Teachers spent a lot of time in the classroom over the years. There is nothing like watching students staring blankly into space as you teach. You might just be surprised to find that your students are out of focus and out to lunch just as you have imagined the perfect lesson plan or engaging activity. Yet despite the fact that the information you teach should be absorbed by the students. It is imperative that you are able to keep your classes interesting so they may retain the information taught.

It has been decades since educators have been trying out new ways of making learning more interesting and effective for their students to keep their minds stimulated and enthused about it. Some strategies have failed, but others have proven to be very effective in keeping students engaged and engaged in their learning. The following list outlines teacher-tested methods to make your class interesting, so your students stay engaged throughout the entire class period.

How to Encourage Students to Participate in Class:

Your lessons should include mystery

The best way to get students interested in learning is to make it as mysterious as possible for them. Make sure that all your lessons are filled with a sense of mystery and surprise. You can introduce a new lesson every single day until the last day before the lesson actually begins when you’re about to launch it and you’ve begun revealing clues. If you add these surprises to your lesson plans, your students may be so hooked on finding out what new information they are going to learn that they are actually searching for it when it finally comes out.

Classroom material should not be repeated

In the classroom, it is important and appropriate to review classroom material but try not to repeat what you have said verbatim in order to retain the interest of your students. In order to have your students recall material you have taught, the next time you need to review the information a review game could be the way to do it. It would be a slightly different approach from the first time you taught the students the information. 3-2-1 is a way of not having to repeat the same material over and over again in a review process. To complete this activity, students need to draw a pyramid in their notebooks and then record three things that they learned, two things that they thought were interesting, and one question they still had.

Create Classroom Games

There is nothing that makes a child happier than playing a game whether they’re 5 or 25. The games also play a crucial role in keeping the lesson interesting for children. When your students have difficulty remembering their spelling words, arrange a spelling bee: If they misspell a word, the students are eliminated from the event. If the students need to practice their math, then you can host a math bee that is similar to a spelling bee but instead of spelling words, it will be math problems or mathematical facts. Playing games in class is a great way to get kids excited about learning, and playing games in class makes learning fun.

Provide your students with choices

Teachers have discovered that one strategy that has been successful for them is through providing their students with the opportunity to make their own choices while learning about the subject matter. Student autonomy and interest are often influenced by choice because the choice can serve as a powerful motivator to facilitate learning. Make a choice board the next time you are planning an activity. You will be pleasantly surprised by the results. Please feel free to print out a tic-tac-toe board and have your students write down nine different things that they must complete. Each student needs to choose three tasks in a row to complete as many as they can.

Use Technology

Keeping your lessons interesting is one of the best ways to use technology in the classroom. Children love stuff with moving parts and so it is a great way to incorporate technology into your entire teaching strategy. It is much more effective to use the interactive Smartboard to show what you are doing instead of standing in front of your audience and lecturing. Using audio or video conferencing, connect with a class in another country or city and use cooperative learning activities to expand your lessons. When you use technology in a variety of ways in your classroom, you’re going to discover that your students’ interest levels will increase tremendously.

Don’t Take Teaching so Seriously

Having an effective teacher is a huge responsibility, but that does not necessarily mean that you are supposed to remain serious through the entire period of class. Consider your students’ interests and learning styles and free yourself up a bit, and recognize that you may have different interests from them. There is nothing wrong with laughing at yourself and having a little fun every now and then. If you are a little more relaxed in your teaching style, you may find that your students are more attentive.

Make Your Lessons Interactive

When the teacher stands in front of the classroom, lecturing to the students as they take notes and listen to the teacher, this is called a traditional classroom. However, this method of teaching does not generally have the greatest effect on students’ interests. Engage students each step of the way by making learning interactive by creating lessons that involve each student directly. If you would like to try out a cooperative learning activity where each individual is responsible for their own part of a group activity I recommend using the Jigsaw activity. Alternatively, you may try hands-on science experiments. Make your lessons more engaging by engaging your students and making them interactive.

Relate Material to Your Students’ Lives

Put what students are learning into context by creating real-world connections. It helps them to understand why they need to learn what you’re teaching them if they can see why they need to learn it. When you keep answering with “because,” when they keep asking why they need to learn something, you will quickly lose their trust and credibility. If you give them a real answer, you can say, “It’s important for you to know how to pay your bills and buy food in the real world.” 

It would be best to give a straightforward answer. Using this process, you are facilitating their ability to connect what they’re learning in class to how they will actually use it in the future.

Flip Your Lessons

From 2012, when the term “flipped” was introduced to the broader education world, the flipped classroom has grown steadily in popularity. As the idea of students learning new material at home was first presented to us, it was thought to be a good idea. There was something extremely unique about how we spent class time completing critical thinking activities and reinforcing what we learned in class. There have been many instances when teachers have used this strategy and have had positive outcomes in the classroom. Flipped classrooms are classroom environments in which students can work at their own pace and participate with their peers in a more interactive, meaningful way during class hours. Observe how much engagement you get from your students when you use the flipped teaching strategy in your next lesson.

Think Outside the Box

Students don’t have to sit through endless hours of lectures, taking notes day after day, while the teacher teaches the lesson. Consider a lesson by online tutoring that will be completely out of the ordinary. Think of a lesson plan that echoes that. Take advantage of the great outdoors by inviting a guest speaker, going on a field trip, or taking the learning outside. It is reasonable to expect that your students will respond positively when you try something new and different. If you would like to collaboratively plan a lesson, try taking your class on a virtual field trip or collaborate with another teacher. It has been proven that the best way to learn is to engage your students. In addition to the regular way of presenting the material, there are various creative ways of presenting the material to your students, which will keep their interest when learning.