After today we learned all about the human brain with adolescents it really intrigued my lesson planning process.  The teenage brain is still growing in high School and I want to make sure my students know that.  Maybe at the Beijing if each lesson I would give my students a "fun fact" about their brain.  This would get there brains thinking and also hopefully help them understand that their brains are still growing.
With my clinical practice I really have noticed that if you connect mathematical concepts to their lives in the real work they understand.  It also helps answer the infamous question of when am I ever going to use this.  Also I want to be able to get to know my students and there extra curricular activities/interests so that I can incorporate these into my lessons.  With this I hope to connect Marth with my students on a personal level in order to help them remember mathematical concepts.
I really feel students begin to engage in learning if they are interested in the topic, they are good at the topic or even if it is something fun for them.  If I try to make Math fun for my students I feel they will connect better and actually come into my classroom wanting to learn new math.  Also having a fun and safe learning environment for my students will help motivate them to want to come in and learn.  Ideas are games, puzzles, connecting to their lives or maybe just making sure they understand before moving on to a new topic.  These are just some of the ideas I came up with to engage students in learning.  I hope to LEARN more to engage my students in learning.