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I included this article because I believe that it is important for us as teachers to be very understanding when it comes to students' attention span. I believe this article will allow educators to revaluate their actions.

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Distracted students are the bane of teachers. In surveys, teachers complain about students walking around the classroom, talking with peers, staring at the walls and fidgeting with their clothes - anything but paying attention to the lesson or the task at hand.

Teachers are crying out for help to keep kids on task, but student behavior is difficult for education researchers to study. Just the presence of an outside observer can suddenly put kids on their best behavior. And it's a challenge to track what every kid in a classroom is doing. Researchers usually resort to picking a handful of students to focus on. But that leads to small studies where the results are less reliable.

Thanks to technology, and a novel system for tracking more than 20 kids in a room at once*, a team of seven researchers managed to track off-task behavior among every student in more than 50 classrooms, from kindergarten through fourth grade. They collected more than 100,000 observations of student behavior from roughly 1,100 students over the course of a school year.

What they found confirms that students are distracted a lot. In one subset of 22 charter school classrooms, 29 percent of student behaviors were off task. In a broader group of 30 private, parochial and charter school classrooms, 26 percent of behaviors were off task. In other words, the average elementary school student is distracted more than a quarter of the time. That was as true for fourth graders as it was for kindergarteners. Off-task behavior didn't improve with age, or with a child's socioeconomic status.

This article was originally published on The Hechinger Report. Read the original article by Jill Barshay.

The 2016 paper, " Off-task behavior in elementary school children," was published in the peer-reviewed journal Learning and Instruction, and was funded by the Institute of Education Sciences, an arm of the Department of Education.

The researchers also kept track of how the teachers were instructing students during these observations. Not surprisingly, students went off task more frequently during whole-group instruction than during small group or individual work.

Length of lesson matters, too. Students went off task more often as an instructional activity increased beyond 10 minutes. Indeed, the researchers found that 25 percent of instructional activities lasted longer than 17 minutes. That's longer than the typical adult attention span of 15 minutes, according to Karrie Godwin, a professor at Kent State University, and one of the lead authors of the study.

"If adults are not good at maintaining attention, and we're talking mature cognition, it's certainly going to be difficult for children," said Godwin. "This research points to divvying up instructional activities into smaller chunks."

Godwin especially recommends smaller blocks of time for challenging material, such as fractions.

A common source of distraction was classroom decor. A quarter or more of all off-task behavior involved kids looking at posters or playing with classroom objects. That confirmed Godwin's laboratory research in 2014, which found that heavily decorated classrooms hinder learning for kindergarteners. In her laboratory, Godwin is now experimenting with projectors that change what is displayed on the walls depending on what subject is being taught.

"We certainly don't want to promote putting children in a sterile environment," said Godwin. "Maybe it's okay if kids are distracted by the learning environment if the distractions are closely aligned with the educational goals. We're researching that now."

It's an open question whether all off-task behavior is bad. Previous research has generally shown that distractions reduce the amount of time that kids are learning and that in turn lowers achievement. However, some psychologists have theorized that children can productively give themselves a sort of "time out" to calm themselves, and then re-engage in the lesson with renewed concentration. Experts call it emotional self-regulation. Others theorize that seemingly irrelevant conversations between peers are helping to build social bonds that allow group projects to flourish. And some theories link off-task behavior to creativity.

But given the sheer quantity of off-task behavior in a typical classroom, Godwin believes it's worth trying to reduce it. "There's certainly room to improve classroom management and increase learning opportunities," she said.

* One of Godwin's six co-authors, Ryan Baker at the University of Pennsylvania, created a software application for hand-held devices where classroom observers can rapidly document what both teachers and students are doing. Observers are trained to observe children through their peripheral vision so that a child is unaware that he or she is being observed. Observers look at every child, one at a time, in a specified order. As soon as a child is showing a clear behavior, whether on or off task, it is noted and the observer moves on to the next child on his list. More than a dozen observations are taken for each child during each classroom session. This gives equal weight to all the children in the class and avoids overemphasizing attention-grabbing behaviors or highly distractable children.

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Elementary School Classrooms Are Way Too Distracting For Kids, According to New Study

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Distracted students are the bane of teachers. In surveys, teachers complain about students walking around the classroom, talking with peers, staring at the walls and fidgeting with their clothes - anything but paying attention to the lesson or the task at hand.

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The environment of the classroom is essential to keeping a child engaged in their learning. Students can be easily distracted by any object. For example, it is important to keep the bare minimal items needed on their desk. Any gadgets will take their focus; teachers only need to pass out assignments as needed.

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The old adage "timing is everything" is as true in education as it is in life. For teachers, developing a successful class period or lesson can depend upon how effectively it is structured. Similar to the cliché about first impressions, the way teachers spend their first ten minutes in a class sets the tone for the remainder of the time. Similarly, the way lesson time is structured impacts student understanding and retention.

Ready, set, go: Teachers need techniques to harness students' attention and energy as soon as they arrive in the classroom

Students enter the classroom with divided attention. Beyond daily distractions such as smartphones or other technological toys, students have lives outside the four walls they occupy for a short time. It is often difficult for them to cast friends, sports or even other classes from their minds as they walk through the classroom door.

Beginning class with effective transitions

Much like the hook of a well-written essay, teachers need strategies to capture the attention of their students in the first ten minutes of class. James M. Lang, English professor and author of "Small Teaching: Everyday Lessons From the Science of Learning," suggested several techniques for teachers to try in an article on the topic in the "Chronicle of Higher Education."

Ask questions related to today's topic

Start with a few questions and ask students to consider the answer. Ensure that the questions relate to the reading from the previous night or the lesson for that day. Lang advises teachers to be sure to return to the questions at the end of class.

Activate prior knowledge with recaps

Begin class by asking students to recap what was covered in the last class. This is a natural way to help students access their previous knowledge, thereby helping them to build upon their previous knowledge. Furthermore, the process of asking students to recall information helps to ensure students remember the information.

Short writing exercises help students focus

Ask students to do a quick writing activity. This might be done in tandem with the above two suggestions, or, alternatively, teachers could ask students to respond to a quote or prompt. Teachers can collect these responses for participation points or simply walk around to ensure students complete the work.

Effectively setting up the beginning of class ensures that students engage in the course content from the very beginning, which better enables students to access and retain information.

Using student-centered pedagogy to battle short attention spans

Students in the 21st century do not have the same attention span as students did 10 or 20 years ago. Educational research has found that students focus on a single activity from 10-18 minutes, between seven and eight minutes, or even as low as two minutes. Research shows that while students commonly lose focus for under a minute before they refocus, their ability to maintain attention diminishes throughout the class period. Additionally, students focus more effectively when teachers integrate in student-centered pedagogies.

Considering that students are more actively engaged at the beginning of the class aside from the first few minutes when they are settling in, it may be more effective to begin classes with lectures and shift to an activity about 20-25 minutes into the class period. From there, teachers can return to recap the activity, which will promote student interest and engagement as it is a reflection of the activity that they just completed. Regardless of the structure, research shows that integrating in activities ensures and switching up content delivery modes helps to maintain student interest.

Wrapping it up: Improve recall by asking students to make connections and apply knowledge at the end of class

At the end of the class, it is important that teachers wrap up the material covered in order to ensure students remember what was covered and connect it to what has been done and what will be done. Additionally, students need an opportunity to apply their knowledge; the last 10 minutes of a lesson are a good time to do so. Some tips to end class:

Reference questions or activities completed in the first five minutes of class. Ask students to discuss what they wrote or to reflect on how their understanding has changed.

Ask students to apply the information taught to an activity before they leave class. This helps to cement the information before they go home.

Discuss how what the class did today will relate to their homework or how it bridges into the next class.

Wrapping up the class and helping students to bookend the lesson ensures students understand the purpose and use of the information they have received. It helps them connect their learning to what comes next as well.

Structured class periods improve student learning

Timing is everything, and teachers who carefully structure the class period ensure students are able to activate prior learning, effectively receive information and remember the information they learned.
Caitrin Blake has a BA in English and Sociology from the University of Vermont and a master's degree in English literature from the University of Colorado Denver. She teaches composition at Arapahoe Community College.
Learn More: Click to view related resources.

Tags: Engaging Activities

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Structuring Your Class to Maximize Student Attention

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The old adage "timing is everything" is as true in education as it is in life. For teachers, developing a successful class period or lesson can depend upon how effectively it is structured. Similar to the cliché about first impressions, the way teachers spend their first ten minutes in a class sets the tone for the remainder of the time.

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Studies have showed how mindfulness activities in the classroom have reduced stress and anxiety in students. As a result students concentration and engagement increased, better social skills, and improved decision making skills.

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Written by Cassie (Teach Starter)
Posted Tuesday August 29, 2017

Put simply, mindfulness is "to pay attention, on purpose, to the present moment" (Grossman, 2016).

The positive benefits of teaching mindfulness to children have been proven across a number of studies. Incorporating mindfulness into everyday classroom activity is becoming more and more common. A five or ten-minute daily mindfulness practice can see students reduce stress and anxiety, increase concentration and engagement, sleep better, improve social skills, and develop problem-solving and decision-making skills.

5-10 Minute Mindfulness Activities for Children

Here are 18 quick and effective mindfulness activities you can do with your class. These activities are also available as a printable teaching resource, Mindfulness Activity Task Cards.

If you have never practised mindfulness before you may like to:

Breath Awareness Activities

These are the first stop on your students' journey to mindfulness. Their breath is the one thing that will always be with them.

Explicitly teaching mindful breathing is providing students with a skill that will be with them for life, in every situation they will ever encounter.

Is that not one of the most powerful lessons you can ever teach?

Students can stand or sit for this activity.

Ask students to put both hands on their belly.

Students should close their eyes, or look down to their hands.

Guide students in taking three slow deep breaths in and out to see if they can feel their hands being moved.

You may like to count "1, 2, 3" for each breath in and "1, 2, 3" for each breath out, pausing slightly at the end of each exhale.

Encourage students to think about how the breath feels, answering the following questions silently, in their mind.
- What is moving your hands? Is it the air filling your lungs?
- Can you feel the air moving in through your nose?
- Can you feel it moving out through your nose?
- Does the air feel a little colder on the way in and warmer on the way out?
- Can you hear your breath?
- What does it sound like?

If you'd prefer not to wing it, download and print our Mindful Breathing Guided Meditation Script.

#2 Pinwheel Breathing
(5 minutes)

Providing students with an object to focus on is a great way to encourage concentration during mindfulness lessons. Use pinwheels in conjunction with the mindful breathing exercise above, making the pinwheel spin with every exhale.

We have created a beautiful, free pinwheel template that combines mindfulness colouring with this simple craft activity.

#3 Belly Buddies
(10 minutes)

Ask students to bring in a small stuffed toy, or provide a class set of small, light-weight objects such as small bean bags or wooden blocks.

Students lay on their backs and place the toy or object on top of their belly buttons.

Take students through the guided breathing activity above, asking them to watch the object as it moves up and down with their breath.

#4 Shark Fin
(2 minutes)

Coined by former Mindful Schools co-founder Laurie Gossman and Mr Musumeci's Grade 5 class of the book "Master of Mindfulness: How to Be Your Own Superhero in Times of Stress" fame, the Shark Fin is a fantastic tool that you can use during any quick moment in your day. It will help to calm your class, or individual students, when their minds and bodies may be fighting against them.

Place the side of your hand on your forehead, with your palm facing out to the side.

Close your eyes.

Slide your hand down your face, in front of your nose.

Say "shhh" as you slide your hand down your face

If you are sitting down, you do the 5 S's while you move your hand: Sit up straight, sit still, sit silently, soft breathing, shut eyes.

If you are standing do the same but you are standing straight, still, silently, using soft breathing and shut eyes while you move your hand down your face.

"Master of Mindfulness" (Grossman & Alvarez, 2016)
This activity is similar to the first mindful breathing activity, however it uses visualising colours as a means to increase focus and awareness. You may like to download our printable Breathing Colours Guided Meditation Script.

Ask students to think of a relaxing colour. It can be any colour they like, as long as it is one that makes them think of relaxation.

Ask students to think of a colour that represents stress, sadness or anger. Whichever of those emotions is most relevant or suitable for your class group to explore.

Students imagine breathing in the relaxing colour and visualise it filling their lungs.

Students then imagine breathing out the stress, sadness or anger colour.

Your spoken instructions may be along these lines:

1. Imagine you are surrounded by the relaxing colour. No longer is the air clear, it is the relaxing colour.

2. You can still make out shapes, but your world is now a different colour.

3. Imagine that as you breathe in, you breathe in this colour too.

4. See the colour filling up your lungs.

5. Imagine as you breathe out, that your breath is the colour of stress.

6. See the stress colour mix into the relaxing colour around you. Watch the stress colour slowly disappear.

7. Breath in your relaxing colour.

8. Breath out the stress colour.

#6 Breathing Hands
(2 minutes)

Spread one hand out like a star.

Use the index finger on your other hand to trace the outline of your star hand.

Take a deep breath in as you move to the top of your thumb.

Breathe out as you move down between your thumb and first finger.

Take another breath in as you move to the top of your first finger.

Breathe out as you move down between your first and second finger.

Repeat until you have taken five slow, deep breaths.

#7 Back-to-Back Breathing
(10 minutes)

Students work in pairs for this partnered breathing activity.

Sitting tall, with their back resting against their partner's back, begin the mindful breathing from activity #1.

Encourage students to notice their partner's breath.
- Is it shallow or deep?
- Fast or slow?
- Can they feel their partner's back moving as they breathe?

After a little while, students may find that their breath falls into sync with their partner.

Or it may not! These are all talking points for bringing awareness to the breath, in the present moment.

You could incorporate your Mindfulness Pinwheels into this activity too.

(Jennifer Cohen Harper, Little Flower Yoga)
This is a fantastic activity that students can "take home" with them. It can be particularly useful to do a body scan to help relax before sleep. Download our printable Body Scan Guided Meditation Script to use with your class.

Students lay on the floor, with their eyes closed if they are comfortable (or they may prefer to look at the ceiling).

Encourage students to pay attention to their feet for 5 or 10 seconds.
Questions to ask during a body scan:
- How does this body part feel?
- Is it cold or warm?
- Does it feel tight or relaxed?
- Is all or part of that body part touching the floor?
- Or clothing?
- What does that feel like?

Move on to their toes, then ankles, then calves and knees. Continue body part by body part until you reach the head.

Question how each part of the body feels to bring students' awareness to their body in the moment.

If there is tightness or stress, imagine breathing the stress out of that part of the body with each exhale.

Practising Active Mindfulness

Mindful breathing is arguably the most important skill you can teach your students when it comes to mindfulness. However, being able to incorporate into everyday activities the calm and focused state of mind that the breathing activities practise can be viewed as a more tangible end-goal.

The following 'active' practices help to hone the skill of mindful action. Some students who struggle with the 'still' mindfulness activities may be more likely to feel successful during active practices.

#9 Mindful Eats
(5 minutes)

This is a great activity to bring attention to how mindlessly we sometimes eat! Whether sitting in front of the tv, chatting to friends at lunch, or scrolling through something on the internet or social media, we often "switch off" when eating because it is such a familiar action.

Mindful eating can combat over-eating, it helps bring our attention to the flavours and tastes of different foods and helps us to realise what effects different foods have on how our bodies feel.

Students need something small to eat for this activity. Often a square of chocolate is a fun "challenge", although you could provide a piece of fruit or any food item that you feel will work with your class. Be sure to take any allergies into consideration!

Begin this practice with three deep breaths, or the Shark Fin activity (#4 above).

Direct students to take small nibbles or bites of the food.

Bring awareness to the sensations of eating.
- What is the taste like? Is it sweet or savoury?
- What does the food feel like on your tongue?
- Do you need to crunch it between your teeth, or can you slowly dissolve it in your mouth?
- Try taking a slightly smaller or slightly larger bite.
- How does this change the way eating this food feels?
- Notice which muscles in your mouth, neck and body move as you swallow the food.
- Pause between each bite and notice any changing sensations in your mouth or body.

#10 Mindful Steps
(10 minutes)

This activity is best completed outdoors and if suitable, students may like to walk barefoot.

Give students a clear boundary for where they can walk during this activity.

Each student selects a small area where they can walk in a line for about 5 or 6 steps and back then back to where they started without getting into another person's way.

Begin this practice with three deep breaths, or the Shark Fin activity (#4 above).

Take 5 or 6 steps in one direction, turn slowly and then take 5 or 6 steps back to where you started.

While walking, students bring their awareness to their breath and their body.
- What does the ground feel like under your feet?
- Which part of your foot touches the ground first when you take a step?
- Does your body feel heavy or light today?
- Are you slouching when you walk?
- Or, is your back up quite straight?
- Try not to change the way you walk, but instead just notice how your body naturally moves.

#11 Mindful Sounds
(2 minutes)

For this mindfulness activity, you will need something that makes a bell sound. There are some great meditation apps that have recorded bell, meditation cymbal and singing bowl sounds, however, if you can have one of these small instruments in real life, the sound is much better!

Begin this practice with three deep breaths, or the Shark Fin activity (#4 above).

Give the following instructions before ringing the bell:
- When I ring the bell concentrate on the sound that you hear.
- Pay attention to whether you hear it louder in one ear than you do in the other.
- Keep your eyes closed until the sound is completely gone.
- If you notice your thoughts wandering, just bring your attention back to the sound of the bell.
- After you open your eyes, remain silent until you hear my voice again.

Students close their eyes, while the teacher rings the bell.

The activity is finished when the sound has completely dissipated.

#12 Spidey Senses
(5 minutes)

Karen Young from Hey Sigmund has a beautiful collection of mindfulness activities for kids on her blog. Spidey Senses is a fun way to frame this traditional mindfulness exercise. Our five senses poster and graphic organiser can be useful resources for teaching the senses to younger students.

Ask students to switch their senses up to a superpower level, just like Spiderman.

In this moment,
- What can they hear?
- What can they see?
- What can they taste?
- What can they smell?
- What can they feel?

Guide students as they stay in this Spidey state for 2-3 minutes.

#13 Gratitude Practice
(5-10 minutes)

Students use a notebook or a folder and paper to make a Gratitude Journal.

Practise gratitude journaling at a regular time each day, perhaps first thing in the morning, after lunch or just before the end of the day.

Take five minutes to think of something that you feel grateful for today. Here are some topics or ideas you can use to guide your students:
- Something that someone else did for you that day.
- A person in your life that you appreciate.
- An activity or hobby you are grateful to be able to do.
- A positive quality of someone that can sometimes be hard to get along with.
- A skill or ability you have.
- A part of your body you are grateful for and why.
- An item that you love.
- Something that made you laugh.
- What you have learnt from something that was hard.

Another beautiful idea is for each student to put their day's thanks into their own Gratitude Jar, or to create a Gratitude Tree where each day's thanks is written onto a 'leaf'. This could either be on a notice-board or be hanging on a string from the limb of a real plant or tree branch. (Mayuri Gonzales, Little Flower Yoga)

#14 Glitter Bottle
(5 minutes)

Use this familiar sensory bottle concept as a mean to explicitly teach how mindfulness can help to calm us when we are feeling stressed, anxious, sad or angry.
Preparation

Fill a bottle or jar with water, leaving 2-3 cm of space at the top.

Add a generous amount of glitter glue to the bottle (or a combination of PVC glue and regular glitter).

Seal the bottle well!

You may like to make one large bottle to use as an example for whole-class instruction, or a set of bottles that can be used by individuals or for small group rotations.

Directions

Shake the bottle well to mix the glitter, water and glue.

Share the following words with your students:

"'Imagine that the glitter is like your thoughts when you're stressed, mad or upset. See how they whirl around and make it really hard to see clearly? That's why it's so easy to make silly decisions when you're upset - because you're not thinking clearly. Don't worry this is normal and it happens in all of us (yep, grown-ups too).

[ Now put the jar down in front of them.]

Now watch what happens when you're still for a couple of moments. Keep watching. See how the glitter starts to settle and the water clears? Your mind works the same way. When you're calm for a little while, your thoughts start to settle and you start to see things much clearer."
(by Karen Young of Hey Sigmund)
#15 Mindful Safari
(10-30 minutes)

Another beautiful child-friendly reframing of a traditional mindfulness practice is to take your students on a Mindful Safari.

Instruct students to remain quiet, calm their thoughts and move slowly while on safari.

Ask students to turn their sense of sight, touch and sound onto high.

Search for beautiful natural objects to explore.
- What does it look like?
- What colour is it?
- What does it smell like?
- Can I touch it?
- What does it feel like?

Search for mini-beasts and other creatures that move.

When they find a creature, encourage students to watch the creature in silence for as long as they would like to.
- What does it look like?
- How does it move?
- What colours can you see on its body?

#16 Sense Countdown
(5 minutes)

A great one for older students, this is an extension of the Spidey Senses activity that can be used to help calm a busy mind and bring our awareness to the present moment.

Think of:

5 things you can see

4 things you can touch

3 things you can hear

2 things you can smell

1 thing you can taste

#17 Heartbeat
(5 minutes)

Our heartbeat is an amazing representation of our emotions. Like our breath, it is always with us. So, we can use our heartbeat to connect with the present moment in times of difficulty or stress.

You might like to begin this practice with three deep breaths, or the Shark Fin activity (#4 above).

Students place their fingers or hands over the part of their body where they can best feel their pulse.
- on the side of their neck, under their jaw
- inside their wrist
- or, over their heart

Ask students to close their eyes and notice how quickly or slowly their heart is beating.

Encourage them to think about their current state of emotion and consider if this might be connected to how quickly or slowly their heart is beating.

Direct students to stand and jump up and down on the spot ten times.

Students return to sitting and feel their heartbeat again, noticing any changes.

Students may like to close their eyes and focus on their heartbeat until it slows back down.

#18 Add a Touchy Feely Focus
(5 - 10 minutes)

Saving the best for last, Shakti Burke gives these great tips for helping wiggly kids begin to master mindfulness. Burke suggests:

Restless minds are magnetised by the sensation of touch: we can't think and feel at the same time. The stroking and feeling itself (when using a prop to help children focus) becomes the meditation, in place of the breath awareness focus.

You might like to begin your class journey towards mindfulness with some of these more tactile activities.
Provide students with a prop to hold, touch, balance or focus their eyes on during one of the above activities.

small soft toys

small bean bags or beany pillows

stress balls

pieces of furry fabric

There you go! 18 amazing activities to help teach mindfulness in your classroom. Mindfulness truly is a skill that will benefit your students as individuals, long after they leave your classroom for the final time.

Check out our beautifully illustrated Mindfulness Activity Task Cards that you can use to support mindfulness practice with your students.

Whole Class Daily Mindfulness Activity Tracker

Track your class' progress to superhero status with these beautiful Mindfulness Activity Tracker Charts can be used to note each day of whole-class practice.

The charts are available in three formats:

Each download comes with a page of illustrated markers that can be stuck onto the chart. The black and white downloads of these trackers are also fantastic for students to use for their personal mindfulness practice.

If you are new to mindfulness for children, take a look at our post "Why You Should Be Teaching Mindfulness to Improve Student Learning" for practical tips and tricks to begin your class mindfulness practice routine. You can also download our free Mindfulness Information Sheet for Teachers with eight succinct and actionable tips.

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5 Minute Classroom Mindfulness Activities | Mindfulness for Children

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Written by Cassie (Teach Starter) Posted Tuesday August 29, 2017 Put simply, mindfulness is "to pay attention, on purpose, to the present moment" (Grossman, 2016). The positive benefits of teaching mindfulness to children have been proven across a number of studies. Incorporating mindfulness into everyday classroom activity is becoming more and more common.

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Memory games can improve students' attention span because they teach children how to concentrate and focus. If teachers can include a 5-15 minutes educational memory game, they will see results.

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Memory Games Worksheets & Free Printables | Education.com

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Memory games support your child's journey to learning by fostering good study habits and improved reading comprehension. Try our memory games with your child.

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As aspiring educators, we expect our future students to pay attention to us while we are lecturing. However, let's test our attention span; switching roles will help us better understand how a student might feel.

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Support my work on Patreon: http://ow.ly/3ymWFu PayPal Donations Welcome. Click here: http://goo.gl/NSdOvK Help Support My Channel. Buy Computing Forever Merchandise, Mugs, Hats, T-Shirts: http://ow.ly/3v3TWq Sign up to our Monthly Newsletter to receive exclusive FREE Computing Forever video and blog content: http://goo.gl/YKq7ZK SUBSCRIBE TO THIS YOUTUBE CHANNEL: https://www.youtube.com/user/LACK78 KEEP UP ON SOCIAL MEDIA: Twitter : http://twitter.com/lack78 Facebook : https://www.facebook.com/ComputingFor...

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When a student is relaxed, they are more in engaged in their learning. Teachers can set a variety of sitting areas for students instead of just having them sit at the desk.

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This infographic provides an estimate amount of minutes a person pays attention based on their age. This is something teachers can take into consideration when making a lesson plan.

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Each child has a different learning style. It is important to meet the diverse learning abilities of all students, so you can know what actives will keep them engaged while still learning.

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These are 7 tips that teachers can use in the classroom to keep all of students engaged. It is effective to insert breaks in between lessons, so students can get time to refocus.

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Edutopia is a free source of information, inspiration, and practical strategies for learning and teaching in preK-12 education. We are published by the George Lucas Educational Foundation, a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization.

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I believe it is important for both the parents and teachers to be on the same page when it comes to reinforcement. This video demonstrates how parents can play a role in increasing their child's attention span.

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My overall message of my curation is that instead of Teachers going through the hassle of demanding students to be engage in their learning; they can implement some of these techniques in their classroom to improve their students' attention span.