Every Child's Champion

How to Make Teaching a Ton More Fun! Engaging with Kids in Concept Development

February 11, 2020 Sara Beach Season 1 Episode 7
Every Child's Champion
How to Make Teaching a Ton More Fun! Engaging with Kids in Concept Development
Show Notes

Are you looking for a way to enjoy teaching more? Do you find kids disengaging from group time, acting bored, messing around when they should be listening? This podcast will challenge you to engage kids in "higher-order-thinking processes" as a way to get them more engaged, and deepening everyone's understandings much, much more! Asking "how" and "why" questions, comparing and classifying are a few of the "analysis and reasoning" practices we talk about in this podcast. When you challenge children to compare and contrast, classify, problem-solve, and use their powers of reasoning more, you engage their minds in ways you never thought possible. When they get used to being challenged, they will rise to the occasion and begin exercising parts of their brain like a muscle, they get better and better at with time. Deepen their learning by more fully developing the concepts that come from your curriculum. You can do this by focusing in on the "how" and "why" of things, rather than just the "what." Read stories numerous times, engage in creative projects, and keep those little minds very busy by engaging them in challenging discussions. Your teaching time will fly by as you observe and enjoy your students amazing thought processes. High levels of Concept Development are built on increasing the frequency of analysis and reasoning questions, brainstorming and creating, and engaging children in deep discussions to help them make new connections. Teaching becomes much more fun when you challenge both yourself and your students to THINK!