What do you do if your students lack a sense of ownership and responsibility?

Creating a learning environment where students feel empowered and engaged is built on a sense of trust. As a teacher you earn this in a few ways, first following through on the commitments you make to your students, your actions in the classroom carry a lot of weight. Open up conversations about the needs of your students and the things they require to be successful learns. Then empower them with options so they have the freedom to make choices. This will later a solid foundation for you to build trust in the classroom.

Having goals in the classroom give you and the students clear targets and allow you to set milestones on the way to them. Students will feel more engaged with your class when they can see, and more importantly feel the progress towards their goals. This also gives you as the teacher the opportunity to highlight student progress, giving them some wins along the way, that can lead to enhanced motivation for students.

Giving students the opportunity to collaborate with each other on classwork and projects gives them the chance to develop key teamwork and leadership skills. These types of collaboration can also help them feel more involved in the class as they are getting consistent feedback from the other students they are working with. As a teacher these collaborative projects also give you the opportunity to evaluate students teamwork and leadership skills.

I can’t overstate how important reflection and critique is in my own teaching process. Giving students time to reflect and critique each assignment gives them the chance to evaluate their own effort and understand the ways they can improve their own work. Often i have seen students gain a much deeper understanding of their own workflow and identify areas in which they can make changes to get an improved outcome. When they come to these realizations through their own reflection their engagement in subsequent assignments is often higher.

Dynamics I lead upon & would like to share: - Place SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant & time-bound) expectations - Build trustworthy yet unyielding relationship - Create secure & safe milieu - Showcase success stories – they serve as credibility & legitimate cues - Incentivize commitment yet penalize complacency - Induce healthy relentless mentality (whenever & wherever applicable) - Utilize EI (emotional intelligence) at all times - Promote self-reflection - Encourage creativity & critical thinking - Stimulate learner autonomy- with it comes a high degree of liability - Provide continuous feedback - Lead by example! Don’t ask your learners to do something you wouldn’t Strategize, Communicate & Lead by Vigorous Example ???