First, there are some subjects and topics that can be hard to make interesting. I often began the year with my grade five students with the statement, “This is your Communicating Skills Grammar workbook. It is not fun. BUT, it is necessary. It will make you a better writer and a better communicator. Your other subjects will benefit from the work that you do in this book.” Once a week, I would pick and choose lessons form it that supported our other LA work.
Boredom can be death to you and to your children. Here are a few boredom beaters:
1. What is interesting/fun to you? I always figured that if I can’t have fun teaching then it’s time to quit. Take the things that you enjoy and add them to your lessons… silly voices…music…jokes.
2. What is interesting/ fun to your children? If they love drawing, find ways to incorporate Art into your lessons. Illustrations…displays…posters… dramatic reenactments, make up a song. (What might Christopher Columbus have been singing when he discovered the new land?)
3. Are your children physical? Can they create a game connected to what they’re learning? Life Science… go outside and play predator and prey. Who gets to catch and eat who? (Sorry kinda violent. Okay, they can all be herbivores in search of different plants… a great way to get them to pick weeds and dandelions.)
4. Find a video connected with the topic. Last week I showed my grade sevens an excellent video on volcanoes, then we made models out of plasticene and made them erupt outside. I used the Diet Coke & Mentos explosion to show the effects of built up pressure. I begin every Science class with a “Weird Science fact, and a really lame Science joke. The kids love it although I’m not sure why.
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