Fully Engaged: Playful Pedagogy for Real Results

by Michael Matera, John Meehan

Join us on the lesson-planning adventure of a lifetime! In classrooms around the globe, teachers hunger for strategies that can inspire authentic engagement, while young minds yearn for a new world of learning where they can become the hero. We crave choice. Mastery. And a clear sense of purpose. Fully Engaged is a fresh and fast-paced study of how teachers can inject curiosity, wonder, and excitement into any classroom. It’s packed with student-centered strategies precision engineered for young minds. Discover how your pedagogy can leverage the science of serious engagement to inspire students of any age to achieve the impossible, and learn how you can transform your teaching through intentional,student-centered course design to create classrooms that are truly the stuff of legend! Endorsements “This book makes it really clear that the secret to education is enrollment. Not butts in seats, but human beings, eager to go on a journey.” —Seth Godin, author “This book had my brain buzzing with ideas to not only amp up student engagement, but also to help every individual feel confident and supported in the classroom.” —Stacey Roshan, educator and author “Fully Engaged is THE book that you need to read NOW. You're going to get ideas that are so simple and easy to implement they're ready for you to go go go.” —Adam Welcome, author, podcaster, and educator

Genres: Education, Teaching, Nonfiction

218 pages, Paperback

Published July 27, 2021

Reviews

[Amy Withee · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book! Easy to read. As a teacher who is exhausted and wondering how I can get a generation of uninterested learners back into wanting to learn, this book was great! It was just the kick in the pants I needed!

[Lee · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great Read

The book offers a fresh perspective on some important things that really need to be considered in education. There are also a lot of great, practical ideas for easily integrating them into a classroom.

[Shaun Moriarty · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic book for educators, novice or veteran, who want to be more student-centered, who want to increase engagement and effort, and who want to their class to be their students’ best class (not just their favorite class).

[Boodle U. · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a game changer for sure!!!! I highly recommend this for all schedules.

[Joe McCluney · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm always looking for ways to make my class fun, engaging, and meaningful, and this book helped me think about ways I could do all three and more.

[Peter Powers · Rating 5 out of 5]

Terrific teaching strategies that I can’t wait to use in my class.

[V A · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think that this book was written with care and true consideration of how the reader should experience the content of the text! I was actually engaged when I read it! There were several fun and silly references to games and even celebrities that totally correlated with what they were talking about, and they have a strong structure that aligns with their engaged, playful philosophy of gamification. I will fondly refer to this book in the future for great ideas and even to remind myself why I am going to be an instructor. Definitely read it!

[Jason Schmidt · Rating 4 out of 5]

Student-centered instruction, with a focus on gamification in the classroom. This was a solid read. A lot of the suggestions were quite valuable and insightful, although, I am still slightly confused by the “variable grading” as a replacement for standards-based grading and holistic grading, both of which the authors make very strong arguments for not using; I also found some of the gamification ideas to really be geared towards certain levels of teaching, but overall, a solid affirmation of the importance of education and the need for truly dynamic, continuously evolving pedagogy.

[Kyle O’Keefe · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love these guys. This was easy to read and well organized, and it didn’t have repeated information from their other books. Lots of fun new and interesting ideas in here for me, even as someone who has been gamifying for several years. I think some of it is a little advanced so if this is overwhelming to you I do recommend explore like a pirate first!

[Marc S · Rating 5 out of 5]

excitement

I loved the imagination displayed in this book. It is the first book in a while that has really inspired me to make changes in my classroom. I hope they follow it up with more amazing ideas. The lesson with the evil character was amazing.

[Rachelle · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ideas to gamify the classroom and increase engagement. I liked the salt metaphor for making instructional changes.