More data collection

This past week, my assistant principal observed my classroom.  We did a review activity where the class worked with individual white boards.  We met the next day to talk about what she saw.  She said that there is no doubt that there is a very high level of student engagement during my lessons.  She said that it is difficult for students to hide in my classroom.  If they don't participate in the activities, they stand out and standing out is awkward, so they choose to participate. 

I think my data definitely tells me that student engagement is extremely high in activities that involve movement.  Student engagement is still high in my classroom where movement is not a factor, but less than when it is.  It would make sense to me that if student engagement is high, learning happens.  At the same time, there are students out there that don't learn well in interactive activities that require movement, so I need to utilize other types of activities as well.

There is something to be said for students enjoying your class.  I think my students have enjoyed my class, and I credit a lot of that to the types of activities we do in class.  Students don't just sit in their seats all class period listening to me, but rather they are interacting with classmates and engaging in active activities.  I think they enjoy this, which is another reason for the level of participation I have seen. 

I would still like to do another survey asking them more questions about how they learn best and what types of activities they enjoy or don't enjoy.