Student engagement occurs when students make a psychological investment in learning. Psychologically invested students try hard to learn and take pride in their work. One factor influencing student engagement is their teacher’s behavior. The Center for Educational Improvement (CEI) named our Wow Ed! factor after the approach Steve Jobs developed to wow his audience and make people react with enthusiasm to the products his company designed (our Wow Ed! newsletter is also named after this approach).

 

This module is not intended to turn you into a late-night comedian. But it is geared to helping you use some simple strategies to add some mystery, drama, and excitement to your classroom. The Wow Ed! factor can pull students into classroom activities, accelerating the level of engagement. Students inevitably model behavior, and when teachers convey high enthusiasm, students often follow along.

 

This module will show you some simply easy to use techniques to wow up your teaching game. With today’s students bombarded with technology and highly interactive multimedia experiences, changing your classroom, timing, and approach is more important than ever to get and maintain student attention.

 

Key Points

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• Faculty actions teach students a tremendous amount about ways that adults behave; excitement about your domain will impress them, even if they are at first reluctant to show it.

• Teachers are performers, whether or not they think of themselves in those terms, and adopting some basic strategies used by people on stage can enhance the engagement of students.

 

Leaders

 

Dr. Christine Mason, Suzan Mullane and Reem Labib

 

Length

 

1.5 – 3 hours

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ABOUT SUZAN MULLANE

 

Suzan Mullane has over 20 years teaching experience, Pre-K-12. Ms. Mullane is an Adjunct Professor of Education at the University of Alaska in Anchorage, has been a school counselor and helped to develop and coordinate Anchorage’s STEM initiative. She is an expert in autism, gifted education and Special Education and has conducted numerous teacher workshops on those topics as well as at-risk youth, teacher mentoring, and STEM. In 2011 she received the North Star Service Recognition Award for her work with at-risk youth in Anchorage.

 

ABOUT REEM LABIB, M. ED.

 

Reem Labib, M. Ed., is an education consultant focused on school improvement and school reform efforts both in the United States and the Middle East. She has participated as a team member in school quality reviews for seven years, evaluating schools serving students in grades PreK-12. Labib holds a bachelor’s in psychology from The George Washington University and a master’s in education specializing in curriculum and instruction with a focus on multicultural education from George Mason University.

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