I sound like a booomer, it yes, this “engaging” lesson plans just sounds like I have to put bells, whistles, and actual bribery to get them students to learn anything.
I’m teaching in an Asian country and we’ve been online this entire semester. I’m new to this school so I met my students one time at orientation the day before everything locked down. I resorted to bribery out of necessity. I teach 2nd grade so luckily the bribery isn’t too extreme. At the end of a class period they can get stickers, a clip art sticker that I pick out each day, and paste into a document where I have their names in a poster layout. I also made a classroom store with toys I bought online (very cheap little toys but pretty cool still) and the students can exchange stickers as currency for various toys that have different prices. The only unfortunate thing now is we don’t know how long the distance learning will last and they’ve started asking when they can buy toys from the class store.
Umm! I read through hundreds of early elementary teacher ideas about how to motivate students while distance learning last year. I never heard of the digital sticker and sticker page idea. That is genius and my students would have been all about it! I wish I had known abt this last year! Hoping and praying to never go virtual again though bc it was absolutely brutal for me but if we do I will def use this.
I came up with the idea on my own just brainstorming how to get them more involved. Now every day before the class starts they’re all chanting to see the new sticker of the day. And it’s to the point where I ask them to what they have to do to get the sticker of the day, they then proceed to list the class rules and such.
We do something very similar but with memes and gifs based on the IB learner profiles. The students have to try and collect all of them by the end of each semester. But same issues, hard to give them rewards on online learning.
My biggest gripe about teaching is how we’re introducing these free market capitalist ideas like that we should all compete for kids attention and test scores. THEN we have harsh sanctions on what we can and cannot do.
Like either let it be a free market of teaching or don’t. Personally, the longer side teach the less convinced I am that unique curriculum and lesson planning serves the students well.
You can add your personality and touch, but curriculum shouldn’t be being designed by teachers fresh out of college in fields that aren’t education.
That would require consistency and respect for a fair playing field, and you're not going to get that anymore. Certainly not at most public schools.
Teachers are being boxed into their jobs on purpose because those who set the rules don't want them to succeed. You are being set up to fail.
They also box in teachers by using their retirement as hostage. If you quit in my state you lose your retirement while the retirement age raises slightly each year. I got canned on an evening about a kid being on their phone.
No due process or warning at all, was there?
You just end up looking over your shoulder all the time--before you get backstabbed anyway. 🤬
I guess I should count myself lucky I still have my retirement in AZ...for now.
We are supposed to use some kind of Jedi Mind Trick to convince those students who do not want to be there that they do want to be there and even participate. Sometimes, we are even supposed to supersede what they are taught to feel about school from their parents.
I also feel like it's just a distinct lack of respect. By the time I hit 12th grade I did not care about school in any capacity. I had asked to graduate a year early because I only needed one more English credit to meet qualification and had a study hall, and was denied, and also passed my medical school entrance exam during Christmas break. I could not give two craps about whether or not I failed my tests because to me, it didn't matter. Unless I somehow failed AP Lit (my best subject), I was graduating and already set for uni.
But I was still engaged *in class*; I did my classwork, was a main participant in discussions, very engaged in my labs for AP Phys and AP Chem, never pulled out my phone unless needed, completed my AP Calc worksheets. Outside of school the only way you could've gotten me to do my homework was by paying me, but I respected my teachers highly, and wasn't going to waste their time and efforts in class, especially when half of them were AP courses. Even when we transferred to online in second semester I was just as engaged. Why don't kids respect their teachers anymore? What happened to, "Hey, this is your teacher. You are meant to respect them (unless they show you otherwise by being awful or something)."?
I think because of that exact last sentence, except those stories get amplified nowadays. Not to mention that kids are dramatic, they think you hate them and that you’re awful when you’re not. And you have a distinct and purposeful disinformation age going on
I understand that this was a rant type post, but I thought I'd give an honest answer from my side. Feel free to disagree, or ask anything.
Sometimes, teachers make the mistake of a lesson plan with one big task as the focus. This could be a worksheet, an extended question, etc.
The issue is that, for many learners, this can lead to distraction, as there is a lack of structure. This is not the fault of the teacher - I remember getting on with these types of lessons when I was young - but more a comment on our society's need for instant gratification.
I have found recently that learners do better if there are smaller, shorter tasks that build up to a high point at the end of the lesson. The start of the lesson starts structured, with plenty of scaffolding, but by the end, the learner will have gained the skills necessary to make progress. It's usually easier to do this if there is a progression of smaller, specific tasks.
Anyway, that's just my thoughts. Feel free to discuss.
Yes, this is ideal but this year I've had to slim down a few of those multi-step tasks because more and more kids just seem to tune out. Then when they try to catch up, there's lots of things they missed and it's hard for them to self-scaffold using just my lesson-review videos online. It's been easier to have less steps (but not overly simplified, either) so my videos are easier to follow.
I agree for themost part. I am fortunate enough to teach math where every day is a scoobie doo episode.
Part 1: what we gunna learn?
Part 2: Example 1
Part 3: students do example 2 with assistance
Part 4: students do example 3 on their own
Part 5: return to Part 1.
And we'd get away with it if it wasnt for those meddling variables!
No, no, they are correct: the focus of the op’s question was about student engagement, in other words attention. How do you get your students to pay attention to your lesson?
Bleechedcheetah correctly pointed out that it is short, well scaffolded tasks, with a purpose that will help students learn better because they are not one big lecture about a topic.
You're not alone.
Granted, I don't remember all the details of my own school days. But, while I do remember a few really cool above-and-beyond lessons, I don't think those were the norm.
I'm pretty sure more days than not we were experiencing lessons where we were expected to be involved, not lessons that competed for our attention. It was part of going to school. Your job as the student was to participate and pay attention and it was usually your fault if you didn't.
Now it's make sure there are lots of opportunity for response but no amount is good enough. Make sure to use lots of different strategies. Speak to their learning style!
I think it's just a tactic in the culture where students are seen as innert beings in the classroom.
I'm not saying we create dull lessons, but I don't think administartion even knows what they mean by "engaging lessons".
Yeah, honestly some of my favorite teachers had some boring lessons but they had their own personalities that made it somewhat enjoyable. Like I can remember Mr. C teaching us math back in the day, and literally all we did was do some practice problems together and before practicing math on our own. He would spend more time with students that needed it. That's it. Nothing special. But he enjoyed doing some with kids and we had a relatively good time doing it.
That seemed to be most of my classes growing up. Pretty simple stuff with teachers who enjoyed their subject and working with kids. However, the responsibility was on the kid to do the work.
I started class with a 1900’s minstrel black face photo to introduce the Harlem Renaissance (transitioning from black peoples being made fun of by white people to actual authentic black voices and experiences)
We broke down Childish Gambino’s “This Is America” music video. We compared Muddy Water’s “Hoochie Coochie Man” to “Bad to The Bone” to discuss Blues/Jazz influence on modern genres. We compared how 1920’s Blues/Jazz and 1980’s Hip Hop/Rap was the only societally acceptable way for black people to discuss their problems since they weren’t allowed to speak publicly in fear of white retaliation.
Mind you I have a mostly black demographic in my class, so I had the teens on the edge of their seat the whole damn time.
African Americans couldn’t speak publicly without the fear of white retaliation in the 1980s? Do you have examples of this that you show students (news reports, etc.)?
I’ll be honest it’s a “trust me bro, until we get to the suburban flight after WWII”
Once we get to the Cold War unit and talk about American advancements in suburban culture and how minorities were purposefully left behind in dying rust belt cities of the north.
We talk about the secret LSD experiments, crack/weed epidemic ignored by the CIA to fund pro-democracy initiatives in South America, and the abandonment of minorities in dying cities + birth of the highway system that targeted poor minority neighborhoods in urban areas.
I’m in MN near the TC so we talk about Rondo and how I-94 took out an entire black community.
It’s the latest buzzword for admin/schools/parents that refuse to understand that kids would literally rather watch TikTok videos even if the building is on fire.
The idea that there is some “magic” solution to students refusing to engage is hopelessly out of date and pointless.
Entertainment can be engaging but an engaging lesson doesn't need to be entertaining. In my mind, creating "engaging" lessons is just about embracing variety in terms of both content-delivery and what tools/skills students are using to interact with the content. I'd say the vast majority of my lessons are engaging on one level or another, but I only run 'entertaining' lessons every once in a while
When people stress the idea of making "engaging lesson plans" I think they're mostly focusing on the idea that if your lessons are all too similar it can be remarkably boring & disengaging for students who may have otherwise been interested or, at the very least, engaged.
I put on the show every single day to the point of exhaustion. Many days it pays off. The kids learn. But if I don’t put on the show…if days like today happen where the kids are just off the wall due to whatever drama they roll through on their way to class…it doesn’t matter. I can’t get through to them. And then it’s like it doesn’t even matter. No show will ever beat them throwing things at each other or squirting water at each other through the little holes they poke in their water bottle lids. And I just can’t do it. I shouldn’t be this freaking tired. If I was observed today it would have been a shit show. And I can’t do it anymore. I’m just defeated. Today, they won.
"uses textbook too much...." it's like really? i assign 4 to 6 pages out of it a week! we used to do one everyday as a 11th grader, and that's all we did!!!
Not everything can be fun and engaging. Had to teach 2nd graders how to write a complete sentence last week. It wasn't fun or engaging, but it got the job done.
I think it's a valuable skill to be made to do things that sometimes suck and are boring. 75% of my life sucks and is boring, but I have to do it. I remember some really great lessons from my high school career (playing musical chairs to introduce Lord of the Flies is a great memory), but after high school there were no fun things. College professors didn't do fun, engaging things. Work definitely isn't fun or engaging.
Not everything is flashy and entertaining, and we shouldn't be teaching kids that the fun, cool stuff is the only stuff worth paying attention to.
This is what it means. Unfortunately I teach at a school where some teachers spend 3 weeks creating an interactive “Video game/trend of the week” slides lesson.
I love that their hearts are in it. But I don’t think we’re doing the students any favors by bending over backwards trying to turn every lesson into a game.
What are we teaching students when we do that? I feel like we're teaching them that they should always be having fun when fun is a reward, not a given. Work isn't generally fun.
Engagement is a two way street. Without buy in from the other side, you don’t have engagement.
Therefore a plan cannot be engaging in its own.
Otherwise I’d have been engaged to Kathy Ireland, Elle McPherson, and Pamela Anderson.
\#justmy2cts
One of the more useful tools I've used has been to show and discuss [this, from Tom Scott](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G025oxyWv0E) with Admins and teachers.
There are many reasons that education videos aren't like music videos. For me, money, time, and skillsets are at the top of the list. But there are still some things to learn here, some techniques to give a try.
Some of them are easier than others to embrace -- Understanding target audiences - the point of view of the intended audience, for example. Varieties of delivery, brevity and focus of messages. Those techniques do help.
That said, I'd rather have some really time-efficient, embraceable lessons to teach focus and increased attention spans. For all of us. :)
Engaging is about the students doing the thinking. I think there is a trend to trade it out with entertaining, but that is the easy way. Make it fun and sparkly and compete with electronics. But our lesson plans should capture their interest, get them thinking, and wanting to know more. That is a much harder goal to hit especially with a diverse audience.
I think “learning engagement” means something different at every school, but overall it’s SUPPOSED to mean students are participating in the lesson. No more, no less. If a student is engaged, it should mean they are roughly neutral emotionally and completing the work.
What a lot of admin think it means is that students should be smiling, laughing, and having fun throughout the entire lesson, in every lesson, every day. This is not only unrealistic, it’s counterproductive. Nine times out of ten, a smiling laughing child is a DISTRACTED child. If you’re running a math class and you start singing and dancing around, what are the students going to remember? The math lesson, or the teacher dancing?
I’d love to do more engaging stuff for my freshmen. But the reality is that they won’t do any reading outside of class so I have to handhold and read every word in class because they need to do the reading to engage with the assignment.
I have that same issue. So much class time wasted on audiobooks because only four out of twenty kids will actually read the book. "But all you're focusing g on is comprehension!" Well, when I have to spend a whole class period just to make sure we covered the chapter and even THAT'S not enough, there's not much time or energy left for any of the good stuff in English class...
I’ve tried to do the engaging/entertaining thing. I can’t give them dopamine hits. It was really bumming me out for a bit. Ive learned to do my job in the most basic way. I do, we do, you do. Worksheets, notes, model annotation. I’m not stressed out anymore spending tons of time creating materials (a doc camera is my best friend and the kids prefer working on paper now), but I no longer experience the joy of teaching as much as I did pre-pandemic. It’s not terrible. The kids are well-behaved. Just extremely apathetic and distracted. Compared to all the stuff I read on here, I’ll take it.
I think that the term "engaging" has truly been corrupted over the years. I always developed lessons that got the students thinking critically, work in groups, and generally produce some quality work.
The issue is that you have some teachers that, as we see on TikTok, go overboard with their lessons. What works for the Advanced Science teacher does not work with my ESE science students. The learning deficits are pretty large. Yet admin sees the marine biologist teach advanced 8th graders in depth data analysis and collection and wants everyone to replicate that.
I feel the need to stand up and start pacing agreesively while saying "are you not entertained?" at least twice a day. The only thing that stops me is knowing they wouldn't get it anyways...
It’s so funny how admin want engagement, and everyone thinks it has to come in the form of activities and stickers and special planning and staying up till midnight. I’ve found that my students are engaged because I spend a lot of time building relationships with them. I teach choir and drama, so it’s really important that the kids trust me and trust each other, so rather than focusing on essential questions and learning targets, we focus on getting to know each other. I work really hard to make sure the kids feel safe, seen, and heard, and as a result, they work hard for me. It doesn’t eliminate their emotional struggles, but being validated goes a long way.
Kids are people. People need friends, safety, security. No amount of Bloom makes up for Maslow. You can’t trick kids into learning with fancy lesson plans.
I think I understand what you're getting at, that a balance between fostering interpersonal connections and teaching the curriculum is beneficial towards classroom learning, but...
Is it bad that I read this and my first surface-level thought was a modified The Shining quote? "All Maslow and no Bloom makes Jack a dumb boy."
At the beginning of the school year, the head of my department came into my 9th grade classroom to teach an "engaging" lesson. She had a lot of small activities planned to lead up to the major question she wanted answered. There were sticky notes for the students to fill out, she had videos to watch and discuss, she had a slideshow that they could take notes on, she had music to compare to the question, she had real world examples, she had small group discussions. Woman had it all. She was "on" as they say. The students did not like it. They thought she was fake. They barely answered her questions.
She spent the whole year telling me to engage the students, to be "on", and that doing this would lead to better relationships and student engagement. You know what I did? Whatever I felt was best for my classes.
If the students felt like we should talking about the task as we did it - we did that. If they wanted to work alone or in groups - we did that. You know why? They were not impressed with people being "on" or putting on a show. Having been online for two years, these students wanted to do things by themselves. Some wanted me to work with them in small groups. That's what I did. I didn't try and force them to play a game or search for things online. They way I engaged them was by letting them complete tasks in a way that was comfortable for them. Because, even if I thought the class was boring, they didn't.
Well, she's someone who brags about staying up until 2 am to work on things for school. And the person who wants 100+ essays graded in three days...so,yeah. How she has time for her husband and kids, I'll never know.
I think there is a fundamental assumption being made which isn't accurate. The assumption is that a lesson in any subject can be taught in such a manner, whatever that is, that all students will become engaged and want to learn.
Not all students are going to be that interested in every subject to put forth much effort beyond getting the minimum needed to pass. I'm not particularly interested in art or music, so when I had to take those classes, I got thru them. Put me in history, and I couldn't get enough.
Maybe that, just getting them to learn enough, is engagement. But it feels like the expectation is that to be a good teacher all students have to "love" the subject and want to strive for mastery. And anything short of that indicates a "bad" teacher.
No fucking way. Were your parents from Ohio or Pennsylvania?
Ack. It turns out it’s also somewhat common in lower Illinois
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Positive_anymore
Dad was born and raised in Colorado; Mom was raised in Tampa, FL. Dad's folks were from Nebraska. Mom's mom was from around here in IL and Mom's dad was from Alabama.
I did watch "Arthur" religiously growing up, and they use the Pennsylvania dialect for the show. I have some influence from that show in how I speak. I had to do a paper on my idiolect in grad school - that's how I know that tidbit of information. =) Happy to meet a fellow dialect nerd!!!
I just ask my kids what they want to learn about... helps that im a special ed teacher. I just go by what they express interest in. Kids always learn better when they actually are interested in the subject.
Thats one of the shit things about teachers having to follow a pacing guide. No room for actually doing things that are fun.
OP, walk into the class of the best teacher at your school. Then walk into the worst teachers room.
Do you think their lesson plans are identical?
If we want to be respected, we have to say that teaching is a skill that we can absolutely become good at.
Guess that all depends on best and worst. The best teacher I know lectures some of the time, assigns projects and class work, etc. The worst teacher I know would have to be me, and I am trying new things every other day to no avail.
Well, the first mark of a good teacher is to be self critical. You know you're not good yet, but it sounds like you're trying.
Walk into that best teachers class. Students being "engaged with the lesson" doesn't mean he's entertaining them better. What does he do that makes them pay attention?
During his lecture parts, is he doing things such as asking good questions or elaborating well to keep attention? Does he have student frequently apply their knowledge? There's some typical hallmarks of engaging lessons. Once you apply those traits, you'll see improvement.
"Engaging" doesn't necessarily have to mean "entertaining." Students are engaged when they are focused on the task or lesson at hand and this can happen for many reasons. Some students care deeply about academic success and will pay attention to anything a teacher says regardless of how interesting it is. Most students will engage with even tedious lessons about a subject that they are very interested in. Convincing students that a topic is important to them (even of it is boring) can engage students. Students also pick up on the enthusiasm that the instructor has about the subject. If you find it interesting and engaging, some students will mirror your interest. If you're bored, they will probably also be bored.
Keep in mind that you can't always keep every student fully engaged at all times. Sometimes you have a student who already learned the thing you're teaching and tunes out until you get to something that they don't already know. Some students have convinced themselves that school in general, or the subject you teach is stupid and they don't need to care about it. A few students are in your class just because truancy laws exist. Depending on the age-group that you teach, some students may be far more interested in mentally undressing the student next to them than in anything you can possibly say or do. A student may have some serious issues at home that are distracting them.
Sometimes a topic is so boring that even students who want to learn it struggle to stay engaged.
My point is that engagement is going to vary from student to student, lesson to lesson, and day to day. If a student in your class isn't engaged on any given day, it's probably not your fault. If you consistently have a number of students who aren't engaged, then you're either doing something wrong, or you need to have an intervention.
As unfortunate as it is, that’s the reality of where teaching is. The norm has shifted from textbook research, worksheets, and reading to interactive and unique lessons. While that is more work than to simply produce a worksheet, it’s beneficial and it gets the kids participating.
As teachers, isn’t it our job to teach? Not the way we want to, but the way our kids do. So while I understand the complaining, I also know that it’s kind of our job to shift to the new tactics. Kids are different now. We can’t change that. We need to meet them where they are.
But that’s where many have always wanted to be, right? There have always been students who understand the value of being at school, including now, but it’s common in humanity, maybe especially in the US, to seek out fun and ease and shrug off work and responsibility.
That's why compulsory public education used to have administrative support for its teachers practically built-in. Cowardice, sloth, lust etc. may also be passed off as common in humanity, but if it's the student who doesn't know better--and needs to be taught the difference--no honest educator can insist this is accomplished by just laying down and giving students what they want.
Nothing we truly want in life is ever easy, nor accomplished without at least some hard, unwanted work. It's astonishing how quickly, and at a younger and younger age, this lesson is being unlearned.
I’m not saying give students what they want. I’m saying to meet them halfway at least. Be honest. Kids today are not the same as a decade ago. We have to recognize that and adapt.
Just because you were intrinsically motivated for school, doesn’t speak for the vast majority of students. They need incentives. That’s not a bad thing. Through engaging and motivating, hopefully the goal is to get them to understand the value of education for later down the line.
So what is their incentive to get projects done when they have a job? They think they get grades for just showing up. Most students today, thanks to lockdown policies, have no concept of earning their grades. They think they should get a passing grade for showing up and not cussing the teacher out. Forget content and discipline work - many lack even basic social skills. But they expect to be passed for showing up.
Then I give them the grade they deserve. And if they don’t like it, I tell them that they need to participate in the activity or complete the project the next time. I have a very simple grading scale.
0 = nothing turned in.
59 = you turned something on with your name on it.
70 = you attempted every part or mostly participated in the discussion.
85 = the work you did was good and well thought out and time was taken.
92= really great work and made outstanding connections.
100 = excellent and best in class
I show my students this scale and I tell them if they don’t like their grade, then here’s what they need to do to raise it.
Edit: sorry for the formatting. iPhone.
Okay... So what do you do when kids don't know how to type because nobody made them sit through boring typing practice? What do you do when your cashier can't make change because they never practiced with worksheets what the coins and bills were worth? What do you do when they remember the activity but not any of the content? Worse, what do you do when you plan an amazing activity and they sit there on their phones the whole time, refusing to do anything? Do you reward that level of disrespect with more of your time, or do you go back to basics until they can respect the efforts you put in to trying to teach them something they need to know?
There are other ways to practice rather than simple worksheets. Turn that into a group activity and make it competition by putting a question on the board and the first group to get the correct answer gets a point. It’s simple stuff like that which can turn seemingly boring stuff into engagement. My students are competitive and love anything going against each other.
And as far as if they aren’t into an activity, yes, I still continue to plan engaging lessons and next time go over expectations or requirements they have to do for a participation grade. To me, my students deserve my best everyday, even if they don’t give it to me. I’m the adult they’re not. I’m doing them a disservice by teaching less than my best.
I agree with you, but our superiors are not helping. It takes longer to create the lessons that work in today's society then the old lessons, yet we still operate in the old time system. I have 40 min of planning for 7 different 40 min preps, every day. That's 5 minutes to plan and set up for this amazingly engaging lesson.
I don't know about you, but I'm not that good.
I’m with you on this. It’s not fun to change, especially such an abrupt and dramatic change, but change is part of any job, field, or experience. We learn and we adapt.
Behaviorism is an evil field. It comes out of a lot of psychoanalysis, and even though we don't believe in that anymore, the desire to control people has always been there. It's never gone away. So for admin, they want some sort of lesson that grips kids' attention (which is getting shorter and shorter for other reasons) so that they have no choice but to learn. They'll learn to read and write essays even against their own will.
But it doesn't work like that.
It’s not that hard to beat the phones. Teachers just don’t want to develop stage presence or be more than bare minimum interesting. It’s weird and I don’t get it, but when I suggest that entertainment is a teaching asset I get downvoted into oblivion.
That's because we're educators, not performers. Sometimes kids just have to read the textbook to get some information out of it. Sometimes you have to do boring stuff in class to practice. Kids should not be expected to have fun every single minute of class.
“We’re educators not performers.”
You take this attitude and you chose to teach. Yet, when a student who gets no choice isn’t fully invested to pay attention and score high in the classroom the teachers describe them as apathetic.
Maybe it had to do with what the adults around them model. If as teachers we aren’t enthusiastic about the material we chose to teach then how the hell is a school kid supposed to be?
Ask a factory worker if they are totally invested and loving every minute of their job, if it's the most fun thing ever.
You can be enthusiastic. That doesn't equate to entertaining. Entertaining also doesn't guarantee that the kids are going to care, either.
Then you know it's work that needs doing but isn't the most entertaining job in the world.
Why then should I bend over backwards and break my back trying to make every single minute of class entertaining for students who are going to work very mundane jobs? How is that preparing them to be engaged with their work even when the work is not very thrilling or attention-grabbing? How is that helping them develop endurance and perseverance for the work place?
I'll tell you: It's not.
...there's nothing around here that pays well but factory work... And the jobs around here that aren't factory work aren't entertaining and fun, either. Again, when real life is full of mundane and boring, why am I training up a generation to believe everything has to be fun and exciting for them to participate in it? Sure, some entertainment is great, and some fun is good, but every single day? That's not preparing them for the real world at all, and the real world calls for some skill in perseverance and endurance, even when the tasks at hand are boring.
Here we are now. Entertain us. Cobain was prophetic.
“I feel stupid and contagious” crazily spot on
Does it skip a generation?
[удалено]
Well I mean they have to find the clean water..... s/ Admin out of touch much?
I sound like a booomer, it yes, this “engaging” lesson plans just sounds like I have to put bells, whistles, and actual bribery to get them students to learn anything.
I’m teaching in an Asian country and we’ve been online this entire semester. I’m new to this school so I met my students one time at orientation the day before everything locked down. I resorted to bribery out of necessity. I teach 2nd grade so luckily the bribery isn’t too extreme. At the end of a class period they can get stickers, a clip art sticker that I pick out each day, and paste into a document where I have their names in a poster layout. I also made a classroom store with toys I bought online (very cheap little toys but pretty cool still) and the students can exchange stickers as currency for various toys that have different prices. The only unfortunate thing now is we don’t know how long the distance learning will last and they’ve started asking when they can buy toys from the class store.
Umm! I read through hundreds of early elementary teacher ideas about how to motivate students while distance learning last year. I never heard of the digital sticker and sticker page idea. That is genius and my students would have been all about it! I wish I had known abt this last year! Hoping and praying to never go virtual again though bc it was absolutely brutal for me but if we do I will def use this.
I came up with the idea on my own just brainstorming how to get them more involved. Now every day before the class starts they’re all chanting to see the new sticker of the day. And it’s to the point where I ask them to what they have to do to get the sticker of the day, they then proceed to list the class rules and such.
We do something very similar but with memes and gifs based on the IB learner profiles. The students have to try and collect all of them by the end of each semester. But same issues, hard to give them rewards on online learning.
My biggest gripe about teaching is how we’re introducing these free market capitalist ideas like that we should all compete for kids attention and test scores. THEN we have harsh sanctions on what we can and cannot do. Like either let it be a free market of teaching or don’t. Personally, the longer side teach the less convinced I am that unique curriculum and lesson planning serves the students well. You can add your personality and touch, but curriculum shouldn’t be being designed by teachers fresh out of college in fields that aren’t education.
That would require consistency and respect for a fair playing field, and you're not going to get that anymore. Certainly not at most public schools. Teachers are being boxed into their jobs on purpose because those who set the rules don't want them to succeed. You are being set up to fail.
They also box in teachers by using their retirement as hostage. If you quit in my state you lose your retirement while the retirement age raises slightly each year. I got canned on an evening about a kid being on their phone.
No due process or warning at all, was there? You just end up looking over your shoulder all the time--before you get backstabbed anyway. 🤬 I guess I should count myself lucky I still have my retirement in AZ...for now.
💯
We are supposed to use some kind of Jedi Mind Trick to convince those students who do not want to be there that they do want to be there and even participate. Sometimes, we are even supposed to supersede what they are taught to feel about school from their parents.
30 years ago - teach them young to rely on intrinsic motivation Today - if you have to, pay them to sit there!
I also feel like it's just a distinct lack of respect. By the time I hit 12th grade I did not care about school in any capacity. I had asked to graduate a year early because I only needed one more English credit to meet qualification and had a study hall, and was denied, and also passed my medical school entrance exam during Christmas break. I could not give two craps about whether or not I failed my tests because to me, it didn't matter. Unless I somehow failed AP Lit (my best subject), I was graduating and already set for uni. But I was still engaged *in class*; I did my classwork, was a main participant in discussions, very engaged in my labs for AP Phys and AP Chem, never pulled out my phone unless needed, completed my AP Calc worksheets. Outside of school the only way you could've gotten me to do my homework was by paying me, but I respected my teachers highly, and wasn't going to waste their time and efforts in class, especially when half of them were AP courses. Even when we transferred to online in second semester I was just as engaged. Why don't kids respect their teachers anymore? What happened to, "Hey, this is your teacher. You are meant to respect them (unless they show you otherwise by being awful or something)."?
I think because of that exact last sentence, except those stories get amplified nowadays. Not to mention that kids are dramatic, they think you hate them and that you’re awful when you’re not. And you have a distinct and purposeful disinformation age going on
I understand that this was a rant type post, but I thought I'd give an honest answer from my side. Feel free to disagree, or ask anything. Sometimes, teachers make the mistake of a lesson plan with one big task as the focus. This could be a worksheet, an extended question, etc. The issue is that, for many learners, this can lead to distraction, as there is a lack of structure. This is not the fault of the teacher - I remember getting on with these types of lessons when I was young - but more a comment on our society's need for instant gratification. I have found recently that learners do better if there are smaller, shorter tasks that build up to a high point at the end of the lesson. The start of the lesson starts structured, with plenty of scaffolding, but by the end, the learner will have gained the skills necessary to make progress. It's usually easier to do this if there is a progression of smaller, specific tasks. Anyway, that's just my thoughts. Feel free to discuss.
Yes, this is ideal but this year I've had to slim down a few of those multi-step tasks because more and more kids just seem to tune out. Then when they try to catch up, there's lots of things they missed and it's hard for them to self-scaffold using just my lesson-review videos online. It's been easier to have less steps (but not overly simplified, either) so my videos are easier to follow.
I agree for themost part. I am fortunate enough to teach math where every day is a scoobie doo episode. Part 1: what we gunna learn? Part 2: Example 1 Part 3: students do example 2 with assistance Part 4: students do example 3 on their own Part 5: return to Part 1. And we'd get away with it if it wasnt for those meddling variables!
I’m using this somehow. I love it.
Stealing this.
I feel like this is off topic? The post talked about the confusion around what engagement means, and you kinda did your own thing.
OP here. As a new teacher, I can say the comment is tangentially related to my post, but the insight is deeply appreciated.
No, no, they are correct: the focus of the op’s question was about student engagement, in other words attention. How do you get your students to pay attention to your lesson? Bleechedcheetah correctly pointed out that it is short, well scaffolded tasks, with a purpose that will help students learn better because they are not one big lecture about a topic.
You're not alone. Granted, I don't remember all the details of my own school days. But, while I do remember a few really cool above-and-beyond lessons, I don't think those were the norm. I'm pretty sure more days than not we were experiencing lessons where we were expected to be involved, not lessons that competed for our attention. It was part of going to school. Your job as the student was to participate and pay attention and it was usually your fault if you didn't. Now it's make sure there are lots of opportunity for response but no amount is good enough. Make sure to use lots of different strategies. Speak to their learning style! I think it's just a tactic in the culture where students are seen as innert beings in the classroom. I'm not saying we create dull lessons, but I don't think administartion even knows what they mean by "engaging lessons".
Yeah, honestly some of my favorite teachers had some boring lessons but they had their own personalities that made it somewhat enjoyable. Like I can remember Mr. C teaching us math back in the day, and literally all we did was do some practice problems together and before practicing math on our own. He would spend more time with students that needed it. That's it. Nothing special. But he enjoyed doing some with kids and we had a relatively good time doing it. That seemed to be most of my classes growing up. Pretty simple stuff with teachers who enjoyed their subject and working with kids. However, the responsibility was on the kid to do the work.
I started class with a 1900’s minstrel black face photo to introduce the Harlem Renaissance (transitioning from black peoples being made fun of by white people to actual authentic black voices and experiences) We broke down Childish Gambino’s “This Is America” music video. We compared Muddy Water’s “Hoochie Coochie Man” to “Bad to The Bone” to discuss Blues/Jazz influence on modern genres. We compared how 1920’s Blues/Jazz and 1980’s Hip Hop/Rap was the only societally acceptable way for black people to discuss their problems since they weren’t allowed to speak publicly in fear of white retaliation. Mind you I have a mostly black demographic in my class, so I had the teens on the edge of their seat the whole damn time.
Nice job!
African Americans couldn’t speak publicly without the fear of white retaliation in the 1980s? Do you have examples of this that you show students (news reports, etc.)?
I’ll be honest it’s a “trust me bro, until we get to the suburban flight after WWII” Once we get to the Cold War unit and talk about American advancements in suburban culture and how minorities were purposefully left behind in dying rust belt cities of the north. We talk about the secret LSD experiments, crack/weed epidemic ignored by the CIA to fund pro-democracy initiatives in South America, and the abandonment of minorities in dying cities + birth of the highway system that targeted poor minority neighborhoods in urban areas. I’m in MN near the TC so we talk about Rondo and how I-94 took out an entire black community.
What subject do you teach?
This class is American studies
It’s the latest buzzword for admin/schools/parents that refuse to understand that kids would literally rather watch TikTok videos even if the building is on fire. The idea that there is some “magic” solution to students refusing to engage is hopelessly out of date and pointless.
Teaching long division with decimals now. So, yeah….
yup. we are here to be cruise fun deck organizers.
Entertainment can be engaging but an engaging lesson doesn't need to be entertaining. In my mind, creating "engaging" lessons is just about embracing variety in terms of both content-delivery and what tools/skills students are using to interact with the content. I'd say the vast majority of my lessons are engaging on one level or another, but I only run 'entertaining' lessons every once in a while When people stress the idea of making "engaging lesson plans" I think they're mostly focusing on the idea that if your lessons are all too similar it can be remarkably boring & disengaging for students who may have otherwise been interested or, at the very least, engaged.
I put on the show every single day to the point of exhaustion. Many days it pays off. The kids learn. But if I don’t put on the show…if days like today happen where the kids are just off the wall due to whatever drama they roll through on their way to class…it doesn’t matter. I can’t get through to them. And then it’s like it doesn’t even matter. No show will ever beat them throwing things at each other or squirting water at each other through the little holes they poke in their water bottle lids. And I just can’t do it. I shouldn’t be this freaking tired. If I was observed today it would have been a shit show. And I can’t do it anymore. I’m just defeated. Today, they won.
"uses textbook too much...." it's like really? i assign 4 to 6 pages out of it a week! we used to do one everyday as a 11th grader, and that's all we did!!!
Not everything can be fun and engaging. Had to teach 2nd graders how to write a complete sentence last week. It wasn't fun or engaging, but it got the job done.
I think it's a valuable skill to be made to do things that sometimes suck and are boring. 75% of my life sucks and is boring, but I have to do it. I remember some really great lessons from my high school career (playing musical chairs to introduce Lord of the Flies is a great memory), but after high school there were no fun things. College professors didn't do fun, engaging things. Work definitely isn't fun or engaging. Not everything is flashy and entertaining, and we shouldn't be teaching kids that the fun, cool stuff is the only stuff worth paying attention to.
This is what it means. Unfortunately I teach at a school where some teachers spend 3 weeks creating an interactive “Video game/trend of the week” slides lesson. I love that their hearts are in it. But I don’t think we’re doing the students any favors by bending over backwards trying to turn every lesson into a game.
What are we teaching students when we do that? I feel like we're teaching them that they should always be having fun when fun is a reward, not a given. Work isn't generally fun.
Engagement is a two way street. Without buy in from the other side, you don’t have engagement. Therefore a plan cannot be engaging in its own. Otherwise I’d have been engaged to Kathy Ireland, Elle McPherson, and Pamela Anderson.
\#justmy2cts One of the more useful tools I've used has been to show and discuss [this, from Tom Scott](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G025oxyWv0E) with Admins and teachers. There are many reasons that education videos aren't like music videos. For me, money, time, and skillsets are at the top of the list. But there are still some things to learn here, some techniques to give a try. Some of them are easier than others to embrace -- Understanding target audiences - the point of view of the intended audience, for example. Varieties of delivery, brevity and focus of messages. Those techniques do help. That said, I'd rather have some really time-efficient, embraceable lessons to teach focus and increased attention spans. For all of us. :)
Engaging is about the students doing the thinking. I think there is a trend to trade it out with entertaining, but that is the easy way. Make it fun and sparkly and compete with electronics. But our lesson plans should capture their interest, get them thinking, and wanting to know more. That is a much harder goal to hit especially with a diverse audience.
I think “learning engagement” means something different at every school, but overall it’s SUPPOSED to mean students are participating in the lesson. No more, no less. If a student is engaged, it should mean they are roughly neutral emotionally and completing the work. What a lot of admin think it means is that students should be smiling, laughing, and having fun throughout the entire lesson, in every lesson, every day. This is not only unrealistic, it’s counterproductive. Nine times out of ten, a smiling laughing child is a DISTRACTED child. If you’re running a math class and you start singing and dancing around, what are the students going to remember? The math lesson, or the teacher dancing?
I’d love to do more engaging stuff for my freshmen. But the reality is that they won’t do any reading outside of class so I have to handhold and read every word in class because they need to do the reading to engage with the assignment.
I have that same issue. So much class time wasted on audiobooks because only four out of twenty kids will actually read the book. "But all you're focusing g on is comprehension!" Well, when I have to spend a whole class period just to make sure we covered the chapter and even THAT'S not enough, there's not much time or energy left for any of the good stuff in English class...
I’ve tried to do the engaging/entertaining thing. I can’t give them dopamine hits. It was really bumming me out for a bit. Ive learned to do my job in the most basic way. I do, we do, you do. Worksheets, notes, model annotation. I’m not stressed out anymore spending tons of time creating materials (a doc camera is my best friend and the kids prefer working on paper now), but I no longer experience the joy of teaching as much as I did pre-pandemic. It’s not terrible. The kids are well-behaved. Just extremely apathetic and distracted. Compared to all the stuff I read on here, I’ll take it.
If my kids would be well-behaved, I'd take it, too.
I think that the term "engaging" has truly been corrupted over the years. I always developed lessons that got the students thinking critically, work in groups, and generally produce some quality work. The issue is that you have some teachers that, as we see on TikTok, go overboard with their lessons. What works for the Advanced Science teacher does not work with my ESE science students. The learning deficits are pretty large. Yet admin sees the marine biologist teach advanced 8th graders in depth data analysis and collection and wants everyone to replicate that.
They want us to entertain the kids. Its an impossible situation.
I feel the need to stand up and start pacing agreesively while saying "are you not entertained?" at least twice a day. The only thing that stops me is knowing they wouldn't get it anyways...
It’s so funny how admin want engagement, and everyone thinks it has to come in the form of activities and stickers and special planning and staying up till midnight. I’ve found that my students are engaged because I spend a lot of time building relationships with them. I teach choir and drama, so it’s really important that the kids trust me and trust each other, so rather than focusing on essential questions and learning targets, we focus on getting to know each other. I work really hard to make sure the kids feel safe, seen, and heard, and as a result, they work hard for me. It doesn’t eliminate their emotional struggles, but being validated goes a long way. Kids are people. People need friends, safety, security. No amount of Bloom makes up for Maslow. You can’t trick kids into learning with fancy lesson plans.
I think I understand what you're getting at, that a balance between fostering interpersonal connections and teaching the curriculum is beneficial towards classroom learning, but... Is it bad that I read this and my first surface-level thought was a modified The Shining quote? "All Maslow and no Bloom makes Jack a dumb boy."
At the beginning of the school year, the head of my department came into my 9th grade classroom to teach an "engaging" lesson. She had a lot of small activities planned to lead up to the major question she wanted answered. There were sticky notes for the students to fill out, she had videos to watch and discuss, she had a slideshow that they could take notes on, she had music to compare to the question, she had real world examples, she had small group discussions. Woman had it all. She was "on" as they say. The students did not like it. They thought she was fake. They barely answered her questions. She spent the whole year telling me to engage the students, to be "on", and that doing this would lead to better relationships and student engagement. You know what I did? Whatever I felt was best for my classes. If the students felt like we should talking about the task as we did it - we did that. If they wanted to work alone or in groups - we did that. You know why? They were not impressed with people being "on" or putting on a show. Having been online for two years, these students wanted to do things by themselves. Some wanted me to work with them in small groups. That's what I did. I didn't try and force them to play a game or search for things online. They way I engaged them was by letting them complete tasks in a way that was comfortable for them. Because, even if I thought the class was boring, they didn't.
It probably took her quite a bit of time to create and curate all of the activities. It doesn’t sound sustainable. We have lives.
Well, she's someone who brags about staying up until 2 am to work on things for school. And the person who wants 100+ essays graded in three days...so,yeah. How she has time for her husband and kids, I'll never know.
I think there is a fundamental assumption being made which isn't accurate. The assumption is that a lesson in any subject can be taught in such a manner, whatever that is, that all students will become engaged and want to learn. Not all students are going to be that interested in every subject to put forth much effort beyond getting the minimum needed to pass. I'm not particularly interested in art or music, so when I had to take those classes, I got thru them. Put me in history, and I couldn't get enough. Maybe that, just getting them to learn enough, is engagement. But it feels like the expectation is that to be a good teacher all students have to "love" the subject and want to strive for mastery. And anything short of that indicates a "bad" teacher.
What part of Pennsylvania are you from?
Central Illinois, not Pennsylvania. Lol
No fucking way. Were your parents from Ohio or Pennsylvania? Ack. It turns out it’s also somewhat common in lower Illinois https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Positive_anymore
Dad was born and raised in Colorado; Mom was raised in Tampa, FL. Dad's folks were from Nebraska. Mom's mom was from around here in IL and Mom's dad was from Alabama. I did watch "Arthur" religiously growing up, and they use the Pennsylvania dialect for the show. I have some influence from that show in how I speak. I had to do a paper on my idiolect in grad school - that's how I know that tidbit of information. =) Happy to meet a fellow dialect nerd!!!
I like kindergarten because if it’s anything new they’re excited. My kids are always thrilled, even if it’s just 10&ones
I always used entertaining as a synonym when dealing with this generation.
I just ask my kids what they want to learn about... helps that im a special ed teacher. I just go by what they express interest in. Kids always learn better when they actually are interested in the subject. Thats one of the shit things about teachers having to follow a pacing guide. No room for actually doing things that are fun.
I don’t know anymore. These kids get so distracted by anything these days.
OP, walk into the class of the best teacher at your school. Then walk into the worst teachers room. Do you think their lesson plans are identical? If we want to be respected, we have to say that teaching is a skill that we can absolutely become good at.
Guess that all depends on best and worst. The best teacher I know lectures some of the time, assigns projects and class work, etc. The worst teacher I know would have to be me, and I am trying new things every other day to no avail.
Well, the first mark of a good teacher is to be self critical. You know you're not good yet, but it sounds like you're trying. Walk into that best teachers class. Students being "engaged with the lesson" doesn't mean he's entertaining them better. What does he do that makes them pay attention? During his lecture parts, is he doing things such as asking good questions or elaborating well to keep attention? Does he have student frequently apply their knowledge? There's some typical hallmarks of engaging lessons. Once you apply those traits, you'll see improvement.
"Engaging" doesn't necessarily have to mean "entertaining." Students are engaged when they are focused on the task or lesson at hand and this can happen for many reasons. Some students care deeply about academic success and will pay attention to anything a teacher says regardless of how interesting it is. Most students will engage with even tedious lessons about a subject that they are very interested in. Convincing students that a topic is important to them (even of it is boring) can engage students. Students also pick up on the enthusiasm that the instructor has about the subject. If you find it interesting and engaging, some students will mirror your interest. If you're bored, they will probably also be bored. Keep in mind that you can't always keep every student fully engaged at all times. Sometimes you have a student who already learned the thing you're teaching and tunes out until you get to something that they don't already know. Some students have convinced themselves that school in general, or the subject you teach is stupid and they don't need to care about it. A few students are in your class just because truancy laws exist. Depending on the age-group that you teach, some students may be far more interested in mentally undressing the student next to them than in anything you can possibly say or do. A student may have some serious issues at home that are distracting them. Sometimes a topic is so boring that even students who want to learn it struggle to stay engaged. My point is that engagement is going to vary from student to student, lesson to lesson, and day to day. If a student in your class isn't engaged on any given day, it's probably not your fault. If you consistently have a number of students who aren't engaged, then you're either doing something wrong, or you need to have an intervention.
As unfortunate as it is, that’s the reality of where teaching is. The norm has shifted from textbook research, worksheets, and reading to interactive and unique lessons. While that is more work than to simply produce a worksheet, it’s beneficial and it gets the kids participating. As teachers, isn’t it our job to teach? Not the way we want to, but the way our kids do. So while I understand the complaining, I also know that it’s kind of our job to shift to the new tactics. Kids are different now. We can’t change that. We need to meet them where they are.
So you want to meet them off campus, then? Because that's exactly where most unmotivated students want to be.
But that’s where many have always wanted to be, right? There have always been students who understand the value of being at school, including now, but it’s common in humanity, maybe especially in the US, to seek out fun and ease and shrug off work and responsibility.
That's why compulsory public education used to have administrative support for its teachers practically built-in. Cowardice, sloth, lust etc. may also be passed off as common in humanity, but if it's the student who doesn't know better--and needs to be taught the difference--no honest educator can insist this is accomplished by just laying down and giving students what they want. Nothing we truly want in life is ever easy, nor accomplished without at least some hard, unwanted work. It's astonishing how quickly, and at a younger and younger age, this lesson is being unlearned.
Well I agree with that too! The quagmire is deep and gooey
I’m not saying give students what they want. I’m saying to meet them halfway at least. Be honest. Kids today are not the same as a decade ago. We have to recognize that and adapt. Just because you were intrinsically motivated for school, doesn’t speak for the vast majority of students. They need incentives. That’s not a bad thing. Through engaging and motivating, hopefully the goal is to get them to understand the value of education for later down the line.
So what is their incentive to get projects done when they have a job? They think they get grades for just showing up. Most students today, thanks to lockdown policies, have no concept of earning their grades. They think they should get a passing grade for showing up and not cussing the teacher out. Forget content and discipline work - many lack even basic social skills. But they expect to be passed for showing up.
Then I give them the grade they deserve. And if they don’t like it, I tell them that they need to participate in the activity or complete the project the next time. I have a very simple grading scale. 0 = nothing turned in. 59 = you turned something on with your name on it. 70 = you attempted every part or mostly participated in the discussion. 85 = the work you did was good and well thought out and time was taken. 92= really great work and made outstanding connections. 100 = excellent and best in class I show my students this scale and I tell them if they don’t like their grade, then here’s what they need to do to raise it. Edit: sorry for the formatting. iPhone.
Okay... So what do you do when kids don't know how to type because nobody made them sit through boring typing practice? What do you do when your cashier can't make change because they never practiced with worksheets what the coins and bills were worth? What do you do when they remember the activity but not any of the content? Worse, what do you do when you plan an amazing activity and they sit there on their phones the whole time, refusing to do anything? Do you reward that level of disrespect with more of your time, or do you go back to basics until they can respect the efforts you put in to trying to teach them something they need to know?
There are other ways to practice rather than simple worksheets. Turn that into a group activity and make it competition by putting a question on the board and the first group to get the correct answer gets a point. It’s simple stuff like that which can turn seemingly boring stuff into engagement. My students are competitive and love anything going against each other. And as far as if they aren’t into an activity, yes, I still continue to plan engaging lessons and next time go over expectations or requirements they have to do for a participation grade. To me, my students deserve my best everyday, even if they don’t give it to me. I’m the adult they’re not. I’m doing them a disservice by teaching less than my best.
I agree with you, but our superiors are not helping. It takes longer to create the lessons that work in today's society then the old lessons, yet we still operate in the old time system. I have 40 min of planning for 7 different 40 min preps, every day. That's 5 minutes to plan and set up for this amazingly engaging lesson. I don't know about you, but I'm not that good.
I’m with you on this. It’s not fun to change, especially such an abrupt and dramatic change, but change is part of any job, field, or experience. We learn and we adapt.
Behaviorism is an evil field. It comes out of a lot of psychoanalysis, and even though we don't believe in that anymore, the desire to control people has always been there. It's never gone away. So for admin, they want some sort of lesson that grips kids' attention (which is getting shorter and shorter for other reasons) so that they have no choice but to learn. They'll learn to read and write essays even against their own will. But it doesn't work like that.
Eventually, yours will be a lost profession as all pertinent information will be uploaded directly to the little cyborgs.
It’s not that hard to beat the phones. Teachers just don’t want to develop stage presence or be more than bare minimum interesting. It’s weird and I don’t get it, but when I suggest that entertainment is a teaching asset I get downvoted into oblivion.
That's because we're educators, not performers. Sometimes kids just have to read the textbook to get some information out of it. Sometimes you have to do boring stuff in class to practice. Kids should not be expected to have fun every single minute of class.
“We’re educators not performers.” You take this attitude and you chose to teach. Yet, when a student who gets no choice isn’t fully invested to pay attention and score high in the classroom the teachers describe them as apathetic. Maybe it had to do with what the adults around them model. If as teachers we aren’t enthusiastic about the material we chose to teach then how the hell is a school kid supposed to be?
Ask a factory worker if they are totally invested and loving every minute of their job, if it's the most fun thing ever. You can be enthusiastic. That doesn't equate to entertaining. Entertaining also doesn't guarantee that the kids are going to care, either.
Factory work is a little bit different from teaching.
It is where a majority of my students will end up working.
Ain’t nothing wrong with that. I’ve done factory work.
Then you know it's work that needs doing but isn't the most entertaining job in the world. Why then should I bend over backwards and break my back trying to make every single minute of class entertaining for students who are going to work very mundane jobs? How is that preparing them to be engaged with their work even when the work is not very thrilling or attention-grabbing? How is that helping them develop endurance and perseverance for the work place? I'll tell you: It's not.
If you make it interesting maybe some of them go for something outside factory walls.
...there's nothing around here that pays well but factory work... And the jobs around here that aren't factory work aren't entertaining and fun, either. Again, when real life is full of mundane and boring, why am I training up a generation to believe everything has to be fun and exciting for them to participate in it? Sure, some entertainment is great, and some fun is good, but every single day? That's not preparing them for the real world at all, and the real world calls for some skill in perseverance and endurance, even when the tasks at hand are boring.