I know what you’re thinking, and don’t worry! We’re not talking about cheap ways to pop that special someone the “big question”, apologies to those expecting some intimacy tips. In this blog, we’re going to unpack that classic teacher misconception of not being able to provide quality lessons because “there is no money.”
Engaging students in terms of piquing interest is one the most vital parts to any lesson. If you were to ask a student what their favorite concept is in a given subject, it probably had something to do with a engaging, care-inducing, and genuinely interesting ENGAGE.
When teachers often think about the engage portion of our lessons, we often think of having to start strong. Sometimes we think it needs to be so strong, we get nervous about financials and quality of the lesson. Most of the time dumping a lot of personal money to buy those high end classroom materials doesn’t equal the highest quality lesson. Here are 5 places and things you can do to give a high quality ENGAGE to your classroom at reasonable prices, most of the time for FREE!
Top 5 ways to ENGAGE on a Budget
5. SING it out for those in the back!
Maybe not the option for those of us vocally or creatively challenged, but a catchy beat and rad lyrics may be all you need to grab a class’ interest in a topic. The following video is a relic from my high school geometry class where my teacher parodied the Twelve Days of Christmas with geometry concepts!
While Mrs. Simons (miss ya) sings solo in the video, she introduced each of those days with a new line in the song and we sang it as a class. But again, if leading a choir isn’t really your cup of tea, music can still be used from outside sources. For example, in an earlier math class, a different teacher showed us this gem.
While some online songs may be cheesy, opening lines like “This is a circle, it knows how to get around,” get snickers from students, but in turn captivates their attention.
4. Consult other teachers’ ideas!
Believe it or not, we’re not the only ones who need . There’s a plethora of online teacher resources made by teachers for others’ use. Blogs are a good example of how these are portrayed from example cheap experiments from purchasing cheap supplies:
https://spaceshipsandlaserbeams.com/blog/boyish-charm/18-fun-science-experiments-for-kids
To more officially downloadable engage plans:
https://leftbraincraftbrain.com/stem-on-a-budget-cheap-and-fun-ways-to-learn/
Consulting others in the same shoes is a great way to learn more about to go about doing the same in your own classroom!
3. Professional Websites are free for the browsing!
Like blogs, professional websites such as Scholastic, Edutopia, and TeachersFirst have a ton of articles written by experienced teachers to help out our peers. Be sure to check them out in your pursuit!
2. Classroom P(h)ETs
PhET or Physics Education Technology simulations are a very engaging tool to use especially in science classrooms. I think it’s totally unfortunate that I had never heard of them until college. Introducing your students to these simulations can prove over-whelming significant to their understanding of science framework as well as interest!
Whether its playing with the epitomization of “balancing chemical equations’ or playing with different gas properties. It can be super fun students to mess around and see extreme conditions as well, so be sure to have a more open ended section of the simulation and ask them what they test and what they find!
1. YouTube
Perhaps the king of free resources, YouTube is still prevalent both in a professional setting as well as for fun time off on the side. The free to use network boasts a staggering rate of 300 hours of video footage being added every minute! With the everlasting presence of a site with no predicted end, it just makes sense to use this as a tool. Just pop on over to that search bar and explore.
Engage with Physics and Math with the music for “Need/Getting” made from instruments lined in the desert! Just think about the time and calculations needed to pull this off!
Engage in Ecology with the Slow Mo Guys as they put tons of things in intensive slow motion with amazing visuals!
Engage with Chemistry and show your students what happens if you were to flush solid Sodium down your toilet!
YouTube is home to so many captivating videos both for the teacher to learn and for the teacher to show fun things to students!
https://twitter.com/WyattBischoff/status/1093346080887132160
Did I miss your favorite cost-efficient ENGAGE resource? Let me know in your comments, after all, if you take one thing away from this post, collaboration only makes us better at what we do!
Wyatt, I loved the humor in the beginning and I actually laughed out loud when listening to the circle song! I always forget how many great musical videos there are on Youtube to help remember certain things in math and science. I also really liked that one of your resources was other teachers. I feel like I often look past the idea of seeking help from those around me to try and figure things out myself. Some of the best ideas and tips can come from those you work with and it’s good to be reminded of that!
Great post! I especially liked that you included consulting with other teachers. I didn’t even consciously think of it till you said it. I feel like everyone is so focused on reinventing the wheel that they forget how many resources are available right around them. I also loved the videos you included. Do you think you would ever write your own songs for classes or just find them on youtube?
-Margaux
Wyatt,
The cheesy jokes are always worth it. I agree with the terribly-made Youtube videos as well. When kids cringe, they’ll remember it. One of my favorite projects in 8th grade was making our own math song, and these kinds of activities stick in the kids’ memories!
Wyatt,
First off, I loved how you started off your blog post: entertaining and straight-forward. I really did enjoy the amount of thought and diversity of resources that your provided to the audience! My favorite resource you provided was consulting with other teachers. Not only can we consult with teachers in our school, but there are plenty of blogs and sites that we can use to our advantage! In your classroom, what resource do you think would be most helpful?
Michael
Michael,
Thank you for your compliments! I think I’m going to have to agree with you and say fellow teacher consultation would be my favorite as well! It’s so advantageous to get others’ thoughts and opinions on how to instruct content.
-Wyatt
Hi Wyatt! I thought that your introduction was a great hook and definitely got me interested in the rest of your post! The resources that you provided are all really great, and I had never thought to consult other teachers for resources that could help engage on a budget! Awesome post!
Bryce,
I mean, yeah, and talking with others is free (the best part)! Thank you so much for your nice words!
-Wyatt
Wyatt, I actually laughed out loud at your title and your first couple sentences. What a hilarious way to get people interested in what you have to say. I think that #5 and #4 would have to be my favorite resources. Starting with #4, I think that consulting other teachers is a resource that is often overlooked by teachers. It’s super important to have a relationship with other teachers so that you can share ideas. Often times, others have different ideas than you, and you have different ideas than others. The songs for #5 are AMAZING. I never once had a teacher use songs to help student learning, and I feel like I genuinely missed out! However, it does make me wonder, do educational songs encourage memorization over truly understanding content? If a student can simply remember a song while taking a test, could that disrupt true learning? What are your thoughts?
Kate,
Thank you so much! That’s an interesting point you bring up about the songs. While I agree it may cater to memorization, I think math is one of the most acceptable topics for memorization to be okay to cater to. Although students may roll their eyes at these songs, the rhythmic nature definitely sticks to their memories. I think it would be harder to incorporate in say a science or reading class, where answers are much less black and white.
-Wyatt