The name of the game is engagement, but let us all be honest with each other; if you aren't targeted about your engagement, then it is just fluff. I think I spend about 1/2 of my waking hours thinking of ways I could incorporate cross-curricular and real-world items into my lesson plans. Shouldn't we all be though? Well... maybe not spend 1/2 your waking hours thinking about it, but definitely incorporating cross-curricular and real-world items into your classroom. I always tell my parents life is not a worksheet, but let's be honest... sometimes you ARE stuck with using them! I like to break away as much as possible! Sometimes though, those angelic (cough) students of mine could care less. We know they don't! They don't care how much of our own money we spent, how long we spent planning something just for them, the only thing they care about is whether it is fun, and not "boring". I would l...