Favorite Ways to Increase Student Engagement - Updated March 1, 2026
Mary L., one of our Global Educator Collective members, asked “In honour of going back to work tomorrow, list a cool Zoom technique or trick you’ve used to increase student engagement.
Many of our members responded with ideas below. This is not the complete list nor collection and credit goes to our group of educators from across the globe.
Johann (one of the admin volunteers)
Scavenger hunts
give everyone 30 seconds to find in their house (something that made you surprised) then first 10 people who raise their hand get to share theirs (or everyone can. Then give 10 seconds to put the item back where it can from to continue. You post a new item to look for on the screen when everyone is back...repeat process.
Hand Signals for Equitable Discussion Link
Dry erase boards so students hold up answers to camera. Means camera on and active responses. A homemade option is to put paper into a sheet protector picture below and write on top of it with a whiteboard marker.
I ask a unique question while they are working. A would you rather, what are you doing this weekend, etc. then they reply and it opens a conversation door
Mid-lesson Nearpod trivia game.
Remember box - items in box look/cover/remove one/ show/cover - what’s missing
When I ask a question, I get them to answer on the chat. If some take too long to answer I will play a terrible song on my phone to make them hurry up. Sometimes, some of them like the song though
Examples include Barney Song, Duck Song, Baby Shark or Twinkle Twinkle
Use an emoji in the chat to represent how they're feeling.
Assigning several timekeepers during the period. Randomly selecting kids to read slides.
Using polling questions on Zoom
I got them to create a meme based on the lesson at the end. https://www.kapwing.com/meme-maker
Don't draw the dog, house, snowman, rabbit, spaceship, sailboat ( students guess letters of a word on the Zoom Whiteboard)
We play a round or 2 on quizizz or kahoot. We start in the first 5 minutes. If they aren't ready and logged into the game, they miss it.
Countdown
So the kids help you choose 6 squares. They tell you when to press stop. They have 30s (or how ever minutes you choose) to use operations to get as close as possible to the target.
http://happysoft.org.uk/countdown/numgame.php
My students create questions for other classes/groups once they understand the material. Metacognition is key.
Also, having the a homework answer as the entry ticket/zoom password is a fun way to make sure they do the work.
I have students use the participant options for multiple choice questions: yes, no, slow, go for A, B, C, and D respectively
Padlet
Jamboard
This link will force you to make a copy of one with several examples like Would You Rather or different levels of agreement.
Would You Rather
Whiteboard.fi
Allows everyone to participate and for students who are shy or have a home situation where the camera can't be on to still participate
Nearpod collaborate boards. Using Zoom's annotation tool for kids to mark up things or vote on something.
I like all those how to draw videos on YouTube. Art for kids hub is my favorite because he has a kid do it with him side by side.
26 games https://nerdschalk.com/best-zoom-games-for-kids
I make one of my kids a cohost every day. They are responsible for letting people in from the waiting room, and if I get kicked out of the meeting, they are top dog. We talk about letting people in, and if you don’t recognize the name, you don’t let them in. It has been a game changer. We also have a new middle name every day...favorite dessert, author, person you admire, etc. I have a list of middle name ideas and they do too. It’s super fun and we get to know each other by doing it.
Zoom Quizzes and moving back and forth to quick breakout rooms, can always see immediately those who are not paying attention!
Flipgrid
I play would you rather as we wait for them all to join the meeting? Ask a question and they answer in chat.
We played a round of emoji guessing game. Students take turns imitating an emoji and the others guess by typing the emoji they think it is into the chat.
Freeze Tag. Students know at any point during a lesson, I may call out Freeze Tag. They have to pose quickly. I choose the best tag position each day and keep track. I’m bribing with cookies when we return. Each win = cookie. I have tried to spread it out to hopefully make sure each kiddo wins once.
Polls, allowing chat or voice response, praise participants, and calling out others to join in. We played would you rather early on and that helped people be more comfortable in responding. Could be a fun way to start the semester.
I'll spotlight a student volunteer and after we looked, they will turn off their camera and change something in the background. Then when their camera is on, other classmates try to spot the difference.
This is like the game “24”. You can use a plain set of cards. Deal out 4 cards and tell the kids to get to 24. Each number can only be used once. There is almost always a way to get there if you’re creative. Order of operations and exponents can be used too. You can also play “krypto” which is the same idea, but you use a 5th card as a target number. I also love “set”!
I often put on a hat. I have made big fancy crowns out of pipe cleaners and paper ornamental flower bows. I often dress for the theme too.
Hold a pet show and tell as a reward after something.
Doing a mad lib or playing an animated short at the beginning of class. Only those who are actually on time get to participate.
Getting kids in on physical gags. I have a certain kid prepare in advance and then participate (for example, I threw K a ball, K had one ready to catch).
Daily check ins with those “on a scale of baby yoda 1-9” how are you feeling today? memes. Students were sending me ones to use!
Super easy 3-2-1 go questions (give time to type answers in chat but don’t post until I say “go”). I used these to then call on students with questions based on what they’d already shared (ex: Why was poem 1 your favorite?) My freshmen like having cameras on and making it a very dramatic move/race to hit send (someone else posted that they call these “waterfall” questions
Setting my screen to something funny (like my Beowulf action figures) for when they first log in
Sharing slides instead of presenting - I like being able to see their icons on each slide as we discuss
Waterfall Chat...ask a question give students time to type in answer but don’t submit until 3...2...1...
Before the break I polled my classes to ask what activity they would do the most? Sleep and watch movies was at the top. I also asked them to decide What should Danny (me) do? Most classes votes for me to rest and or go outside everyday! Tomorrow I will poll again and ask them to guess what I did the most!
Use one of the race classroom timers when we take a break. Encourage everyone to stand up and cheer for your favorite character to win.
If you can allow virtual backgrounds you could theme it and provide them some backgrounds to download. Like today we will be learning in Hawaii! Or pick one of the 7 wonders of the world. Or I've done superhero theme.
There are slides you can find made that are would you rather... and they do different actions based on their answer. Also if you use meet put them in small groups to share w peers their answer to discussion starter.
I have a word of the day related to the lesson. They need to turn on their cameras when I say it. If they don’t turn on their cameras 3 times, they lose their daily participation point.
Name that tune. I play songs and the kids have to type in the title of the song. They love groaning about my bad taste in music and laugh when I throw in a silly song.
I’ve played Balderdash with them, which is a riot. You can easily find lists of obscure words, then the kids private message you their made up definitions. I read all of them including the real one then they vote.
I post 3 riddles and a scrambled word phrase and a music clip related to the lesson, in a bitmoji background. They post guesses in the chat. Example from Jacqueline M. Link
Meme Monday-post a funny picture and kids create captions for it
Rock, paper, scissors battle
Start with a “waiting room” screen that has a timer, list of what they need for class, and plays music.
you can use https://classroomscreen.com/. You can add text, timer, drawing, name generator etc. I use this to post morning meeting starters.
Starting with an intriguing image or tough-provoking question
Instead of asking for yes or no to simple attention questions I ask kids to tell me their favorite song, animal, color, class etc. It makes class participation easier.
Fun Friday Games Link
Breakout rooms, small groups, they write a skit retelling what they learned the week before break (for my social studies class it will be the Israelites fleeing Egypt) 7 lines of text. Back to group to perform. They get 12 minutes and 32 seconds (or some random number) to pull it together, then they perform it for the group. (three performances) The goal is it takes 20 minutes tops.
Fur-baby Fridays - share about pets, bring pets to class
working with small groups - using asynchronous work with the others so I can spend 20 mins dedicated time with 5 or 6 students.
I use Pixar or animated shorts for Film Friday.
I turned Pythagorean Theorem into Star Wars battle. (Which ever side had the shorter distance to travel on the map that was a right triangle, got to the battle first and helped their side win.) When they logged in, Darth Vader's March was playing and I had a light saber fight with my son on zoom. They were so hooked by the time I started teaching that it didn't matter what I would have asked them to do. The trick is to start with your camera off and music on every now and then. Then you surprise them. It makes them log in on time so they don't miss the fun. But it HAS TO be sporadic.
Each week I have a different virtual background, and in Fridays we start off the day with "where in the world is Mr. Paine?" I'll also drop trivia and musical hints throughout the week. The student(s) closest to the actual location wins and gets to decide where we go next week. I've also started using nearpod's virtual field trips on Monday when we announce the location(s) from last week. It started out as a random idea, but my students have really gotten into it!
Ask them to describe something important to them: "What do you need me to know about you? Who do you look up to and why? if you could anything, without limits, what would it be?"
My kids love playing secret facts. I had all my students type two secret facts about themselves into a google form. Then, whenever we have time, I read a few and everybody guesses who they are from. We just ran out of facts before the break and I am going to do a second round--they tend to be very silly--"I don't like white chocolate," "I play a ton of video games," but it doesn't matter. I threw a few in about myself, too. I teach 6-8.
Scavenger hunt is a big winner- we play it with a twist. I give them a prompt (i.e. something fuzzy, or red, or small, etc.) And I PM on kid to say "get the opposite" then we have to figure out who got the private message. They love this and we laughed quite a bit.
Themed zoom backgrounds for example The Mandalorian or ecosystem themes such as carnivore herbivores and omnivore
Heads or Tails - Students put hands on head for heads or on shoulders for tails. If they get it wrong, they have to hop three times.
Bing- This is like hot potato. First person says bing and calls a second person. Second person says bing and calls someone else. When the timer goes off, whoever is it has to do two jumping jacks.
Soundball - Person 1 makes a sound like meow and calls another name. Person 2 says meow, makes a new sound and then calls another name.
Spot the Zoom- Choose a student to spotlight. Have others “memorize their background”. Spotlighted student turns off camera and changes one thing. Others figure out what was changed.