Fun=Participation=Engagement

There was a time in our nation that formal schooling was a privilege or an optional activities for the children of our country.  In the late 1800s the leaders of our nation decided in order to continue growing our nation's future workforce and citizens needed to be universally educated.  I won't go on about how much of the curricular ideas drafted in the late 1800s are still in place today (not to mention our agrarian school calendar).

School is required by law...unfortunately an engaging learning environment is not.  While I think most teachers strive to make their teaching environment an engaging (or even fun) environment I'm not sure students see it that way.

Last week I did a highly unscientific thought association activity with about 100 students.  I was demonstrating http://typewith.me/.me and http://www.wordle.net/.

I wanted students to do a brief collaborative writing activity.  I ask them to generate words they associate with summer and then I asked them to generate words they associate with school.

The results left me a bit sad.....