Engagement and AGAPE

       
This semester I am going to improve the engagement in my classroom by involving the outside community in my math and engineering classes.  Students see us each day and we start to become "old news" and separate from what they experience in the outside world and what they see as their future.  In my engineering classes, I would like to bring in electrical engineers for Digital Electronics and pilots or engineers for Aerospace Engineering.  We take two different field trips to the community airport in Aerospace class and it is very beneficial, but so far, I have not done any field trips in Digital Electronics.  Electrical Engineering is a bit of a mystery to many of the students and so if I can give them the experience of what happens in the outside world, they can get a better idea of what it is about and if they would like to pursue that path in college.  In my math classes, it is harder to think about how to involve the outside community.  If I can just start small by using Skype to talk with someone who uses math in their lives, maybe that can grow into something bigger.  I have found that it is much easier to find videos and clips about Aerospace Engineering topics than Digital Electronics or Geometry or Algebra.

Engagement is the final part of the AGAPE framework that we have followed throughout our masters program.  AGAPE has helped me change my frame of mind as I view my classroom.  There are so many different aspects that go into teaching and it is hard to focus on just one thing to improve or change.  By looking at the classroom through each of the five different views in the framework, it has helped me create short-term goals for my classroom.  Instead of trying to make many changes at once, I have chosen just one category to work on and then after that change becomes a habit and part of my everyday teaching, then I move on to another category and make a new improvement.  I think this positively impacts my students because education is always changing and they can experience those changes in a more controlled environment.