Disinterest in High School
Throughout my years in the classroom, student interest in academics has decreased tremendously. Moreover, no longer are students interested in sitting quietly, taking notes while the teacher disseminates information. Students want and need active engagement. They want to participate fully in the acquisition of knowledge. In this 21-century world, educators need to find new and innovative methods to galvanize students in becoming active participants in their education.
Who Am I?
I have been a classroom teacher for twenty-three years, during which I have taught in Las Vegas, NV; Ontario, Ca; Rancho Cucamonga, CA; and Turlock, CA. I have taught all grade levels nine through twelve. Currently, I teach eleventh grade American Literature and AP Language and Composition at Pitman High School in Turlock, California.
The Community
Turlock is a mid-sized, conservative city that boasts a population of just under 73,000 residents; however, it has an extremely small town feel as it is a highly agricultural area. There are two high schools, two junior high schools, and eight elementary schools. According to the United States 2016 census, 23% of Turlock residents have a bachelor’s degree or greater, 63% work in the civilian labor force, 8% are unemployed, 18% live in poverty, and the median household income is approximately $50, 000.00 per year. Pitman High School (PHS) has a large student body of more than 2,000 students. Its population is diverse,
What effect did your teaching strategies have in terms of promoting student learning and keeping your students meaningfully engaged? (APS 5.A–C)
Another way to build student motivation and engagement is to give them real world problems to solve. By doing this, natural conflict arises, and students have to work together in order to resolve the conflict and continue developing a solution to the problem. When this happens, students learn so much about the problem they are trying to solve, but they also learn skills that will help them become successful in life.
Both participation of students and professors are required to enhance the learning experience, because students applying themselves and showing mutual interest in the subject, simultaneously result in faculty members teaching the material more effectively so education can improve.
I have taught students ranging from five years old to nineteen years of age. Hence, being an educator, I have learned that learning is always shifting, therefore I must keep improving with the incessant changes. As a little girl, I have always dreamt of being a teacher and I have carried out that dream. My career journey started as a substitute teacher, a floater between classrooms, an assistant teacher, a teacher, a center supervisor, and an educational supervisor. I presently work as an Educational consultant for Danya International LLC. As an Educational Consultant, I able to review and aid with the learning environment of teachers and educational management in a school
Engaging students in the classroom can be a difficult task. Understanding the process of how students learn can help a teacher adapt the lesson to meet the needs of all students. I will encounter students that are not intrinsically motivated so I will need to find different ways to motivate each and every student. Understanding how my students learn can provide me with insights as to how to help each student learn which will minimize classroom management problems.
“ Students do become behaviorally, emotionally, and cognitively involved in the learning activities their teachers provide (e.g., write an essay, solve a math problem), and their extent of effort, enjoyment, and strategic thinking does predict important outcomes, such as achievement. But students also do more than this. Students also, more or less, proactively contribute into the flow of instruction they receive as they attempt not only to learn but also to create a more motivationally supportive learning environment for themselves ( Bandura,
When looking back on high school, I realize that I typically learned more from teachers who made their classes interesting. By doing so, these educators utilized student interest as method of building a desire to learn. They camouflaged learning in the colors of discussion, making it seem as though we simply were carrying on a normal discourse. But each class inevitably resulted in the acquisition of a better understanding of the subject material. As a student, I found myself wanting to go to these classes. The teachers who conducted these courses made education seem enjoyable and thus created in students a desire to engage in further learning. As a future educator, I would like my class to operate in a similar manner. I want my class to be one that students look forward to attending. Mine will be an intellectually open classroom environment—one in which
The U.S. Department of Education provides supplemental funding to local school districts to meet the needs of at-risk and low-income students. This funding is known as Title 1 funding and the schools that receive a portion of this funding are referred to as Title 1 schools. Teachers in Title 1 schools encounter students facing life struggles that many of us cannot imagine. Encouraging these students to focus in school can be difficult, but it is essential to overcome the challenge in order for students to achieve academically. Finding ways to engage Title 1 students can be a daunting task due to the fact that they face daily struggles just to survive. However, teachers must use student motivation techniques to engage these students. These techniques will assist in the students’ success in the classroom. “In education, student engagement refers to the degree of attention, curiosity, interest, optimism, and passion that students show when they are learning or being taught, which extends to the level of motivation they have to learn and progress in their education” (Hidden Curriculum, 2014).
When teaching students (following an initial student assessment) I plan various methods to ensure all students are engaged within the learning process. This can be practical involvement, paired and group work, problem solving, reflection and writing notes. During this time, I am able to continually assess the learning progress through observation, written and oral questions, completion of work books and by using peer and self- assessment. I engage the students by using various mediums, video
They can also help motivate student’s desire to learn by being engaged with both the content and students themselves.
Active engagement occurs in the classroom when a teacher makes the connection between teaching and learning through pedagogy. The choice of pedagogy must see fit with the content of the lesson which in return will assist the teacher in constructing a more meaningful and supportive learning environment where students’ are more willing to participate and be actively engaged. The most important skill in pedagogies is relating the learning experience to real world situations in which students’ can relate too (Churchill et al., 2011).
students are composed of many diverse groups of people together, which is a problem for teachers when providing lessons. However, engagement is best method or way for people to acquire knowledge. In schools, engagement is an important way that students acquire their education. When students and teachers are highly engaged in school, teachers are able to help students improve their learning. In the article "Student Engagement", the author pointed out that highly engagement between teachers and students help to reduce dropout rates and increased levels of student success. Also, the author believes it motivates the students keeping them interested in school and their education. (Sadker, M) The action of engagement it benefits both students and teachers. From the schools, teachers and educators point of view, it is important for teachers to engage students in the learning process, because it helps teachers to know and make sure the students are learning. In the "Teachers Engagement" article, the author explain the idea of teachers engage students in learning help students motivated and interested in school. Also, in the article, the author pointed out that most students are do not know purpose why they are in school, and teachers by engaging the students in school help students realize the purpose of education. (Kennedy, C) With those reasons, it shows that engagement it important for students and teachers in
Keeping students engaged and on task can be, at times, the most difficult part of being a teacher. You have to come up with new ways to engage them and keep them focused on learning, especially at the end of the day when all they can think about is going home.
Everyone who has gone to school knows that there are students who are livelier and more proactive than the others. We have all sat through classes where there were classmates who eagerly raised their hands to ask questions, participated in every outdoor activity, and often stayed after class to discuss with their teachers about the lesson. We also have been part of classes where there were some learners who quietly sat at their desks and simply left when classes ended. Although students often seem outwardly alike in general, the differences between active students and passive students are enormous. Each type of student has their own way to pursue their education. In addition, natural abilities and environmental factors are playing important roles in how students can become active or passive learners in schools.
In my field experience sadly, I have not seen a lot of student engagement. The students do not actively participate in class and most of the time they appear to be disinterested in what their teacher is saying. In this classroom I see many of the students staring off into to space and not paying attention. When the students do this instead of trying to engage and involve her students my cooperating teacher gets on to them. I understand students should be respectful and pay attention to their teacher but as a history major a fully aware history can appear to be boring if the information is not presented properly. When all a teacher does is read directly from the book with little class discussion and interaction it makes it hard for the students to become engaged. When students are not fully engaged in the class it makes it difficult for them to absorb all the information the teacher is presenting to them. The more students are engaged the more they are able to learn.