I am the Engagement King. Self-proclaimed, yes, but a king none-the-less. I love engagement. I am good at it, I can talk about it, describe it, identify it. I can do all the things. Students from my church to my school love my lessons because I make them a part of the lesson, not just bystanders. But here's the thing. Sometimes, however, explicit instruction is the best way to teach a lesson, skill or concept. Even while I love engagement strategies, and I apply them all the

If you haven't heard of a gallery walk, you may be missing out on an engaging teaching strategy that helps students retain knowledge, understand concepts, and enjoy learning. Many educators, including myself, have successfully implemented gallery walks for years because of their immense benefits. While my experience is in social studies, this strategy can be applied to any subject and any stage of the learning process. Keep reading to discover why you should incorporate galle

Importance I struggled with whether to call this post, “Inquiry-based Lessons” or “Inquiry-based Classrooms.” I decided on lessons because we often get overwhelmed with trying to wholesale change our entire classrooms, and usually to do is unnecessary and unrealistic. So then, if we focus on changing some of our lessons to inquiry-based, we will no doubt feel more able to complete the task. But, why is it important to do this? This idea came to me after an educational convers

Inclusion and integration may seem that they have the same meaning, but there is a significant difference. Inclusion has been one of the buzzwords in special education for the last twenty years or so. One goal in countless IEP meetings is to include the child with special needs in the classroom. However, inclusion is often “inserted but separated.” Many children are brought into the classroom with typically developing children for lunch, specials, and recess, but they ar

One of the greatest challenges that educators deal with in the classroom is trying to keep their students engaged, especially when it comes to younger students. Perhaps the most intimidating subjects to teach younger students lie in the science, technology, engineering, and math fields. There’s something to be said about the few layers of irony surrounding the challenge in communicating STEM ideas, as the disciplines in these courses seek to demystify or simplify the world wi

Photo by NeONBRAND on Unsplash I have been taking a closer look at student engagement as of late, and I want to share a few tips and tricks that increased my students’ engagement in the classroom. I never take the tact that I am the best at anything, so I am not saying, by any means, that I am the most engaging teacher you could find. However, I always notice that my students do seem to really enjoy attending my classes. They groan when it’s time for them to go to their nex