Effective Teaching

Today in class we discussed effective teaching. To me it was conveyed that effective teaching cannot be engaging/interesting since we divided them into two different categories. I think that engaging/interesting activities is a sub-category of effective teaching. It is one way to effectively teach when combined with other ways to teach. The main part of effective teaching, to me, is differentiation. One way to differentiate is to use different methods of making the lesson interesting or engaging. I believe it is easier for anyone to learn if they can relate to the topic somehow so they have something to build off of. One could also say the engaging/interesting teaching IS differentiation because you are trying to find ways to engage everyone in your class in the lesson. It may be just an enthusiastic lecture or it may be a hands-on activity. There are many ways to engage your students which is why I feel that in order to be an effective teacher you have to know how to engage and capture your students in the topic.
The example of engaging/interesting teaching in class about "the tea" might have been an extreme or elaborate way of engaging the students. It seemed to get the children's interest in learning about the Victorian Era and they did different projects in each class to relate back to the unit. For some students this is the perfect way to teach them information and for others, they might not see the point. In the situation described it looked like almost every student looked forward to "the tea". If they enjoy learning then they remember more. It's the teachers job to make sure that there are opportunities available for the students to actually learn valuable information that they need to know about the unit.