Hi All,
It's been a busy year and we are full into the swing of things. By now, about a quarter into the year is when teachers really notice who's regularly engaged in the lessons, and who comes to class everyday just to take a nap. C'mon, you know who those kids are, be honest.
At the first part of the year I was voluntold that I would be attending a professional development in October about student engagement. Admittedly, I wasn't that excited to go. Historically my district hasn't always offered the most inspiring professional development "opportunities". In fact, most of the time I'm the kid in the back of the room passing notes or taking a nap because I find the information irrelevant or impractical to apply to my own teaching style or student population. So, even thought I didn't really want to go, I did try to keep an open mind for at least the first half hour - and boy am I glad I did.
The PD was offered by Kagan Publishing and Professional Development (http://www.kaganonline.com/index.php). If you are not already familiar with them, it's certainly worth digging around on-line to inquire. I got so much out of it and would recommend that everyone check it out.
To give a very brief overview, Kagan had developed instructional strategies proven to boost engagement and achievement. Some of the strategies are really simple, but totally insightful at the same time. The program focuses on classbuilding and teambuilding activities that are specifically designed to create and emotionally save classroom environment that demands 100% student engagement. The boast that their stratagies create classroom with no more checked out kiddos. I did the one-day training and left with Dr. Kagan's best selling book, Kagan Cooperative Learning, which is chucked full of ideas and tools that any teacher can use.
Honestly, it's one of the most rewarding programs I have attended. Not only did I gain immediately usable and practical engagement strategies, I left feeling confident in my ability to use them, but also the utilization of the strategies requires NO prep or changing to the teaching/learning content. Here's a brief video about Kagan, and honestly this video does very little to share the impact this can have in any classroom or for any age group. We had Pre-K teachers and High School teachers all in the same room and all benefiting from the learning.
I'm really excited to get back to my classroom and implement some of the strategies and structures I learned about this week. I can see them really demanding cognitive presence of all my students, not just a few.
If you do end up going, be sure to bring some cash with you or ask for an open PO from your school. You'll want to walk out with some "extras". There's a multitude of resources available for sale across all age and grade levels. They also want to up-sell you on future trainings. But when you are there you are quite happy to drink the Kagan Kool-aid. I'm straggling how I can hit one of their summer week long institutes. The one about win-win class discipline sounds amazing! Check it out for yourself and let me know what you think of it.
On a personal note, I expect to finish my master's program in about 6ish weeks and will be walking in the graduation ceremony towards Christmas time. Once my program is complete, I will be rededicating my energy and time back to my store. Be sure to keep an eye out for new products after the first of the year. I generally offer my new goodies heavily discounted to my followers for the first few days they are available.
