#7: Testing out my Hypothesis part 2

 If students were connected to their learning then they would not less be distracted and more engaged.

• Provide highly engaging relevant lessons with variety linked to what they know
• Create enough down time to do their own work.
• Let students select music which helps them to learn.
• Offer opportunities to do group work and peer work as well as one to one.
• Bring in experts who are engaging and relate to the learning.

Recently, one of our community activists and project based learning expert Karl Bailey came in to work with my year 9 class on design based thinking and learning.  My class has been one of the lucky few who were selected to help look at challenges facing young people in our community today and to think of ways to solve it.  

A few months ago, we started by getting the kids into groups and thinking about the challenge of attendance but we could see that kids weren't engaging with the context.  Karl and I brainstormed some ideas and discussed keeping it simple and engaging.  The class is made of mostly boys and asked them what they were interested in.  The majority said gaming, eating and sports.  So we decided to do a mini project whereby the kids in their groups had to design a new sport.  

Kids found it difficult to plan and figure out the pros and cons of the design.  They just wanted to get up and play it.  So it was interesting to see how kids responded and in the end, I could see they enjoyed the planning and process of the design and some of the ideas the kids had were really exciting.