Do you ever run out of ideas to keep students engaged?  Have you ever wondered how to keep the students’ brains stimulated?  Do you want to create a safer classroom for your students?  Have you ever had trouble keeping students’ attention?

If you answered yes to any of these questions, “Structures for Active Engagement” is the professional learning you need.

Twenty four years ago, I took a very similar class.  My principal sent me to North Carolina to see what Kagan Cooperative Learning was all about.  The week that I spent there changed my entire teaching career, as well as, all of my students’ educational experiences in my classroom.

I truly thought I was an engaging teacher, until I sat through this class and analyzed my teaching practices.  I thought I was doing cooperative learning, until I examined the basic principles of cooperative learning while the students were working together.

I quickly found out I was a group work teacher and only about one quarter of my students were truly engaged.   The rest of the students were just hitchhiking, and were along for the ride without being held accountable for their learning.

I also quickly found out that the curriculum I was teaching did not need to change.  What needed to change was how the students were learning and practicing the curriculum.

Several of the teachers, that I have worked with over the years, have felt they would have to change everything they are doing to accomplish engagement, a safer classroom, challenging the students, and keeping the students’ attention.  Through this professional learning journey, they realized it was not their instructions that needed to change, but what the students were doing while the lesson was being delivered.

I hope you will be able to find a week out of your summer to take advantage of a great opportunity.  Kagan’s  Structures for Cooperative Learning and Active Engagement will be offered at Kent ISD on July 30-August 3. Click here to enroll today!

This blog post was written by the presenter for the Kagan workshop "Structures for Cooperative Learning and Active Engagement" Thomas "Fin" Finegan. He teaches 6th grade science and 8th grade PE, coaches middle school football, basketball and track in Lakeview, and does Kagan training in discipline and cooperative learning all over the country.