Engaging Instruction

I'll be the first to admit that I struggle with keeping my energy up to create an engaging environment. As I start my lesson planning journey, I am aware that engaging my students in a lesson is something that I will have to put extra effort into. Reflecting back on lessons where I played the 'engaged student' role I've noticed that when I was most engaged in the lesson the teacher was most excited about what they were teaching. From here on out I have to make students believe that every lesson I'm presenting is the coolest lesson ever.

Agricultural Education 3-circle model

If you are interested in teaching in any way (elementary, secondary, English, Agriculture, and anything in between!) I highly recommend reading Teach Like A Pirate: Increase Student Engagement, Boost Your Creativity, And Transform Your Life as an Educator by Dave Burgess if you have not read it yet. As for Agricultural Education - we live by the three circle model that represents a successful program. You cannot have a truly efficient agricultural education program without including FFA, SAE, and Classroom Instruction. Similar to the Ag Ed three circle model, Dave Burgess discusses a three circle model to a successful lesson that can be used by any educator. Looking at the diagrams you can imagine why it is easy to draw parallels.

Lesson development model - Burgess

 It is important for any educator to realize that there is more than one 'ingredient' to making an efficient final product. Yes, you could have your students learn if you have great content and an effective method of teaching it, but your students won't be as engaged without proper presentation. Creating a lesson with all three of the circles in mind will create an environment that students not only learn, but enjoy doing it! Learning does not have to be a dirty word that immediately makes students feel like they want to sleep. With all three circles learning can mean a fun time and something the students can look forward to.

"How do we make learning fun?" you may ask. Sometimes it can seem difficult when you think you have to throw facts and content at the students. I won't lie to you, sometimes I have a hard time figuring out how to make things fun in the classroom. I have learned a lot about interest approaches this week and I believe that is the first step to engaging students and get them excited about a lesson. With the proper introduction this can make your lesson. Beware: If done incorrectly or half-heartedly, I think it can break the lesson as well! If you have not hear Interest Approach maybe you have heard hook (Dave Burgess calls it that!) or anticipatory set. These terms are used to explain how you engage your students. When creating a lesson plan the interest approach should be given a lot of thought. They can be used to connect the student's previous knowledge or an activity they are interested in with the new content they are learning. Unrelated to agriculture, but as an example: if you're introducing a lesson on aerodynamics you can have students make paper airplanes. Aerodynamics may be a daunting unfamiliar term, but having students create airplanes (something they probably have done before) can spark interest and creativity to make the term easier to remember.

I am new to this whole Interest Approach thing, this whole Lesson Planning thing, and this whole Teaching thing. I look forward to learning more about what can make me a better person and educator. As I (and you!) develop lessons think about what Dave Burgess said, "Provide an uncommon experience for your students and they will reward you with an uncommon effort and attitude."