Are my students engaged?

   As teachers, we often believe that if our students are scoring well on their assessments, then they are engaged in the work we are doing in class (Price, 2016). This may not always be the case. Kids are coming to school with the mindset that their days will be filled with non-engaging activities and topics. We need to change this. We often think that the majority of our students are willing to learn and have the capacity to do so. This is often not true. In an urban school setting especially. I see this with my own students currently. Many of them come to school to go through the motions, just to get a grade - not even a passing grade - because they know that is what they are supposed to be doing. many students do not find school relevant to them. I see this in both urban and rural schools, where the dynamics are very different but engagement is still low. 

   Students are coming to school with many creative and engaging things going on in their lives outside of school (Prenske 2005). This makes it hard for schools to compete against technology, extracurricular activities, sports, and other activities for student engagement. Many students live a life that is rich in technology. Technology gives students something to be very engaged in. We have all seen kids glued to their phones, tablets, Ipads, computers, Ipods, mp3 players and more, we can use this engagement in our classrooms in many different ways (Sadik 2008).  Sadik also states that the key to using educational technology is to utilize meaningful activities that engage students in using their knowledge in different ways. 

   Sometimes we need to take a step back and analyze our students at a more basic level. Students can be hard to read at the surface, but if we as teachers are supposed to connect with students and teach them a year's worth of important information, we need to be able to know some factors governing the students' learning barriers and capabilities. Jensen gives a good list of engagement factors that we can use to connect to engagement. Often these factors are linked to socioeconomic status as well (Jensen 2013). The seven factors are: health and nutrition, vocabulary, effort and energy, mind-set, cognitive capacity, relationships, and stress level (Jenson 2013). These may vary from student to student and will vary from one school to another. We can use these factors to determine if our students are able to be engaged in our classroom. I have seen in my own classroom that I am placed in, some students are struggling to stay engaged at school because their lives at home are not providing them with the necessary tools or necessities. They were unable to do their homework because they did not have their own ruler at home. We must also make sure basic needs are taken care of. If students are not getting fed well enough at home, they will not be able to focus on school. This factor is often overlooked ad forgotten, even though it is very important. We cannot expect students to perform well in school, let alone be engaged in school, if their basic needs are not being met. 

   As teachers, we are responsible for a large amount of kids in a short about of time. We must be able to adapt to new generations of children who enter our classrooms. Today, technology is surrounding us and taking over the majority of kids' time. We need to be able to use this in our favor to keep kids engaged in our classrooms. Kids are more likely to engage themselves into something they are already interested in. Teachers must also be able to decide if students are engaged or not. Many times we may think they are, but instead they are just going through the motions to get through school and onto the next step in life (Prenske 2005). When students fail to be engaged in school, we often blame it on the student or blame the student for not trying. There may be a large underlying factor as to why this is so. If the student being fed enough at home? Are they getting enough sleep? Are they interested in what we are doing? Is the student bored? Is the student willing? There are many factors to engagement that teachers must not forget about. We are surrounded by students with all different backgrounds and all different things that they enjoy. This is what makes teaching special and exciting, the variety and diversity of the students we encounter. Though, to be successful in the classroom, we must find a way to keep our students engaged and willing to engage themselves. 

References 

Jensen, E. (2013). Engaging students with poverty in mind: Practical strategies for raising achievement. Alexandria, Virginia: ASCD.

Prensky, Marc. "Engage me or enrage me." Educase Review 40.5 (2005): 61-64.

Price, David. "Are Your Students Engaged? Don’t Be So Sure." MindShift. PBS, NPR, 21 Jan. 2014. Web. 2 Oct. 2016.

Sadik, Alaa. "Digital storytelling: A meaningful technology-integrated approach for engaged student learning." Educational technology research and development 56.4 (2008): 487-506.