Engage Me or Enrage Me

Author Marc Pensky states that there are three types of students: 1) The pupils that are “self motivated”, 2) the children who “go through the motions”, and 3) the pupils who “tune us out” and are not listening. The author mentions that students today are engaged by something, whether it is the internet, video games, sports, music, etc. Yesterday’s education techniques are not working for all of today’s students. I agree with the author. Yesterday’s teacher centered lectures do not work with all students. Some of the old style lectures do not work even with me, a grown adult. I took a graduate class two years ago and the professor lectured dryly from the podium. After about fifteen minutes of this, I became bored. Later, I asked her if she could show some visuals. With the visuals, I felt I could become more engaged. Today’s youth need to be engaged too. The author believes digitally based lessons can engage more students. I agree with the author, but I would like to expand the subject of engaging to other mediums. An excited, enthusiastic teacher can also engage students. The fine arts can also engage children. Imagine using a skit to enhance a history lesson. I took a week long class on Gardner’s seven multiple intelligences and I found that some students are visual learners, some are logical-mathematical learners, some are musical-rhythmic learners, etc. If a lesson plan is presented in as many styles as possible, I believe more children can become engaged. There is an excellent website that describes Gardner’s multiple intelligences and states that a variety of multimedia can satisfy the learning styles that students personify http://www.tecweb.org/styles/gardner.html. Lastly, I feel there should be professional development on using digital games to support the 21^st century curriculum. This may be a challenge, however, with professional development being concentrated on passing standardized testing.