Story of Question
It was a typical Tuesday in October where I was leading the Phonics lesson teaching the students about when we add double consonant to words. While I was scanning the computer screen looking for students who had their hands raised, I noticed one student playing his recorder. Immediately, I thought to myself, “Is this lesson so boring that the student would rather play his recorder.” I tried to focus on the lesson, but I kept thinking about the student and his recorder. At that moment, I announced to the students that we should not have anything in our hands. As hard as I tried to stay focused on the lesson, my thought about the student stayed in my thoughts.
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The situation shifted my perspective about teaching. I started to wonder how I could make my lessons more exciting to keep not only this student engaged, but all students engaged. When the school day ended, I wanted to sit and think. I thought about learning and what learning about looks like. As I reflect about my childhood, I thought about why I loved school growing up. I realized that school was fun and brought me joy. I want all students to feel that same way! I did not remember how I learned multiplication or what a cray fish needs to survive, but what I did remember is my friends and what we talked about or the projects we worked on. So when I think about the classroom, or in this case, the zoom room, I know that I want all the students to be excited, not only about their friends in school, but also about learning. This is truly what I value, as a value is defined from Aguilar (2018), "A belief from what one acts". I value engagement and that is something that drove my thoughts, decisions and behaviors throughout the past few months.
Throughout the entire week, the image of the student playing his recorder was stuck in my head. I thought to myself, “How could I engage this student and how could I make sure I am engaging the whole class.”
I did not know the answer right away, but I already knew what non-engagement and lack of interest looks like. This included eyes wandering around the zoom screen, the random flashes on their face when they changed the videos , or the slumped bodies in their chair.
Because of this, I started to notice and pay extra attention to when students are sitting up in their chairs, having smiles on their faces, and participating in the lesson.
What are the :
"Joys of Learning?"
To me, joy is a broad term with many smaller facets to lead me to create specific questions:
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How can I provide students a place where they are excited to learn?
How can the students feel the joy in learning?
How can I foster this excitement and engagement?
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Other questions I began to think about:
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1.What does student engagement look like?
2.How do you know when students are engaged?
3.How do you know when students are experiencing joy?
"When we play breakout room tag"
"I like being able to play the piano for the class"
"It is fun when I was able to learn about sharks which are my favorite animal"
"I love reading with you Ms. Bloch"
I asked the students:
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When do you have the most fun in the classroom?
"I love Blooket!"
"During free talk!"
"Freeze dance is my favorite thing to do in the morning!"
" I like having
lunch bunch
with my friends"
"It is so much fun doing show and tell!"
"I love learning about dogs."
"When you put the pie in your face!"
"When we
do Science
experiments!"
"Pie is the face was so funny!"
"I love talking to my friends!"
"The pie in your face!"
"When we play
the guessing
games."
As I reflect on the web with students' responses (included above), I notice how important relationships are for students. They love having time to talk to their friends in breakout rooms, share their favorite toys during show and tell, and have the space to be themselves in everyday conversations. In all these responses, I notice a common theme among the students which is being heard or seen in some way. As a result, this makes them active and included in the classroom. One popular response that I received from the students is when I put a pie in my face. I know that I will be unable to do this everyday, but I want to get that same fun and joy everyday. This situation is what I want to remember and keep in mind as I think about what engagement is and how I can make sure all students feel this way! I want many moments where students remember having fun and being happy. In this way, the students may be experiencing Genuine Happiness as according to Engel (2018), "connection to others....involvement in one's community, a sense of purpose and accomplishment." (93).
Nothing brings a smile to my face more than when I see the students acting like themselves and having fun. Because of that, I want to bring the same fun into their academic lessons. It is important for students to be excited throughout the day by having conversation with friends, asking trivia questions or hanging out in the lunch bunch. Therefore, I started to think about the process of engagement before, during and after the lesson.
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Engagement occurs during lessons when students raise their hands and shout out the answers. I notice engagement when students are forming connections between the lessons to their personal lives. I notice engagement when the students are excited to work on a project and share their work with the class. Students enjoy making those connections to their own lives or to their peers. I noticed this engagement especially in the morning during “show and tell”. Not only are the students who are sharing their items engaged, but also their friends who have their hands up ready to ask a question or share their opinions. They love telling their friends how cool the toy is or finding a connection to the item. In this way, the students can share their stories through objects or ideas and through show and tell this is a, "Space for students' own rich storytelling traditions" (Campono,2007). This is the engagement that I strive to create all throughout the day. Therefore, I have thought about ways to increase student voices and make them more active in the conversation. Creating this space for students to share out and be individuals helps create a community and a deep learning environment as Campono (2007) describes.
All these small moments allowed me to better figure out what engagement looks like in the zoom room of 206.
This led me to think about how to create that spark initially, how do I continue that spark during class, and how is that spark continued after class?