Perk Up Student Learning

Is it time to add a little novelty and stimulation to your classes?

Are you trying your best to perk up your final lessons and activities this year? I know how hard it is to encourage students to do anything remotely academic when everything around them is screaming “school is almost over.” Even  school countdown calendars are posted around the school.  How can you keep students’ attention when their minds have  gone on vacation?

The secret is to inject novelty in your lessons. Substantial research shows that novelty is a great way to attract, motivate and stimulate student thinking. Now is the time to try some of the fun ideas and plans that you have held onto all year. The activities that engage students’ creative modalities are a great draw for students. They might be tiring of the standard lesson format, but something that adds artistic, kinesthetic or interpersonal flavor is sure to “wake up” your students. And fear not – you can use this creativity in content subject areas as well as expressive subject areas.

Here are some cool ideas to add a spark to your teaching.

Why not have students:

•        Demonstrate a scientific principle
•      Develop a content-related game
•      Role-play characters in a story/play
•      Conduct a math review session.
•      Participate in a debate based on current events
•         Create posters that advocate both points of view on a social issue
•      Develop a performance for younger students in the school
•         Become reading buddies for younger students
•         Identify a school-based problem (like littering or bullying) and then develop and promote a solution to the problem.

I found some additional great ideas for end of the year activities by visiting these two websites:

http://www.teachhub.com/top12_Effective_End_of_the_Year_Activities.html

http://scan-werecriticaltothinking.blogspot.com/2012/05/keep-on-teaching-great-eoy-activities.html

Remember - now is the time to have some fun in class!

Enjoy,

  

Using Games as a Skill Review

Games are a great way to imbed skills and increase student interest!

Our students love games - let's give them games that have an imbedded skills review! It's a win-win when students can enjoy the novelty and pleasure of playing, and we can give them additional exposure to practicing skills.

When using games, you have a choice. You can use the format of traditional games (think Bingo or Monopoly) and change the spaces, cards, or numbers using information that you want to review. The benefit of this type of game is that most students already know how to play the games. However, you can also opt to create your own games using game boards that you can design yourself. Then you can create the rules for the game.

The Jefferson County school system in Tennessee has a website that contains a wealth of information about using both types of games. You can get pre-made bingo or wordo cards, powerpoint versions of Jeopardy, Password, Who Wants to be a Millionaire and Wheel of Fortune, as well as  Excel games - even the Twister game. If you prefer to design your own game, you can  download and print off  specially designed game boards that relate to your grade and subject:

http://jc-schools.net/tutorials/vocab/wordo.html

      Enjoy,