Quote: "Our students' attention and interest will ebb and flow in and out of our teaching. By bridging a gap between home and school, we allow them in far more."
Comment:The problem of how to keep students' interest has been a question on my mind for a long time. It's hard to keep students engaged and interacting in a lesson that doesn't interest or apply to them (I think we all know the verity of this statement, having spent years in the classroom. Even now in college it's hard to stay focused in class). It's very important to realize that all students have a strong interest in something, whether or not it's a school subject. By allowing them a chance to connect what they are learning in school to what they're actually interested in, we can help the students become more involved in a lesson. Additionally, when students feel connected to school work, they will have more passion and drive to learn about the various subjects, since they see clear connections between school and the home.
Question: How can we help students make connections between their home and interests in subjects like math and science? These disciplines often seem the most disconnected from real life, so how do we help students see that they are applicable and can be used every day?
In my high school trigonometry class, my teacher did a great job of applying what we learned in class to the real world. After learning many formulas in class applying to finding heights, diameters, volume, etc. we took a day to go to downtown Portland. There we divided into groups, with a map and a list of questions. We had to find statues and find the volume of the base, or find the diameter of a fountain. In this way, the problems we'd solved in class came to life. We were able to see and experience how the information we'd learned in class could be applied to the real world. By allowing students to physically see and experience what they study, it becomes much more meaningful.
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