time last year, it is worth a read – I know it will help you recover from a hectic teaching schedule.
I normally would have a slow start to the year as in my part of the world that is our summer holiday. However this January I am speaking at 2 conferences in Hawaii (I am writing this post from my hotel room); The Hawaiian International education Conference and The Google Apps For Education Summit. From there I am speaking at another Google Apps Summit in Sydney and then head straight to New Zealand to speak at a number of schools there before kicking off the Australian school term. After all my travel this only left me with six days in January to unwind.
Anyhow, As the new year kicks off and we begin to wonder what we can do differently in 2013 to make it even better than 2012 this video on goal setting will challenge your presumptions.
Let me know what you think in the comment sections below.
The video is a Ted talk by Derek Sivers and goes for 3 minutes.
Here’s the highlights:
What you shouldn’t do with goal setting – 50 sec
How your mind is tricked when you make this mistake with goal setting 1 min 10 sec
Some interesting research to support the claim 1 min 50 sec
Here are five quotes for teachers that I hope will serve as a little inspiration for the week ahead.
I don’t know about you, but sometimes I find most of the quotes for teachers to be a bit corny or quirky. The five quotes below have past the ‘cheesy’ test. After each of the quotes I will offer one little thought to help you apply the quote to your teaching.
1. “The best way to predict the future is to invent it”. Alan Kay
Too many teachers take what comes to them. You can design a classroom culture that suits your unique personality and teaching style.
Ok I admit it; killing is a bit of an overstatement; however when we focus on outcomes based education we miss the one thing that motivatesour students.
Quite often I hear teachers say “Students just don’t care.” I disagree. Students are passionate about a broad range of issues.
I often remind teachers that the same students you can’t get to focus and complete their work are the backbone of the multi-billion dollar company we know as McDonalds.
Students do care; they just don’t care about your outcomes.
My name is Mike Reading and I am Google Certified Teacher and a Google Apps for Education Certified trainer.
I love to help teachers better motive, manage & engage their students in a way that is enjoyed not endured!
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