Most people who go into teaching want to do it so they can impact children’s lives. However, just showing up to the job isn’t enough. You have to be able to engage your students in your lesson. We know students learn in all different ways. And to be a good teacher you need to adapt to your students’ needs to engage them in what you are teaching. My goal is to be a Social Studies teacher in either middle school or high school. I think engaging students is going to be difficult in this subject area. Many students come into the classroom thinking History is boring. It will be really important for me to engage the students in my lessons and keep them engaged the whole time.
It is important that you not only verbally engage your students but also visually engage them. In teaching social studies, it is very easy to get roped into talking at your students instead of with them. Alex Wiggins who shadowed two high school students for two days had three takeaways from the experience
- Key Takeaway #1: Students sit all day, and sitting is exhausting.
- Key Takeaway #2: High school students are sitting passively and listening during approximately 90 percent of their classes
- Key Takeaway #3: Students feel a little bit like a nuisance all day long. (“I lost count of how many times we were told to be quiet and pay attention.”)
(Himmele & Himmele, 2017, p. 9)
Sitting all day listening to a teacher drone on about something that happened before their lifetime is not going to keep children engaged. It is imperative that as a social studies teacher I get the students involved in the lesson. While it is necessary to have power points for notes, I plan on incorporating small group work during the lessons. Something I have found that works with people in general when talking about history, is to make it an open conversation. Students can be very creative when given the chance. I think it is key for the students to be up and able to move around and engage with not just myself but their fellow peers to learn about history. I became interested in learning about history when I realized how much it truly affected my life today. I think if I do the same thing with the students and have them connect what we are learning to something today it will help get them engaged in the lesson.
One struggle that I might have is that students learn in all different ways. There are going to be students who don’t do well in small groups. My plan is to make sure I can learn how my students learn and incorporate that into my lessons. My students will have options in how they learn so they can all succeed. The fundamental part of my engaging the classroom is to play on my students’ strengths not point out their weaknesses. I understand that each year will bring new students and as stated in Milner et al (2019), the new year is a time for critical self-reflection. I plan on adapting to my students need each year as needed. It is important while lesson planning to make sure I check any biases I may have and make sure that my scoring rubrics or lessons do not have any “Inherent advantages” for different students. I will check the language I use and make sure the whole class is familiar with how I speak and how I relay information to them.
I also plan on incorporating more nontraditional means of assessment. I know it’s not enjoyable to have to sit and just write answers, or papers out. I will also make sure when we do more nontraditional assessments that it is available equally to all students. For example, not all students are able to make a lot of time outside of the classroom for projects. I will make sure that we devote enough time to assessments inside the classroom to help with that burden.
Most importantly, I will take what doesn’t work for my students and my classroom and amend it to fit the needs for my classroom at that time. It is important that my students are set up for success to be able to want to come into my classroom and enjoy learning. I don’t want my classroom to be a place of students just being compliant and on task, but I want them to have real true engagement. The only way that works is to truly engage them in the lesson and to talk with my students, not at them. I will go into my classroom with a plan, but I always have an eraser with me to update that plan, so my students have the best chance at succeeding.
