Engaging Students: Beyond the Dog and Pony Show
Ideas about how we should teach are always evolving in education. In recent decades, we’ve been encouraged more than ever to both entertain our students and foster genuine engagement. Should we try to “teach on a skateboard” or “put on a dog and pony show”? Do you have to be a loud, outgoing, theatrical-type person to be a good teacher? What do we really need to do in order to cultivate a classroom environment that encourages our students to listen and participate meaningfully?
We’ve all had teachers who were more engaging than others. Think back to your own experiences in high school. Not all of these effective teachers played games all the time or used a bunch of flashy apps or presentations, right? Some of them were just warm and smiley, or maybe they had a dry sense of humor that hit just right with teens, or maybe they always asked really good discussion questions or put in the effort to use examples that were relevant to us. Maybe they simply came to class every day with energy when most of the other teachers seemed bitter and/or exhausted. This is what I’m always aiming for as a teacher: not to do a song and dance when I teach, but instead to present in a warm, personable, and reasonably charismatic manner. I don’t need to be someone I’m not, but I do have to turn up the dial a bit on my personality in order to keep the kids “on side” & be able to inspire them to engage with the material & actually try.
In fact, my students often comment on how positive, happy, passionate, and energetic I am, when I feel like I’m not really THAT notable in those categories. The thing is though, most of their other teachers are doing their best, but they haven’t thought through the importance of being at least a little bit excited and at least a little bit warm and welcoming EVERY period, EVERY day. This is important to me, and I try my best to make each student’s day at least NOT worse every time they come in my room. And this is something anybody can do, no matter what your natural personality: just be a little bit warmer, a little bit more welcoming, and a little bit more excited than you’d be if you weren’t thinking about it. That’s it!
But Do We Have to “Entertain” Students?
While some might view the term “entertainment” in a negative light, especially when they’ve been told by an administrator (or gotten feedback in an evaluation) that they need to be more entertaining for the students, I believe that what most people mean when they say “entertain them” is NOT what people think they mean when they take that advice poorly and get angry about it and think their administrator is asking them to coddle the kids or that being entertaining all the time means we are not preparing them for the real world. Why do I think this? It has to do with the difference between entertainment and engagement.
I believe when we are told to be more entertaining, people really mean that we need to try to be more engaging. They are just using the wrong word (because “entertaining” has connotations of being frivolous and being like a tv show or a fun game). Engagement doesn’t mean putting on a performance or being fake or trying to be as exciting as whatever is on TikTok right now: engagement means getting the kids to pay attention and participate in a meaningful way. That’s it.
So what are the building blocks that come into play with engagement? It’s a lot of things, but the most important include connecting with students, making the lesson feel interesting to them, helping them see why the skill or subject is relevant, and giving them something to DO beyond just listening to the teacher. This is not the same as making your classroom “fun.” Right? Instead, engagement is about fostering a classroom atmosphere where students feel like you’ve taken their interests and needs into account, you care about them and your subject, and you’ve given them something to do that makes them feel motivated to participate. We all know that when students sense that their teacher is invested—both in the subject and in them—they are more likely to invest themselves in the learning process. So working on getting that investment out of the kids is the biggest key to our success as teachers.
It’s important to acknowledge that students come to our classrooms with varying degrees of interest and enthusiasm. They didn’t necessarily choose to be in our classes, so it falls on us to meet them halfway. This isn’t college, where students have chosen to be there and have the emotional maturity to buckle down even when the professor or the material is very dry or seems irrelevant. We don’t need to transform into entertainers, but we SHOULD strive to be personable and engaging if we want to actually be successful in teaching to the age-level we are working with.
Think about it: Let’s say you think that the students should just pay attention and do their work because this is what the “real world” is like and they need to learn to be responsible and self-motivated. Flip that around for a second. Shouldn’t WE put in an effort to engage the students because we need to take responsibility and be self-motivated as teachers, which means trying to do our job in an EFFECTIVE way, and in the “real world” of teaching, students are still developing, so to be EFFECTIVE, we can’t just say “learn it because I said so,” right? We need to work on interpersonal connections with the students, motivate them, and come in with some energy; incorporating humor, relatable scenarios, or engaging applications of our subject matter (things for the students to DO) are all ways we can create a dynamic learning environment without resorting to theatrical antics, and we really do owe it to the kids to at least try.
Furthermore, engagement is not solely tied to a teacher’s charisma (although charisma can be helpful); engagement can also stem from HOW students practice what they’re learning. Designing activities that challenge students to apply concepts creatively can spark their interest. For instance, using geometry to solve real-life problems or introducing friendly competitions during a novel review can provide a more engaging framework for exploration and learning.
Ultimately, being an effective educator requires a balance of maintaining high standards while fostering an environment where students feel encouraged to lean in & participate. Trying to be a little bit more entertaining or attention-grabbing doesn’t mean sacrificing rigor. It simply means recognizing that a little energy and enthusiasm can go a long way in making education a more enriching experience for everyone involved. If we just put a little bit of effort into how we can better engage our students each day, it can have a huge pay-off, and it doesn’t have to involve more lesson planning. It can start with a smile & a quick joke or two!
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