Wednesday, June 9, 2021

Boredom

(During the summer months, I like to take the A-Z Challenge and come up with words alphabetically and see how they apply to education. I think it’s a great exercise for teachers and students to give this a try.)

The biggest behavior problem in many classrooms occurs because the student is bored. Boredom makes kids act out. The attention they get breaks up their boredom.

Just because I enjoy a topic or a lesson, does not mean that the students will.

If there are mandatory topics or assignments, I try to find ways that I can make it interesting. If I can get the student engaged, they will interact more. When students are engaged, they don’t have time to be bored.

Whenever possible I try to take into account their interests and their learning styles. I have students fill out a learning style inventory that I’ve made up so I make sure that I’m teaching according to my student’s learning styles and not my own.

I try to give assignment choices that the student can pick from. By having choices, they are more invested in the assignment and will be more successful. I might even ask students to brainstorm possible projects they could do to show me that they understand the material. It is amazing at some of the things that they suggest because I might never have thought of them. They are very excited when I use some of their suggestions.

Once a month, I try to give students time to learn more about a specific topic that they are interested in studying. After they have time to do their research, they have to share their new learning with the class. They can make a brochure, poster, or give a presentation. I have them make a list of topics that they want to know more about. Sometimes I may be able to put them in groups if they have the same interests and have them do a group project together. The students have really enjoyed sharing their knowledge with others. I like to see how students gain more confidence the more they do this project. Most of my students really look forward to this and they have learned to be supportive of their classmates.

How do you keep your students from being bored? Please share.

Photo by THABANG MADNSELA on Unsplash

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