Dr. Harry Alvis

" Engagement is the product of motivation and active learning.  It is a product rather than a sum because it will not occur if either is missing.                                                - Elizabeth Barkley Student engagement/motivation is the holy grail of education.  Those educators that have found it seem to have abilities that border on superpowers.  Those that haven't reached that level are completely confounded on how to get there. The most common battle cry to increase student engagement is make it "real world!"  They will often make some sort of comment about how they make the problem or lesson about cell phones or some other superficial topic to get kids interested.  Inevitably, teacher frustration kicks in when there is no real change in student engagement.  This approach will eliminate the classic quest...

  "It isn't that they can't see the solution.  It is that they can't see the problem."                                                                            - Gilbert K. Chesterton Recently, I had the opportunity to attend the Thompson Executive Leadership Institute.  During this training Dr. Thompson made a statement that made me reevaluate how I approach solving problems and how I engage with people whose help is essential to successfully navigating challenging situations.  He said, "sell the problem, not the solution." Most who choose administration as a career see themselves as problem solvers or "fixers."  Once we identify a problem, we work on solving it with tunnel vision level focus.  Most problems though, can't be solved by one person.  It takes a coor...