James Sturtevant Hacking Engagement

About a decade ago, I attended the Mt. Vernon High School Class of 1981 Reunion. It was a lot of fun for a while, but as the night wore on, my ability to follow and contribute to stories that were unfamiliar with people I didn't know, became problematic. My wife was having a blast and was certainly entitled to uncompromised nostalgic bliss, so I had to step-up my social game.Penny, fortunately introduced me to an old friend...Brent Wilkinson. The next 90 minutes simply evaporated. Brent is a fascinating guy with a wonderful Horatio Alger story. He left Mt. Vernon in 1981 bound for Boston. He went on to captain the Harvard football team, earn his MBA, and thrive as a corporate officer and entrepreneur in Boston's highly competitive private sector. I loved his story, but what impressed me more was his humble recounting of it. Penny and I visited Brent in Boston this past summer. As we strolled the city and interacted with this fascinating guy, I knew I had to get Brent on my podcast.When educators and private sector types collaborate, it creates opportunities not just for students. My experience interacting with business folk has revealed that problems of communication, motivation, and management are largely universal. What's also universal is the value of growing human capital which is exactly what can happen if teachers reach out. Brent and his colleagues will absolutely collaborate with my kids before year's end! Why don't you create such an opportunity for your students?

It's hard to believe, but humans communicated before there were words. We may not realize it, but we still use pre-verbal methods of communicating. There's an entire language that we unknowingly transmit with each interaction...it's nonverbal! It comes naturally to us. All we have to do is tune in to an ancient frequency. Think of when you're trying to communicate with someone who can't speak your language. You default to expressive arm gestures and facial expressions. You probably also do this when communicating to your four legged pal. Dogs are champs at reading nonverbals.As teachers, students come at us in waves. It's hard to give kids our undivided attention, but that's precisely what we should TRY to do. Transmitting the right nonverbals is an essential skill that teachers should master. The good news is that mastering such skills is a blast! You can even get your students in on the game.

Picture this...you're studying really cool places like Machu Picchu, Tiananmen Square, the Coliseum, the Taj Mahal, or Timbuktu. Instead of just yakking about it, or having students reading about it, tell kids to hop on their Chromebooks, fly around the world, and then drop in for a close-up view from ground level. In this episode, Quin Thomas will explain how to do just that with Google Maps.

Kids are just starting to get it, they’re finally opening up in a discussion, they’re finding great resources for a research paper, they’re starting to harmonize in choir, their sculptures are just beginning to take shape, their findings in a science experiment are just about to materialize and then the bell rings.This frequently happens to Melissa Maxson’s devoted art students. You know you’ve engaged kids when they say, “Dang, I can’t believe the period is over.” Melissa hears this daily.In this episode, hear Melissa's solution to her frustrations with the uniform 50-minute modules. Listen to her recipe to detonate space/time limitations.

A great way to engage students is to just have some fun with content. Accomplish this by mimicking two iconic American board games...Battleship and Bingo. Certainly, most of your kids have played, or at least are familiar with both. I reworked both games for my classroom. Of course, I renamed them Battlevant and Sturtevingo. I encourage you to create your own labels for your version of these activities.Any time there’s material you’d like to review, Sturtevingo and Battlevant are wonderful engaging options that can be employed frequently. Battlevant is a team game. I’ll demonstrate it as a two team contest, but it could be used with multiple teams. In Sturtevingo, every man and woman is on their own.

I teach history. Even as a boy, I was a history nerd. Recently, I was enjoying the company of friends at a party. My buddies all have college degrees and are successful in their chosen professions. A historical topic surfaced. I decided to conduct a little wine-inspired experiment. I just listened to them pontificate about a subject I knew a lot about. This is generally not my disposition when vino veritas is factored in. What took place was fascinating. While my friends had a working understanding of the topic, their background chronology was out of whack which, of course, did a serious number on their understanding. If intelligent adults struggle with context on what would seem common historical knowledge, it would be foolhardy to assume that k-12 students, aside from the budding history nerds, would have a clue about the order of events. Contextual ignorance does not just apply to events, but also processes. Students in math, science, and language arts must understand many processes like the quadratic equation, the scientific method, and MLA citation. Chronological awareness with such concepts breeds confidence, which is crucial to engagement. Let’s inspire some of that awareness with a cool virtual timeline builder.

When I wrote Hacking Engagement, I was amazed that fifty hacks flowed out of my fingertips and compressed the keys of my laptop. Fifty seemed like a marathon, however, those hacks systematically materialized. When I typed the last period of the last sentence, I thought, Wow. that was a lot of hacks. I need a break. But here I am again...back with 50 more engagement hacks. Hacking Engagement Again is just like its predecessor Hacking Engagement: Both are short, containing a little over 30,000 words apiece. Both are comprised of fifty hacks that are each about 600 words in length. Neither is linear. Instead, they’re like cookbooks; you scan the table of contents and find what you need to make tomorrow’s lesson delicious.

Matthew Porricelli is a 4th grade teacher at the Mamaroneck Avenue School just outside of Manhattan. In this marvelous episode, we learn about Mr. P's classroom from expert witnesses...his students. These kids are a joy to listen to and the things they describe should be standard operating procedure in every classroom regardless of the level. Mr. P's class sounds like a dream, but what really moved me, was the way these young folks responded to their teacher. It's apparent that there's a bottomless mutual affection. This episode is golden for it's outstanding suggestions on pedagogy, but there's something more...something more profound and important. Matt's students are crazy about him! As you listen to these wonderful voices, keep asking yourself, How can I evolve such a climate in my room?

The Learning Scientist are researchers determined to help teachers build academic confidence in their students. They do this by offering proven strategies to help kids achieve. Here is the team:Remarkably, they provide all of this free free advice via a comprehensive and powerful resource, which is their website. In this episode, I’ll discuss with Dr. Smith and Dr. Kupper-Tetzel:How the Learning Scientists came to beHow to utilize their tremendous website2 of their 6 strategiesLet the Learning Scientists help you help your kids build academic confidence.

If one were to make a list of essential educator skills for the 21st-Century, certainly...collaborating with students would be near the top. This episode features a collaboration expert. Ann Coates is a veteran high school teacher in Hanover, Massachusetts. Ann is all about giving timely and meaningful feedback to kids. She states that instant feedback is, where the actions is!Utilize some of Ann's outstanding suggestions and observe your relationships with students evolve as your collaboration with them blossoms. As our education system navigates to a more student-led learning template, student-teacher collaboration will no longer be a cool thing that a few teachers in the building have mastered. It will be an essential skill that ALL educators simply must embrace.

On Sunday morning July 9th, from 8:30 to 9:00 AM EST, I will moderate the #HackLearning Twitter Chat. This is in preparation for the release of my second engagement book "Hacking Engagement Again", which will be available in early August. Please participate! Here are the questions:8:37-Q1: How do you engage students with lesson hooks?8:45-Q2: What are some strategies that can make lessons ultra-engaging?8:52-Q3: How can the assessment of student learning be conducted in a way that engages learners?Even if you're not available to participate, check out #HackLearning after the fact and see how educators and students from around the world answered these transformational prompts.

Jon Belt teaches 6th grade at Mayfield Middle School in Oklahoma City. Jordan Flowers and Conner Odom are 2 students in Jon's class. This episode is about Jon introducing learning stations in a lesson. The stations mirror the READS method which Jon details in the episode. Introducing movement and structure to class is something all educators should strive for weekly. This episode is worthy for its promotion of this concept, but as I interviewed this empathetic educator and his wonderful young students, another even more powerful dynamic surfaced. Jon Belt has fostered a learning environment where students feel totally comfortable helping Mr. Belt become a better teacher. He asks them to evaluate his teaching and they freely comply in positive and constructive ways. Displaying this powerful and positive dynamic is just as, if not more, important than the excellent learning tactic Jon describes.When I was in 6th grade many moons ago, my teacher was not to be evaluated by students. If I would have offered some teaching advice, I may have ended up on the business end of her paddle. Now, please don't interpret this wrong. I had wonderful teachers growing up. I loved my 6th-grade teacher, Mrs. Bates. It was just a different era. My wonderful teachers would have been even more effective if they would have included, then acted upon, student input.

Certainly, you’ve heard the old cliché A picture is worth a thousand words. I did some research on this statement and was delighted to learn that prior to photography, individuals used to say, A painting is worth a thousand words. Images, whether captured or manufactured, are powerful. I cannot remember that last Tweet I sent that was imageless. Social media is fueled by compelling images. We need to capitalize on this natural human attraction.Here are five iconic images from American history:1. The painting of George Washington crossing the Delaware2. The WWI Uncle Sam recruiting poster3. The Marines hoisting the flag on Iwo Jima4. Lyndon Johnson taking the oath of office beside a stunned and blood-stained Jackie Kennedy5. Associates of Dr. King standing over his body pointing towards an assassinDo any of these descriptions conjure up mental images? Do they inspire emotions, or perhaps personal narratives? If you weren’t familiar with some of these images, did you Google the description out of curiosity?This episode will demonstrate how to use images in 3 powerful ways:1. To help students understand and a profound concept2. To empower students to create and manipulate images to express themselves3. To hook students in preparation for an impactful lesson

Modern educators are discouraged from being the sage on stage. As the overused cliché goes..."Instead of being the sage on stage, be the guide on the side." I'm not a huge fan of this mantra. I understand the need for presentation styles to evolve, but sometimes you need to jump up in front of your kids and inspire them! Even though much of my instruction is flipped, it’s still important to present in front of students. While my kids enjoy my recordings, periodically I treat them to a live performance. A few years ago, my wife and I watched Jersey Boys on the big screen and then we saw it live on stage. There was no comparison. Sometimes, you have to go all Broadway on your kids. Sometimes, you need to be the sage on stage. And here, is where Pear Deck makes its dramatic appearance.

Kelly Hilton, Lisa Highfill, and Sarah Landis are the co-creators of HyperDocs and authors of the HyperDocs Handbook. These ladies have designed a remarkable website providing teachers with digital lesson templates and plenty of sample HyperDocs. Aside from outstanding organization, the templates are beautiful, which should never be underestimated.I became aware of HyperDocs because of my mentor Kristen Kovak. Not long ago, Kristen waltzed into my room and challenged your humble narrator to start utilizing HyperDocs. In the short time that I've used them, HyperDocs have transformed my Google Classroom feed.