"We live in a visual world and, for many students, seeing art... ...can go far in peaking their interest..." History can often seem bland and lifeless to students, so being able to pull the color and energy that there actually was can help to keep students engaged.

"Circle The Sage"  Students teaching each other can help students to engage because it might be less intimidating for a student to ask another student about something they missed or didn’t quite understand, rather than their teacher

"Solve a historical Problem" encourages students to engage with material while also getting them to think creatively within the constraints of the issue at hand.

"Tell students to imagine they are in the thick of a historical event" This is a method that I’ve been considering in terms of creative writing projects for my class, probably as extra credit, but to have students imagine they are a historian of a given time, documenting whatever event is being discussed.

“Role-playing events and then having a discussion afterwards…” - Roleplaying can help to further understanding the circumstances that people lived in, even if only for a moment.

“I did not enjoy history… memorize dates and events…” - simply attaching the name of an event to a date just doesn’t do the same thing as learning about the significance of the events.

“Immersive learning methods are great…” - Semi unrelated, but I really want to buy land out in parker and build a Roman colonial settlement, something like colonial jamestown, but for Rome, and have it fill the same role, teaching how people lived back then and how interconnected the world actually was.

“Check out historical programs…” - It’s important not to overuse media when teaching, and to engage with students personally, but media can provide some spectacle and production value that help to engage the students more than still images might.

"Because open-ended questions can have multiple correct answers or valid perspectives, they can also generate more interesting discussions." Everyone has opinions, and most people like to express them.

"Use more ungraded or credit-upon-completion assignments" - students might be more willing to openly engage with a subject without the looming threat of a bad grade

"...it is essential to give students both autonomy in choosing how to engage with the material as well as a diversity of methods for them to learn and assess their skills." choice in learning is what I think promotes the most engaged learning

"In addition to boosting engagement, group discussions give students the opportunity to explain to others their reasoning and problem-solving processes, which helps promote metacognition." metacognition buzz word

"School principals (67%) identified academic outcomes as one of the best ways to assess student engagement, while student academic outcomes rank #10 overall on teachers’ list of best ways to evaluate engagement with only 48% of the teachers choosing this response." There is a disparity between what school leadership thinks is indicative of students being successful, vs what the teachers actually interacting with the students are seeing

"78% of teachers rate building stronger interpersonal relationships with students as the most effective method of improving engagement."

"To support teachers as they create classroom environments that nurture student engagement, it is essential for school and district leaders to explore what teachers need to be more effective in combating this engagement gap." How can a teacher do their job without the support of the school leadership?

"...open, no-wrong-answer questions work well, in addition to visual sources, evocative quotes, and polls." engagement improves when there is no fear of being wrong

"The goal is not to transmit content knowledge, but to give students a conceptual framework to connect their thinking to. This is a bridge between student and disciplinary thinking." Getting students to start thinking in a historical concept is just as important as teaching them the content itself

"Gamification provides powerful experiences that are noncompetitive play to facilitate learning. Students invest time in and outside the classroom to complete the challenges, such as doing extra readings, video viewings, and practice activities. The more time spent and/or content consumed can only improve depth and breadth of students’ knowledge and skill mastery. Such investment by all students is time well spent and should be rewarded with badges and work-related status." - by allowing every student to potentially earn the rewards, it doesn't just limit students who are "naturally" gifted, but gives every student the opportunity to earn something on their own merit.

"If we want students to own their learning, they need opportunities to choose the badges and achievements they want to complete. Renewable options empower students to explore which options appeal to them." This falls in line with my whole spiel of student choice, getting to learn or focus on what it is they want to, rather than being pushed through a uniform pipeline.

"In education, gamification is intended to transform traditional lessons into an enhanced learning experience where students choose to explore and practice content, earning badges and status benefits. These might seem extrinsic, but the true rewards come from the students’ internal drive to study content, gain depth of understanding, and master material that leads to badges, achievements, and status." Gamification encourages students to work of their own accord, rather than just doing what they're told to do.

"Rather than presenting a set of seemingly unrelated questions, consider creating a narrative or quest that draws learners in and helps them see the consequence of their responses. Think of your quiz as an interactive narrative: each question leads into the next, and may build upon previous answers, all the while being part of a larger narrative or story that compels the learner to remain engaged." - tests suck. Telling stories is fun. Combine them to make a less fun story, but a more fun quiz. I like this idea but I'd need to see an example in action.

"These environments employ commercially-available games that are designed with entertainment in mind. Learners play these games for fun, and must then be provided or find means by which to discuss gameplay experiences with like-minded individuals. As an instructor, your role can be to provide or invite examples of games that are related to the discipline, and importantly, provide the space for learners to reflect on their gameplay." this is almost exactly something I brought up in using Crusader Kings 3 as a method of getting students to think like historians.