Do you feel like you are teaching to blank stares? Are you spending time and energy on planning, but your students aren’t interested in what you are presenting? Do you ask yourself, “How do I improve student engagement in my classroom?”
You are not alone. Teachers all over the world, feel the same and ask the same questions. Sometimes, you need new ideas and strategies to help you think it through. We have a new book. It is titled, Meet Them Where They Are gives you 10 tips to jumpstart student engagement. It is written by educator, Cassandra Washington and edited by Fabia Fuenzalida. Here are some example topics.
· Create a Vision for Your Classroom
· Plan It Like You Mean It
· Stop Teaching to the Test
· Let Them Talk
Think and Reflection
Meet Them Where They Are: 10 Tips to Improve Student Engagement helps teachers to think and reflect about their instructional practice. This book gives prompts and practice situations to apply the tips in their classrooms. It is an easy read and packs in great information and advice for teachers of all levels.
Find out how to improve student engagement. Photo by Eye-On-Ebony
For ten chapters, you will discover the possibilities of meeting our students where they are and reflect on your practice. This book helps you consider how to implement new or different strategies in classrooms and make some shifts in the way students think and learn. Like our students, educators are continuous learners, too. We search for new ways to engage and push our students’ level of thinking.
Easy to Read
Please note this book is in everyday language. You will see some educational jargon, but the pages do not have hard-to-pronounce words or much education jargon. Who wants that stress? Although the book contains quite a bit of educational information and quotes from professional articles, you can easily read the book. Take it all in like we are having a professional yet friendly conversation. Now, let us see how to teach and meet your students where they are and include additional options into lessons and activities.
Purchase books for your favorite educators or colleagues. Don’t forget to buy one for yourself, too. Teachers read it with your grade level or subject area teammates. Principals and instructional coaches, Meet Them Where They Are: Ten Tips to Improve Student Engagement is great for starting a book club of PLC. The book is available on Amazon.com. The cost is $15.
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Life After Teaching
For several years, we read news about teachers leaving the profession. Now we hear more stories due to the COVID 19 pandemic. Educators are under a tremendous amount of stress and emotionally drained. Some may not make it to the end of this school year. Those that do make it will seriously consider a new profession. Others may fear what’s on the other side of teaching. Have no fear; life after teaching does exist.
How do I know that life after teaching exists? I experienced it and have first-hand knowledge. Here’s my story. In 2016 I left the profession, but it was under duress. After 26 years of teaching and being an administrator, I lost my job. District politics pushed me out of my principal position two weeks before starting the new school year. Without going into all of the details, I was beyond distressed for not only losing my career but leaving my students, staff, and families.
Hopeless and Depressed
Never had it crossed my mind to think about what one can do after teaching. Despite the heavy emotional load of the job, I planned to stay with it until retirement. Others had a different plan. I felt hopeless and depressed because I knew it is even harder to find a job at my age. Age discrimination in the workplace is a reality. Anger, sadness, sleeplessness, and grief were just a few emotions I felt at the time. It felt like I experienced the death of a close family member. I did not have a plan for a day like this. However, it was time to regroup, recharge, and re-evaluate my options.
Abrupt Professional Changes
Life after teaching began abruptly, and I did not have time to plan for the transition. Thank God for years of saving for a rainy day. The savings fund gave me time to re-evaluate what I wanted to do and what skills I could bring to the new table. It was time to rewrite the resume and get ready for a new way to interview.
After rewriting the resume, I searched for jobs using Indeed.com, educational sites, and professional references. Virtually completing and sending resumes to school districts throughout my state, my epiphany became very clear. I did not want to work as a teacher or principal ever again. Then I felt a heavy burden lift off my shoulders and mind. Life after teaching allowed me to take control of my next chapter. It was not easy, but now I have healed enough to share the journey.
A New Journey Begins
Let me finish my story, and next, we’ll get to your next move. While my next steps did not come easy, I am happy with the choices that I made. My life after the teaching journey led to becoming an instructional coach for a not-for-profit organization. I also am a part-time professional learning consultant for an educational publishing company. Both positions allow me to train adult learners and coach educators across the country. For one position I responded to an ad on Indeed.com. A friend and former colleague assisted me in getting hired for the other position. Years of helping others returned the favor.
Reasons to Leave
On a personal level, my creative mind now has room to grow. I published a book and this blog for educators. Also, I have spoken at national conferences and freelance to write for publications. Free your mind, and the rest will follow. I learned to use and market my skills, knowledge, and expertise.
We know some of the reasons educators leave the profession. The Learning Institute created an infographic that lists six reasons for exiting. Why Do Teachers Leave lists these reasons: Inadequate preparation, lack of support, challenging working conditions, lack of compensation, better career opportunities, and personal reasons. Whatever your reason for leaving the teaching field, a career change is possible.
However much you want to leave right now, take a moment to stop and breathe. It would help if you planned before you walk out of the door. First, are you financially fit to quit? If you do not have another job lined up, how long can you live without a paycheck? Figure out how much you need to pay your rent, mortgage, and bills. Write all of your expenses down and begin to think about the necessities and the things you can live without. Are you the only breadwinner, or do you have a spouse or partner to help out financially?
Have a plan before walking away from teaching..
References and Recommendations
Next, begin to collect references and recommendations. Who do you know that can help you with your career move? Sometimes it’s not what you know, but who you know helps to get the foot in the door. Reap some of the seeds you’ve sown over time. Think of all the times you helped others in their careers. Call them up! Time to use them as a reference and their recommendations.
Assess Your Skills
Begin to assess your marketable skills. Educators often underestimate what they have to offer outside of the school buildings. Some transferable skills you have include problem-solving, coordinating projects, critical thinking, and instructing. Decision-making, managing time, multi-tasking, and more are skills to add to the resume. You also have skills at working in challenging positions and customer service. These are just a few items you can list on your new resume. Companies and organizations will love to have you on staff. Or you may want to start your own business. Go for it!
Stay Encouraged
Lastly, stay encouraged as you pursue the next chapter in life. Sometimes, the feeling of despair and desperation will show up in your mind. The pursuit of a new profession or career does not happen overnight. You must align many things. Life after teaching is a personal and professional journey; therefore, you must prepare emotionally and financially. Start planning your exit. Research your options. Stay positive and pursue your dream. Life after teaching does exist!
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Additional Resources
Why Do Teachers Leave – The Learning Policy Institute
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Effective Teaching
“What is effective teaching?” This question generates a variety of answers from teachers and administrators. Most educators have their perception or definition. Despite one’s opinion, teaching is a process and has several components and principles.
To become a certified teacher, one must attend a teaching program at a university or college. While participating in a teacher education program, future educators must take methods courses in the core subject areas and their area of certification. Future teachers learn theory, best practices, instructional strategies, lesson planning, and more. Then, they complete a semester of student teaching in a controlled setting with a cooperating teacher for support. Afterward, the real-world awaits in real classrooms with real students. In other words, welcome to the trenches.
Teaching is not an Easy Process
Experienced and new teachers search for effective and engaging strategies to ensure that their students successfully learn new skills. Teaching is not an easy process, and it takes much thinking and preparation to create great lessons for students. In this chapter, we will explore how effective teaching begins with planning. As educators, we subconsciously know some of these things, but it is good to refresh our memories.
Qualities of Effective Teaching
According to Qualities of Effective Teachers, 3rd Edition by James H. Stronge, 2018, “Effectiveness is an elusive concept when we consider the complex task of teaching. Some researchers define teacher effectiveness in terms of student achievement.
Others focus on high-performance ratings from supervisors. Still, others rely on comments from students, administrators, and other interested stakeholders. In fact, in addition to being uncertain how to define effectiveness, we vacillate on just how to refer to successful teachers.”
If you ask a variety of teachers and administrators to define teacher effectiveness, you will hear many different interpretations. Our perceptions and opinions are different based on our education, experiences, school population, and expectations. However, despite our perceptions and views, we can agree that effective teaching begins with lesson planning.
Strategic and Effective Planning
Effective teaching, along with a great and engaging lesson begins with strategic and effective planning. During the planning stage, effective teachers recognize how to reach their students best and being intentional. Jeff C. Marshall in Highly Effective Teachers states, “When we focus more on the why and thus the intentionality of our teaching, we begin to ask richer questions that guide our instruction, such as: How can I better engage the learners who appear to mentally check out? How can I make sure that my lessons are aligned so that the learning matches my goals/objectives? How can I create a learning environment that challenges all while providing scaffolding for those who need it?
Successful Teaching
Successful teaching cannot occur without effective planning. As educators, we learned to write lesson plans using formulas and templates. The procedure we are very familiar with is Students Will Be Able To (SWBAT) – Skill (Verb) – Concept – Context. The skill is “What am I going to do? The concept equals the topic, big idea, or strategy. Lastly, the context is the specific condition, what are you using, and how will I get there. Here are two examples.
Lesson Plan Formula and Templates
1. SWBAT state the characters, plot, setting, and theme for a story.
2. SWBAT compare measurements made using different units.
It takes professional development, practice, and experience to learn to create lessons with intentionality. Always keep the learning outcomes in mind in all of the stages of designing a lesson or unit. Indeed, you want your assignments and activities to be engaging, effective, and relevant for the students. Let’s explore backward design, strategies, and questions to ask to help you create lessons that meet your expectation and students’ needs.
Planning Process
Whether you teach children or adults, keep these ideas in your mind. As part of your lesson planning process, ask yourself these four questions.
1. Who are your learners? Understand the learning characteristics, styles, and needs of your students.
2. Why is this lesson or unit necessary? Students, want to know, “Why do I need to know this? What’s in it for me?”
3. What do learners need to be able to do?
4. How can the students best learn the subject or skill?
Think about using the backward design method to create your lesson and keep the learning outcomes in mind. Also, it helps to keep your lesson relevant to the needs of your students. Now let’s begin with steps to get you started with your design.
Strategic and effective planning is the starting point for a great lesson.
Photo by Nils Stah on Unsplash.com
Begin with the End in Mind
1. Imagine what students will say and be able to do at the end of the lesson.
2. Think and reflect on how to imagine the end.
3. Build your beginning with your end in mind.
4. Plan with students’ needs in mind. Will the lesson satisfy their needs?
From Imagination to Reality
Now you are ready to head to the next step by moving from imagining what the lesson looks like to the beginning to make it a reality. Begin to ask yourself more in-depth questions for students, materials, resources, and instructional strategies. Here are a few questions to ask yourself. Reflect and answer the questions in a way to help you stay focused on the learning outcomes. Remember always to keep the learning outcomes in mind.
1. What prior knowledge or skills do students need to be successful?
2. What vocabulary, terms, information, or skills do you need to introduce to participants?
3. What materials and resources are best in building the desired skills and knowledge?
4. What instructional strategies are most likely to result in your desired outcome for your students?
5. How can you progress monitor or check for understanding along the way? What type of assessment tools will you use?
Discount Supplies
Understanding by Design
A great resource to review is In Understanding by Design by Wiggins and McTighe. They state that “backward design is focused primarily on student learning and understanding. When teachers are designing lessons, units, or courses, they often focus on the activities and the instruction rather than the outputs of the teaching.
Therefore, it can be stated that teachers often focus more on teaching rather than learning. This perspective can lead to the misconception that learning is the activity when, in fact, learning is derived from a careful consideration of the meaning of the activity.”
For more information on backward design, check out Three Stages of Backward Design.
1. Identify the Desired Result
2. Determine Acceptable Evidence
3. Plan Learning Experiences and Instruction
Let’s quickly take a look at three stages of a road trip to the learning outcomes you desire.
Stage 1 of Backward Design
Stage 1: Desired Results
Here is where you establish the goals and enduring understandings of the lesson. You will think about: Acquisition, Understandings, Essential Questions, and Transfer.
Acquisition
What key knowledge or skill will students acquire during the lesson or unit?
Understanding
What big ideas or specific understanding will students have upon completion of the lesson or unit?
Essential Questions
What questions will provoke inquiry, understanding, and transfer of the knowledge? The essential questions usually frame the lesson. If your students attain the goals of the lesson, they should be able to answer the essential questions.
Transfer
How will students transfer the knowledge from the lesson or unit? Then, how will they apply the information or experience outside the context of the class?
Evidence and Assessment
Stage 2: Evidence and Assessment
You must decide what you will evaluate students on or what is the evaluative criteria. Will you use performance tasks, projects, papers, quizzes, tests, homework, or other evidence?
Students must demonstrate that they attained the goals of the lesson. They must show their level of understanding, and you must determine how students will do so.
Learning Path
Stage 3: Learning Path
Summarize key learning events and instructional strategies. Will you present key learning events via individual learning activities, lectures, discussions, problem-solving sessions, or other techniques.
You must decide the individual learning activities and instructional strategies to use during the lesson or unit.
Successful lessons begin with strategic planning and backward design is thorough practice. It takes time to master; however, time and with practice, it will become normal to you. The steps for using backward design allow you, the teacher, to be more reflective when creating lessons. The process makes you clearly think about the students’ needs, learning styles, resources, materials, and assessments. More importantly, the backward design allows you to plan and teach with intentionality. Remember effective teaching begins with effective planning.
Resources
Qualities of Effective Teachers, 3rd Edition by James H. Stronge, 2018
Stronge, J., 2018. Qualities of an Effective Teacher. 3rd ed. United States: ASCD.
Jeff C. Marshall in Highly Effective Teachers: 7 Classroom Tested Practices That Foster Student Success
Marshall, J., 2016. The Highly Effective Teacher: 7 Classroom-Tested Practices That Foster Student Success. 1st ed. United States: ASCD.
In Understanding by Design by Wiggins and McTighe
Wiggins, G. P., McTighe, J., Kiernan, L. J., Frost, F., & Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development. (1998). Understanding by design. Alexandria, Va: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.
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a small commission may be paid.
