Be a Vibe

 At 2.2 billion dollars, the Era's Tour is the highest-grossing tour ever. Why? 

Because Taylor Swift is an absolute VIBE. 

When she released her first song in 2006, did our Wildest Dreams tell us what we would eventually know All Too Well? Taylor's energy crosses generational boundaries and has become a worldwide phenomenon. So, let's put on our Cardigan, get Fearless, and think about how we can all bring a little Swiftie energy to our classrooms this year.

Robert Marzano, an educational researcher whose work spans decades, identified four areas of student engagement in his 2020 book, Improving Teacher Development and Evaluation. The areas of attention, energy, interest and intrigue, and personal motivation are all vital to moving from compliance to authentic engagement in our classrooms. Often at the secondary level, however, energy takes a backseat. In order to maintain a highly engaged classroom, it is vital to consider the less sexy aspects of student engagement like greeting, pacing, and flow that work together to increase energy and bring a Taylor-like vibe to any space.

Greeting

It's teaching 101 but the frantic pace of a school day, and the basic need to run and use the restroom between classes, often bars teachers from greeting students at the door. However, it is a fundamental tool in increasing student engagement. If we've lost it in our repertoire of strategies, this post-COVID teaching world is the perfect time to bring it back. Research suggests that this small change increases student engagement by twenty percent. And if the research doesn't sell you (we are talking about energy, after all, and research is kind of dull), the ability to build community should be motivation enough.

When we stand at the door before every class, greet students by name with a smile or a fist bump or a high five, and perhaps sneak in a quick reminder about something in class that day, we have the ability to set expectations and a positive tone. This greeting, along with a purposeful activity that students do as soon as they walk in the door, increases energy, attention, and engagement. And, ultimately, don't we want classrooms that are Enchanted spaces with no Bad Blood?

Pacing

When we build a scope and sequence for the curriculum, we talk a lot about the pacing of a unit. However, I rarely hear conversations about pacing a single class period. For support here, we turn to a different blond who has her own vibe going...Goldilocks. In order to maintain energy throughout a class period (especially those blocked class periods), it is critical to set a just right pace. When we move too quickly through learning, students become confused and lost. When we move too slowly, students grow bored. 

Much of the success of pacing is in planning activities that put students in control of the talking. When teachers are not locked to the front of the room guiding a whole class lecture, they can better work with students who haven't yet mastered the content or challenge students who have grown bored. Teach Thought's ideas for digging or self-assessing when students complete a task are ways to keep energy and engagement high throughout a class period. No matter the method, we all need a plan for good pacing or we run the risk of being the Anti-Hero in our own classrooms.

Flow

A state of flow is said to be established when a person is so immersed in what they are doing that a sense of time disappears. Wouldn't we love the energy in our classrooms to mirror that? Contrary to popular belief, we all have the capacity to focus our attention for long periods of time when properly motivated. A recent Forbes article explains that storytelling is the key to maintaining long-term energy and engagement. The use of humor and personal stories also tops Marzano's strategies for increasing energy in the classroom. We aren't all storytellers, but we can all find engaging stories within our content that help students reenergize.

Additionally, supporting students to train their brains with focused attention practices like breathing and visualization can create a state of flow and relaxation to set up learning or transition to new activities. Strategies like the snowball toss can increase energy for short bursts of time to provide a more intentional brain break after a span of sitting and receiving information. As long as we are Ready For It, teachers have the ability to establish focus and flow.

So, perhaps you aren't a Swiftie and weren't humming along to the song references throughout (devastating, but I understand). However, even those who haven't thrown caution to their checking accounts and purchased concert tickets can comprehend her power. But we don't have to mimic Taylor to be our own VIBE. We have the power to set the tone and increase energy in our classrooms. We have the power to greet students, throw snowballs, tell stories, and laugh. Let's act swiftly and use that power tomorrow.