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As I am student teaching, I value creating an engaging and positive classroom environment. My goal is to engage students in their learning and make them eager to continue their education. I have been trialing many approaches to see the best way to engage and motivate students in their learning. What are your favorite ways to make students excited to learn and motivate them to be in the driver's seat of their own education?

I am also a student teacher and struggled with this a lot in my early parts. I still struggle with it, don't get me wrong. However, I find a lot of the times, the best way to get students excited to learn is to teach them based on what they want to learn. Listen to your students when they are outside or watching videos and listen to what piques their curiosity. When that happens, see if you can relate to a standard (you typically can if the standard is developmentally appropriate) and make an assessment and lesson out of it! While you're doing that, asking questions is key! Ask questions like 'Why do we think that happens? What would happen if we change [factor]? How could you do this at home? Have you seen something like this happen outside of this investigation?' 

I taught a lesson to my second graders about evaporation and condensation, because a student asked about how grass freezes when it is cold but didn't snow the night before. This tied back to a standard that talks about water being in the atmosphere. The students loved it! So, I love just knowing my students and knowing what they think about when it comes to science.

Hello, i am currently a student at UTRGV and i think it is very important to keep students engaged in the lesson. I have learned alot from my professors i like how they stop between the lesson and ask questions and if no one speakes they will call on someone just to make sure every one is paying attention and participating. 

Hi! I am currently a student intern at 2 elementary schools in South Carolina. After observing my cooperating teacher and also after getting the chance to teach a few lessons this semester, I have found that the best way to keep students engaged throughout the lesson is to start with a great attention getter and make the activation of prior knowledge fun and interesting. If you capture the students' attention from the beginning, they will be curious to see where you go with the rest of the lesson. I enjoy starting with a quick game or a turn and talk. Also be sure to call on a variety of students in the class and make sure you ask good, thought provoking questions throughout the entire lesson! 

Hello Katelyn, for engagement to be authentic and fun with your students it is really important to start building that special relationship with them at the beginning of the school year. This will allow for the students to feel comfortable and be able to open up to any class discussion you guys might be having. Also, another key factor would be to incorporate their interests into the lesson, that will totally grab their attention and want to learn more about the topic.  

One thing that is helpful in engaging students is knowing your students. Maybe doing an interest survey at the beginning of the year and truely reading over their answers. Finding something that many students have in common could help you incorporate things that keep students engaged. Whether you are doing word problems or reading a book, you can use students interests in these areas, as well as other areas. Also, a key to keeping students engaged is having them be involved in the lesson. Students can quickly lose focus and your attention if they are just copying notes from the board and listening to a lecture. Having the students involved will help them become or keep them engaged!