https://www.edweek.org/teaching-learning/do-teachers-have-to-be-entertainers-heres-what-they-say/2023/08

“Engaging kids starts with your relationship with them. If you have a good relationship with them, they know you care about them, they are going to be so much more engaged,” she said.

-Rachel Murat, high school teacher in Endwell, NY and New York state’s 2020 teacher of the year,

For years, I’ve been told to engage students in French class, otherwise it sounded like they wouldn’t learn anything and I’d be saddled with unruly kids bored with my lessons. So, I tried to create activities to make French fun, sometimes succeeding, other times failing, but always trying to understand that teens are difficult to please and that learning was hard work that might not necessarily involve entertainment. The key for me was that everyday everyone picked up something they didn’t know before they got to class–whether it was a new French word or expression, a fact about the French culture, and a grammar point that would help them achieve fluency. Before leaving class, often as part of the exit ticket, they demonstrated this acquisition.

This article from Aug. 30’s EdWeek points out what I’ve felt for years. Educators know they must engage today’s youngsters—that wasn’t the case when I was growing up—but it doesn’t require them to evolve into comedians, actors or singers. They have to be themselves—and let’s face it we’re not all carved out for Broadway. But they must show enthusiasm and mastery of their subject matter, and try not to bore students who, after all, have to sit through hours of school every day. Make them work, get them to do something, don’t lecture them, and above all, care about their progress and achievements.