This post was co-authored by Liz Davis and Heather Miller
So what are some sneakily-simple teaching hacks that we can use to enhance the student experience; all the while maintaining the interest of our students and making sure our own teaching experience is beneficial and joyful?
The following are a few simple teaching-hacks we have compiled to give us teachers an edge in the classroom. Things that make complete sense, only once you have tried them!
- Music
The power of music has always been integral to human society. The rhythm of music can change people’s mentality, attitudes, and even their personality! Using music in a classroom provides those exact same benefits and more (including increasing the ability to process information and learn – definitely a must in your University classroom!).
Music in your classroom will help you facilitate a multi-sensory learning experience. It can give auditory learning students a way to engage mentally while they are working individually or it can provide some soft background music for when your class is working on small group discussions or activities, ensuring all learning types have their brains active and alive throughout the entire learning experience. Not to mention the power music has to generate connection and a sense of community within your classroom.
Something even as simple as playing music as students walk in the door can change the tone of a classroom from dull to delightful!
One technique we have used to much success is allowing students to pick a song/s from their home country to play while they are working in groups. This added sense of belonging and inclusiveness in your classroom brings international students into the space and gives them something they can then share with their local classmates, building rapport and breaking down boundaries for the often-time shy international students. It is also excellent for local students, because it helps them connect with their peers and feel encouraged by the social networks and bonds they are building together.
- Movement
Image by WolfBlur (Pixabay)
Similar to music, movement has the power to change a student’s mentality; getting them up, out and moving and breaking the pattern (and sometimes habit) of passively learning. Movement engages students on a kinaesthetic level, as well as getting their muscles involved to aid their memory recall of a situation. Movement has the potential to increase the energy of students, oxygenating their body and mind and allows them the freedom and agency to be the young vibrant people that they are when they come into your classroom.
A great introductory activity to get some more movement into your classroom is to have a snowball fight…
Not with actual snow, but with paper pretending to be snow. Get students to write something about themselves on a piece of paper. Then get them to scrunch it up into a ball and try to hit a target in the room (a post-it on the wall works is great for target practice!). After all the “snowballs” have been thrown get the students to pick up the paper and try and find the person it corresponds to and start a discussion to find out more.
Movement is simple, effective, and easy to facilitate. Just let your imagination run wild and so many ideas will come to you! For more information and ideas on Movement in the classroom check out “The Kinesthetic Classroom: Teaching and Learning Through Movement” by Traci Lengel and Mike Kuczala.
- Google Docs
Students love Google.
Answers to any and all questions can be found by simply “Googling it”. So let’s incorporate it into our classrooms.
Google Docs is another way for students to engage and collaborate in an online space that benefits everyone in the room. As a student, they can have access to the notes and thoughts of peers around them and can assist peer and flipped learning. And as a teacher, you have the ability to see where students aren’t making connections or maybe need a little more help in understanding. This works best for tutorial groups to begin with, but scaling to large cohort groups can also be done just as quickly and effectively.
By the end of semester, students can have a full and comprehensive set of notes added to by everyone in the class, with peers answering questions or helping with issues others students are having along the way. Check: peer learning. Check: flipped-learning. Check: learning successes for students and teachers. It’s a win-win-win.
- Beach Balls
Image by Clker-Free-Vector-Images (Pixabay)
If there is one way to make an awkward student feel less awkward, or to get a quiet classroom more engaged, it’s to introduce something even more awkward and fun then their current situation; enter Beach Balls.
We know, it seems like the last thing possible to have in a classroom. But this is probably one of the best teaching hacks we know and it is definitely a game-changer for creating an engaging and collaborative classroom environment. It works by utilising the beach-ball (or any other inanimate object you can think of) as a symbolic mascot, with words and ideas written across it by students that embody the learning experience they and you want within your classroom.
Students co-create these expectations of their class and learning experiences together at the beginning and use the beach ball to keep them accountable for their learning. It also adds an element of fun and play to the classroom, especially when students are tasked with blowing the ball up for each tutorial! This is essentially the same as a learning contract between students, something that is already an excellent learning and teaching tool. Adding in the element of fun and play that a class “mascot” brings only enhances the tool and gives students a creative outlet that encourages play, creative and critical thought, as well as ownership and agency over the classroom culture they are apart of during semester.