As a future teacher my job is to promote curiosity in the classroom. The classroom that students have today is very different from the one I grew up in. Students seem to get bored more easily due to the fast paced lifestyle that makes up our world today. When I grew up students didn't have all the technology in the classroom that is accessible in today's classroom. In my class, the only technology was one computer, and only the teacher used it. We were taught in a lecture type setting and then given homework. the classroom environment has changed rapidly in the past ten years.
There is a part in the brain that literally decides what captures our attention. In order to get our students attention we need to integrate technology into the curriculum (like showing a video clip related to the lesson) and use "attention getters", such as walking backwards before teaching negative numbers. This way, students become curious from the beginning because they wonder why they are walking backwards. How do we get students to focus on the lesson? To get students to pay attention use color! For example, have a few different colors of markers and if something is "important" use a green marker, "very important" use blue, "extremely important" use red. Students could have these colors too to highlight important facts on their paper. It's an interesting way to keep students focused, and they are engaged, involved, and participating. Teachers have to be more creative with lessons in order to compete with the interesting world that surrounds our students. Time has changed the classroom and with this change has come a plethora of opportunity.
Big Thinkers by: Judy Willis
http://www.edutopia.org/big-thinkers-judy-willis-neuroscience-learning-short-video
