My name is Kevin Handeli. I am a Junior at Montclair State University majoring in Math Education.
Saturday, April 14, 2012
Really, Why Would I Want To Be Here?
One of the biggest issues with education today, which has been shown to make a huge difference in students grades, attendance records, and behavior in the classroom, is the lack of motivation. If I have to sit in 6 to 8 different classes for 45 minutes, each and every day, it is obvious that at some point during the day I am going to not want to be in school anymore for that day... or even that week. Although it is crucial for students to attend lessons in various subjects, some students feel that after three of four hours of learning, they can't handle retaining anymore information and that each class attended decreases their motivation to pay attention. I remember back in high school I knew it was essential that I listened to the teacher in all of my classes, but during the later hour class and the subjects I did not care very much about, I was done listening and would shift my attention to doodling or thinking about the weekend coming up. Granted, I did try my best to stay focused and some of my teachers did try their hardest to keep the class interested. So what do we do to motivate our students?
Entertaining, yet sophisticated
Let's be real. In the secondary school level, using charts with students' names and gold stars will not motivate students; though I would be rather satisfied myself. We have to look into more mainstream ways of keeping students on task. Perhaps if we can relate pop culture into the classroom they will react positively. Maybe if we use more entertaining means of teaching we could keep more kids in school and provide them with the passion to learn. What other ideas might there be?
Great post, Kevin! I'm still trying to figure out how he did that trick with the computer. But what you say is true--in the late hours of the day, especially after lunch time, before holidays, or at the end of the week, students tend to lose their will to pay attention. They find themselves continuously zoning out and even if they try to keep focus, it is difficult. So, we need to make sure that our lessons are thought provoking and interesting. We need to capture their attention with material that is not commonly used. The best way to do this is with technology! Showing students a video or having them interact with a smart board will surely get them excited and in "thinking-mode."
Very entertaining. It is especially difficult during those last days before a long break to keep students focused. Something like will keep the kids entertained and then after they get some of that excess energy out, you can get them back on track for the rest of the class. Something like this obviously would not have been able to be done without the technology and in this case is a definite benefit. Grabbing the students attention is essential and could be done with something like this but maintaing the attention is the difficult part.
Kevin, I loved the video you found. I think you are completely right about the fact that we have to find many more ways of making classes fun and making kids forget, even for a while that they are in school. In response to your last paragraph about using "entertaining means of teaching" to "keep more kids in school and provide them with the passion to learn," my cooperative teacher for fieldwork once used pop culture to help her students understand theme. She made them analyze their favorite songs and find the theme in it. I thought that this was an splendid idea because the students probably felt a bit more comfortable analyzing their favorite song, rather than any story she could have assigned in class. In the same way, the classroom teacher in the video, used five minutes of the class to really make the students laugh and enjoy the remainder time of the lesson, which I thought was wonderful for him and for the students.
Great post, Kevin!
ReplyDeleteI'm still trying to figure out how he did that trick with the computer. But what you say is true--in the late hours of the day, especially after lunch time, before holidays, or at the end of the week, students tend to lose their will to pay attention. They find themselves continuously zoning out and even if they try to keep focus, it is difficult. So, we need to make sure that our lessons are thought provoking and interesting. We need to capture their attention with material that is not commonly used. The best way to do this is with technology! Showing students a video or having them interact with a smart board will surely get them excited and in "thinking-mode."
Very entertaining. It is especially difficult during those last days before a long break to keep students focused. Something like will keep the kids entertained and then after they get some of that excess energy out, you can get them back on track for the rest of the class. Something like this obviously would not have been able to be done without the technology and in this case is a definite benefit. Grabbing the students attention is essential and could be done with something like this but maintaing the attention is the difficult part.
ReplyDeleteKevin, I loved the video you found. I think you are completely right about the fact that we have to find many more ways of making classes fun and making kids forget, even for a while that they are in school. In response to your last paragraph about using "entertaining means of teaching" to "keep more kids in school and provide them with the passion to learn," my cooperative teacher for fieldwork once used pop culture to help her students understand theme. She made them analyze their favorite songs and find the theme in it. I thought that this was an splendid idea because the students probably felt a bit more comfortable analyzing their favorite song, rather than any story she could have assigned in class. In the same way, the classroom teacher in the video, used five minutes of the class to really make the students laugh and enjoy the remainder time of the lesson, which I thought was wonderful for him and for the students.
ReplyDelete