TEACHER BEHAVIORS THAT LEAD TO ACTIVELY ENGAGED LEARNING

I guess it is the behaviorist in me that wants to define the "teacher behaviors" in the classroom that lead to actively engaged student learning.  My thought is that these defined behaviors can be replicated or modeled in other classrooms to yield the same "actively engaged learners."  I think I know what an actively engaged learner looks like.  They are participating in the learning activity as a partner with the instructor.  Decision making on how to accomplish learning outcomes is shared and the actively engaged learner has ownership in the activity.  The class as a whole has built an environment with relationships of trust, support, and inquiry.

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I would like to build a model of teacher behaviors that create actively engaged students.  I want to know if these behaviors are replicable and are there particular skill-sets required. I really believe most teachers want to develop these skills.  I know that there are thousands of principals and experienced teachers out there that can share insight into these behaviors.  Please post a comment with your experiences and observations of teacher behaviors that create "actively engaged learners."

Expanding the Adopt-College Advisory Activity

I've been doing a lot of talking about the adopt-a-college activity with students, teachers, parents and administrators.  I have to admit that it is one of the most popular things we have done in several years.  It has been awesome to see the staff celebrate and share their collegiate experience with our students.  There seems to be a new avenue of communication between all the stakeholders in our school along this common theme.

This has prompted me to think about to this idea and consider other ways expand upon it.  One of my first thoughts is to use blogging as a means to reach outside our school walls.  Each year we send kids away to 4-year universities and every year a percentage of kids return home to attend the local junior college or they just give up on school and go to work.  There are many reasons for this which include: money, grades, lack of interest, boyfriends/girlfriends, homesickness, or just a general lack of direction.  At the same time, we have high school kids that have questions about college and anxiety about expectations.  I want to try to bring these problems together and create a positive support mechanism for the freshman away from home in college and the high school students with questions about the future that awaits them at the university.

I want to create a blog for our students and graduates that posts a weekly prompt about adjusting to college life.  We would invite our graduates to subscribe to the blog and post comments that respond to the posts.  Likewise, we would post prompts to our students that would solicit their concerns and fears about going away to college and encourage our graduates to respond.  My idea is that this blogging experience could create a support mechanism for kids away at school and also a support for our students dealing with the anxiety about college preparation.

The more I mull this over the more I think about how doable this is for this school year.  These blogs could be moderated by the advisories and each advisory could adopt specific graduating seniors to follow in their first year out of of high school.  Tell me what you think!