Student Engagement
Instead of teaching us how to do projects and essays, how to use the quadratic formula, how to understand the concept of war, teach us instead the art of persuasion. Teach us the ways of entertaining an audience, the dilemmas that the world faces. Teach us that there are an enormous amount of issues in the world and they come with an abundant amount of solutions. To learn how to engage an audience is to learn how to teach one.
Getting people, especially kids interested in school is the one and only thing that no one has quite figured out yet. If you teach on a project based learning curriculum you take the risk of having kids fall into a lazy slump. If you teach primarily with textbooks and lectures, you run the risk of kids skipping and falling asleep. Is there truly a way of keeping kids entertained while teaching them the necessities? A study done in Lincoln, Nebraska by Laura Parn states “As teachers, we are getting so busy and burdened with the federal, state, and district requirements that we forget to think about the emotional needs of our students. It is not common that we have time to stop and think about what our students want or desire, but according to Damico and Roth (1994), it is necessary for the success and engagement of our pupils”. This proves that the challenges in the educational system need to be seen and acted upon by higher ups before public schools can even think about making a difference. That really does make things exceedingly difficult because we all know how long it takes federal higher ups to make decisions. Laura also says that teachers tend to forget about the emotional needs of students. Which is very unfortunate because when a teacher helps you with a math problem, or eve...
... middle of paper ...
...her ups, and then once their ideas of education update, so can school systems, then teachers themselves. Maiers “Keys to Student Engagement” shows the raw potential that school systems already have. It also shows that students need the drive and ambition to succeed. Tristan’s article on edutopia provides ideas that are already in motion. His ideas and tips have already started to work in public high school in his community. With the guidance and vision of these three authors public school issues could cease to exist. Even though there’s a lot involved getting administrators (and some teachers) on board, it is possible, and in the near future, a reality.
Works Cited
http://www.edutopia.org/project-learning-teaching-strategies
http://www.angelamaiers.com/2008/04/engagement-alph.html
http://scimath.unl.edu/MIM/files/research/ParnL.pdf
http://21stcenturyskills.org/
Boredom was everywhere in my world, and if you asked the kids, as often as I did, why they felt so bored, they always gave me the same answers: They said the work was stupid, that it made no sense, that they already knew it. They said they wanted to be doing something real, not just sitting around. They said teachers didn’t seem to know much about their subjects and clearly weren’t interested in learning more. And the kids were right: their teachers were every bit as bored as they were
Mike Rose's I Just Wanna Be Average essay sheds light on troubled youth within the public school system. It makes you long for the days of American pride and service. Students placed in “tracks'; to utilize overcrowded and faulty test systems. Identity lost due to poor instruction and lack of motivation. The influx of shattered images brought forth by the “Report of the French Commission on American Education, 1879'; reminds us of a time long ago when education was for every child, not select few. Stoic instructors molding young minds in the quest to advance America as a whole. Civic pride and duty were influencing every aspect of American education.
...ntegration of student-faculty conferences, educational facilities will become places full of smiling, bright scholars. As a current student in high school, it is very easy to see these issues in the education system. Each day I walk the halls beside exhausted zombies who debate whether they should use their lunch periods to get math help in the library or sacrifice a club so they could read a chapter of anatomy that is not even relative to what they talk about in class. Due to the ever-increasing competition and subsequent elevation in performance standards, kids’ academic and emotional prosperity is only going to get worse. When I am an adult and have children, there is nothing more that I would love to see in their long drives through high school than an improvement in the education system, so that they would not have to struggle through school my peers and I did.
High dropout rates from high school, low academic scores, school violence and dull classrooms are all contributing to an educational crisis. It is obvious that we are not creating a school climate that engages the students’ mind and prepare students to be a viable part of society.
The desire to learn new things means that both sides, students and teachers, must have an engaged pedagogy. According to hooks, an engaged pedagogy is both sides are willing to learn and grow. Not only the students are empowered and are encourage sharing things about themselves and learning new things but teachers are also meant to do these things (21). This is a barrier because if students and teachers are not willing to learn and grow democratic citizens cannot be created. This is so because people will not be educated of differences and others react and deal with different things in society. This goes along with the importance of self-actualization of teachers in the class...
We live in a society where we are surrounded by people telling us that school/education and being educated is the only way to succeed. However, the school system is not up to the standards we want it to uphold. There are three issues we discuss the most which are the government, the student, and the teacher. In John Taylor Gatto 's essay “Against School”, we see the inside perspective of the educational system from the view of a teacher. In “I Just Wanna Be Average”, an essay written by Mike Rose, we hear a student 's experience of being in a vocational class in the lower level class in the educational system when he was supposed to be in the higher class. Both Gatto and Rose give their opinions on how the educational system is falling apart. Today the government is only trying to get students to pass, making it hard for teachers to teach what they want. Students are affected everyday by the school system. They sit there - bored - and do not think that the teachers care, making the
When lawmakers signed the No Child Left Behind Act, the new standards- driven approach required teachers to change their opinion about disinterested students. In the past, a remark such as “You can lead a horse to the water, but you can’t force it to drink” would suffice to describe a student’s personality and ability from one teacher to another. Now, school faculty must cultivate new approaches to encourage and challenge those disinterested students to perform on the same levels as their erudite peers. Communities, politicians and administrators beckon for the school’s transformation. Yet, the schools lack the bridge to connect idealism to practicality. In order for schools to transform disinterested students into dedicated learners, the school must promote and sustain the development of self-determination skills in the classroom.
The most important reason public schools provide an excellent education is that teachers are required to be highly qualified and suited for the job. When asked if public schools were a wise investment for the government Barnard answered,” Yes, not every parent [very few in fact] are trained and suited to educate students”” (Barnard). In particular, they must acquire and maintain a license to teach. In order to earn this teaching certification, they must demonstrate proficiency in all basic skills, study their subject area in depth, and learn effective techniques of instructing all kinds of learners. They also are required to get on-the-job training under the guidance of an experienced teacher. They have to motivate students to learn and have a passion for teaching, maintain their license, and continue their own education and training throu...
We all know that a new high school is needed. What has hindered us? Primarily, we've allowed petty agendas and our own personal beliefs to act as our blinders. These things keep us from achieving what is needed. For too long we've believed that "what was good enough for us is good enough for our children." That is not true, and the fact that the high school is inadequate has led to the education process being hobbled. For too long we've been close-minded in our approach to this subject.
...e teachers use these solutions it should help with the bored part of schools and help bring up grades. Again these are the solutions to being bored at school. Make classes more exciting, talk about how the stuff you learn in school is important to jobs, give students breaks, and do more hands on work. If you want to stop students from being bored than you should use these solutions to help against boredom.
As educators we wish to have the students gain knowledge, through our efforts, and continue to expand their minds using the basics we have taught them. In an era when so many outside interests often cloud the minds of our impressionable youth, we often wonder how we can accomplish this task.
Education is a vital tool for lifelong success but there are many areas of concern in the current system of public education. Education reform has been a constant occurrence since the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001. Every year, specialists develop
When all stakeholders share similar core values and agree on the aims of education, reform efforts stand a better chance for success. Knowledge, skills, critical thinking, and citizenship are core values found at the heart of my beliefs for education. I also believe it is the aim of education to prepare students as contributing members of society. In schools where core values and education aims are revisited due to reform implementation, strategies are identified along with a plan for implementation, monitoring and evaluation. The federal government, state, districts, school leadership, teachers, students and parents all have significant responsibilities to make reform efforts a success.
In many cases, it has become very complex to keep students interested in their education. So the teacher must be creative and find ways to keep pushing the student onward as well as upward. In order to devise the ultimate plan for educating students, a teacher must acknowledge that the “students” are what teaching is all about. The most important factor in the equation is unequivocally the STUDENT! All humans are different in some sort or fashion. But the fact still exists that we all have only this place to function in. So help by putting forth an effort to make it a better place for us all.
Our nation’s education system strives through the hard work and dedication of its educators. Often great teachers, principles and supporting staff are drawn to the profession because they possess the desire to empower, inspire, nurture and watch young people grow - not only academically, but also emotionally. These people are there because they want to make an impact upon our society and the lives of whom the reach. Highly effective teachers are those who have taken learning to new heights by accelerating student learning, closing achievement gaps that persisted for decades, and promoting a mindset of change. Moreover, the presence of highly effective teachers in classrooms today continues to manifest as a result of the support from strong school leaders (U.S. Department of Education, 2013).