Our history department is doing something that I’ve really been interested in trying for a while. We are all taking a way of making our lessons more engaging, trying them in our classrooms, and then reporting back to the rest of the department about how they went. I made sure when we talked about this to mention that this does not need to be a perfect attempt, we just need to broaden our horizons of teaching a bit.
When we developed out list of engaging classroom activities, I had my eye on Socratic Seminars because my wife loved them in the classroom. I decided to let the rest of the department choose first and I would take whatever was leftover. I ended up getting to try flipping a lesson and using Skype in the classroom. Both of these ways of teaching have interested me, but I’ve needed a push to get myself started, so maybe this is it. I’m working with my awesome iTeam person to get the creative juices flowing.
Have any great experiences with these lesson models or others you find particularly engaging? Please let me know!