OK, I’m catching up now: I’m really typing this on Thursday; not typing over the weekend and not getting around to posting until Thursday.

I didn’t get much work done after school this afternoon, and I don’t think I will most Thursdays for a while.  The Creative Arts Expo after school rehearsals have begun.  Like their previous incarnation in preparation for Wakakirri (in 2005), there’s an infectious buzz around them and through the school on those (increasingly colder) Thursday afternoons that’s hard to resist.  I’ve agreed to assist next week with preparing some old Wakakirri backdrops for a new life in our water-themed performance.

Walking around the school this afternoon soaking up the atmosphere left me thinking.   Why don’t we always have this buzz?  Why can’t Religious Education, English, Maths, and all the other KLAs gather so much interest?  Why is it that we’d never be able to get dozens of children to stay behind after school to do extra schoolwork?

We clearly have a big challenge as teachers around the whole issue of student engagement.  Not only do we owe it to children to provide such a stimulating learning environment, but we owe it to ourselves as well.  Disengaged students often become misbehaved students.  Unfortunately, though, it’s often easier to attribute blame to the student; “they don’t listen”, “they won’t give things a go”, etc., etc.  It’s easier to believe the problems lies with the students themselves rather than be confronted with the possibility of our teaching being a contributing factor.

Or at least we think it’s easier to apportion blame on the disengaged student.  I’d rather put the effort into reinvigorating my teaching than trying to manage (which is the best you can hope for in such situations) students who can’t see a point to what they’re doing.