Ted Malefyt Teaching Portfolio: Reflection on Student Engagement

Ted Malefyt Teaching Portfolio: Reflection on Student Engagement: Real Story   Meet Bryan, upcoming senior on our IchallengeU team. Bryan loves football and can't stop talking about it on his first da...

Time on Task.....Engaged or Not Engaged, That is the Question...

The topic of measuring student engagement came up in a meeting the other day.  It right away spawned a ton of thoughts about how we perceive students to be engaged vs. what is actually going on in their heads.  I have gotten very good at appearing to be engaged on the surface, while deep in my brain I am somewhere else.  In contrast, the way and where we work has changed so much that to many people I may often appear to be off task when in fact these are the moments I am most productive in my own learning.

What does this mean for our students and how they learn?  I challenged my classes today to talk to me about their desire to mentally wander off.  What would it look like if kids could articulate their feelings about engagement rather than having it perceived as a judgement from an adult.  Furthermore, I think measuring engagement has more to do with conversations and feedback we give to our students than what they appear to be doing.

Simply giving something more time does not always prove to be fruitful.  When I first began teaching I prided myself on being an educator who's room appeared to be the award winner for "time on task".  What was really happening?  What was the level of achievement?  How many kids did I turn off to learning because the environment did not meet their individual needs?

Check out This Article......I'm sure most of you have already read it....Alfie Kohn writes on Time on Task....

My teaching partner Ted Malefyt did a great job of expanding out this theme....Take a look at his article....Student Engagement
What are your thoughts?  Comments are appreciated!