4 Ways to Keep your Students Engaged in Class

Keeping our students engaged in class it has always been a challenge. With the permanent evolution of technology, children are every day more exposed to elements that will keep their minds outside of the classroom. Smartphones, social networks, shares, and likes can become part of our team and stop being our enemies.

Don’t worry! There are many things you can do to flip this situation and to engage your students in class. There are various available tools out there and numerous technics that you can apply in order to make your class the highlight of your students day.

We give you 4 ideas you can start using today. There’s one thing we won’t discuss: Teachers need inspiration. We aim to be a source that provides a significant quote of it to everyone involved in the education, STEM, and educational robotics world.

So, how to keep your students engaged in class? Make yourself comfortable and chek out this list:

• 1. Online communities for teachers: Talk to other teachers and improve the results of your class

Sharing experiences is always useful. Talking to others, that went through the same dilemmas you are going through today, can open your eyes and prevent you from falling or making mistakes.

How many times have you shared amazing stories from your students? How many times have you received thumbs up when you proudly share a success story from the evolution of a conflictive student into the positive leader of the class?

Actually, how many times have you asked for a colleagues advice when looking for new ideas to implement in your class? Talking to others in your field is always useful. Sharing is caring! Right?

We invite you to join our Exclusive Facebook group for STEM educators. Many are already sharing stories and ideas, be part of the conversation. Join now!

In the worlds of education, STEM, and educational robotics, listening to the experiences of others become absolutely necessary. Therefore, a few weeks ago, we publish an article about the best online communities for educators. Take a look and join them all.

• 2. Active Learning is the key: Make your students participate

Who said that playing needs to stop after pre-school? When you turn your class into a space of active learning, where students can speak, participate and take action, success and knowledge will be closer than you think.

Educational methods like Montessori, for example, promote an active learning from day one. When we create a space in class in which our students can discuss, solve problems, develop critical thinking abilities and apply analysis and synthesis, we are creating more prepared human beings.

The future requires abilities that we didn’t have to develop at such an early age, it is now time for a more dynamic education. The stage belongs to the students.

• 3. Formative evaluations: Assessment in your learning environment

Formative evaluations and assessment in our learning environments will allow us, as educators, to develop outstanding skills in our students. When, as teachers, we forgot the importance of the learning processes? When did standardized tests became the final goal and made us stop looking at our studentprocess as the main objective?

Formative evaluations can allow your students to enjoy classes more, to reduce the amounts of stress, and to focus on the different capacities each student has. Formative evaluations can allow teachers to correct, or suggest, changes when we are still on time to do so.

We’d like to invite you to watch this online webinar given by Oded Reichsfeld, in which he explains why assessment and formative evaluations should be applied in education, especially in a robotics and STEM learning environment.

• 4. Give the stage to your students: Let your students develop the skills the 21st century requires from them

South-Korea started to implement a method in their classroom that provided them outstanding results when it comes to school attendance and responses to the class. They implemented a model in which the student speaks during the 80% of the class, and the teacher only during the 20% of it.

When kids have more participation in class, they not only develop skills that will be useful for them in the very near future, but they’ll also engage in a class where the main role belongs to them.

Creating a strong bond between the teacher and the student, by showing them confidence and trust, will create self-sufficient human beings, with a strong team-work ability and with a critical thinking capacity. Without noticing, your students will enjoy your class, but also develop these transcendental skills for their future.