Happy & Engaged @ School
Co-founder of the NeuroLeadership Institute Dr. David Rock says this: "Engagement is a state of being willing to do difficult things, to take risks, to think deeply about issues and develop new solutions. ...Interest, happiness, joy, and desire are approach emotions. This state is one of increased dopamine levels, important for interest and learning." Engagement is ‘being in the flow’. Optimal engagement is ‘a state of total involvement where one is completely immersed in what one is doing’. In this state people are totally engaged and fulfilled.
Happy & Engaged at School
Before challenging students with those high-level cognitive demands such as problem-solving, we need to cultivate a safe and harmonious learning environment that invites vulnerability and genuine inquiry. Here are a few essentials for doing that:
Essential #1: Be Sure to Community Build All Year Long. Routinely include strategies and activities in your lessons, that allow students to express who they are, their thoughts and ideas, build relationships, and practice collaboration. This will help grow and maintain a feeling of emotional and intellectual safety in your classroom.
Essential #2: Design Group Guidelines Together. We have all felt fear (or some anxiety) when working in a group: Will they like me? Will my contributions be valued? It's important students have a say when creating the guidelines so they feel connected to and ownership of them. They will also be more on board with adhering to them. "One Speaker at a Time," "Respect all Ideas," "Listen With Your Whole Body" are valuable norms when students collaborate. Make suggestions but let them decide on wording for the norms.
Essential #3: Have Non-Negotiables. Along with classroom rules and procedures, students must know non-negotiables right out the gate. My biggest non-negotiable: name-calling. This resulted in an immediate consequence We have to tackle such things as name-calling and teasing head on or else kids won't feel safe to be themselves, let alone learn.
Essential #4: Post Student Work Everywhere. This one is simple and easy. When displays of essays, poems, projects, and exams dominate the walls, there is a sense of belonging for the students in the room. When they look around and see their own writing and thinking, they certainly experience a higher level of comfort than if they see store-bought posters. That said, if informational posters are needed, ask your students to create them.
Happy & Engaged at School
Before challenging students with those high-level cognitive demands such as problem-solving, we need to cultivate a safe and harmonious learning environment that invites vulnerability and genuine inquiry. Here are a few essentials for doing that:
Essential #1: Be Sure to Community Build All Year Long. Routinely include strategies and activities in your lessons, that allow students to express who they are, their thoughts and ideas, build relationships, and practice collaboration. This will help grow and maintain a feeling of emotional and intellectual safety in your classroom.
Essential #2: Design Group Guidelines Together. We have all felt fear (or some anxiety) when working in a group: Will they like me? Will my contributions be valued? It's important students have a say when creating the guidelines so they feel connected to and ownership of them. They will also be more on board with adhering to them. "One Speaker at a Time," "Respect all Ideas," "Listen With Your Whole Body" are valuable norms when students collaborate. Make suggestions but let them decide on wording for the norms.
Essential #3: Have Non-Negotiables. Along with classroom rules and procedures, students must know non-negotiables right out the gate. My biggest non-negotiable: name-calling. This resulted in an immediate consequence We have to tackle such things as name-calling and teasing head on or else kids won't feel safe to be themselves, let alone learn.
Essential #4: Post Student Work Everywhere. This one is simple and easy. When displays of essays, poems, projects, and exams dominate the walls, there is a sense of belonging for the students in the room. When they look around and see their own writing and thinking, they certainly experience a higher level of comfort than if they see store-bought posters. That said, if informational posters are needed, ask your students to create them.
Four new training packages for Australian schools
Happy & Engaged Teachers
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Engaged Teaching is a life-long practical approach to teaching and learning that improves social, emotional and academic outcomes and fosters a sense of meaning, purpose, and motivation in the classroom. The practices and principles are designed to be integrated into any classroom and to transform and improve how we teach and how we engage with our students and colleagues. At the heart of the Engaged Teaching Approach are the five dimensions of engaged teaching.
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Happy & Engaged Office Teams
Staff engagement, if it is addressed properly, can increase productivity and resilience. Studies have shown time and time again that happy employees will contribute more to their school and increase productivity. Happy workers are more productive, less likely to change jobs, have more energy, and take ten times less sick leave than other employees. They will also achieve goals 31% more often than their unhappy peers. But there is a difference between happiness and engagement at work. It is very possible to have employees who are happy at work, but are not actively engaged. They may enjoy chatting with their co-workers or randomly surfing the web, but neither of these activities equates to engagement. The trick is getting employees that are both happy AND engaged. LEARN MORE>>>
Happy and Engaged Boys in Your Classroom
How can schools strengthen and further develop their teaching practices and environments to improve learning/behaviour for boys?
As Andrew Fuller states, "
Boys are the masters of minimalism and the practitioners of “ just –in-time “ management. Asked to do almost any task, their immediate response is “later”. If they are asked to write a 50-word essay, they will count the words and if they write 51 words most of them will think they have overdone it. If you have predominantly boys in your class there are a number of things that you can do to improve behaviour and learning. These methods are likely to work with the majority of boys." LEARN MORE>>>
As Andrew Fuller states, "
Boys are the masters of minimalism and the practitioners of “ just –in-time “ management. Asked to do almost any task, their immediate response is “later”. If they are asked to write a 50-word essay, they will count the words and if they write 51 words most of them will think they have overdone it. If you have predominantly boys in your class there are a number of things that you can do to improve behaviour and learning. These methods are likely to work with the majority of boys." LEARN MORE>>>
Happy and Engaged Girls in High School
Girls are not going to be whole: confident, positive, ambitious young women if they don’t see us showing them what that looks, feels and smells like. When our girls morph into unsure teens it’s often confusing for everyone. The teenage years can be a wonderful time in a young girl's life but can also be a difficult period both socially and at school. It is a time when teenage girls are developing independence, an adult identity and finding their place in the world. There is no ‘one size fits all’ approach to engage a teen girls learning. LEARN MORE>>>
