In Edutopia's video "Singapore's 21st Century Teaching Strategies," the importance of making education fun and engaging was emphasized, as well as the need to have teachers who were tech savvy. The school at the center of the video demonstrated highly engaged students using Twitter and Facebook as methods for responding to teacher-posed questions and for participating in the class discussions, even commenting upon other students' thoughts. This demonstrated the shift in education mentioned in the clip, wherein the students no longer just consumed knowledge but produced it. On a scale from 1-5, I would give this a 4, only because I am an English teacher, and I would want my students to use proper capitalization and punctuation when posting.
https://youtu.be/XZ0BGXMf83U
Another clip from Edutopia entitled "Differentiating Instruction Through Interactive Games" focused on an elementary teacher who used gaming software to make his lessons "engaging and exciting for students." The interactive math games allowed students to receive immediate feedback about their knowledge of the content and move forward once they had demonstrated mastery. In contrast, for those kids who didn't succeed, the teacher was able to pull them into a small group setting to reinforce the skills. It was clear that the students were learning through direct instruction, as well, though, as they were able to identify key terms like "in all" and make the connection that those were signal words for addition problems when doing a think-aloud activity. On a scale from 1-5, I would rate this lesson a 5 due to its pairing of technology with direct/teacher-led instruction. This math teacher was very clear about the importance of using technology in conjunction with traditional teaching, valuing both of these "tools," and although perhaps not as exciting for the kids, they were actively engaged with the lesson even when working in small groups, using their whiteboard desks and markers to do writing.
https://www.ted.com/talks/ramsey_musallam_3_rules_to_spark_learning?language=en
A TED Talk featuring Ramsey Musallam and his "Three Rules to Spark Learning," illustrated how this chemistry teacher used "blended instruction" to create engaged students. In his classroom, he applies three rules, which he was inspired to use after being diagnosed with a brain tumor, and having his surgeon use the same principles as he approached the surgery. The first rule for Musallam is curiosity comes first. Next, he says to embrace the mess. Finally, he practices reflection. According to Musallam, curiosity drives the questions. By embracing the mess, it allows him to set aside his fear of failure, instead finding the value of trial and error. Lastly, by practicing reflection, he forces himself to see the positives and negatives in his approach and to revise his lessons accordingly. One of the students featured in this short clip took it upon herself to go home and film herself applying a concept similar to the one she learned in class. Clearly, she was interested, curious, and motivated to explore the concept more. My concern with applying these three rules to my own teaching is that the vast majority of my students lack internal motivation, and therefore demonstrate very little curiosity. In my opinion, science classes, by nature, invite curiosity a bit more readily than English Language Arts. For this reason, I would rate this approach as a 3.5. It is my hope to get my students to develop academic curiosity, but they are far from this goal.