The First Days of the School Year: It’s About the Learners Not the Content

Too many classes, all grade levels, begin the school year with getting down to academic business – starting to cover content, discussing expectations regarding academic requirements, giving tests, and other academic information provided by the teacher to the students in a mostly one-way communication.  The human or social element is way too often disregarded.

I believe that all classes, regardless of grade level including through graduate school, should begin with focusing on having the students make connections between themselves and the educator; and between one another.  I want students to learn about one another in a personal way.  I want to learn about my individual students so my instructional strategies can be more personalized and tailored to their needs and interests.  Beginning class with a focus on connections rather than content gives learners the following messages:

• You are the focus of the class not me.
• You are important as a learner in this class.
• You will be expected to engage in the learning activities during class time.  You will be an active learner.
• You will be expected to do collaborative learning during the class time.
• I, as the class facilitator, will be just that – a facilitator.  I will introduce the learning activities, but you will be responsible for the actual learning.
• I will get to know you as a learner and try to help you find learning activities that are of interest to you. (From my post: Beginning the School Year: It’s About Connections Not Content)

Two things that I believe needs to occur at the beginning of the schools year:

1. Get to know the learners – as individuals with unique backgrounds, interests, strengths, weaknesses.
2. Establish a learning community where all learners are seen as having value in our classroom

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Getting to Know Learners

One of our primary goals at the beginning of the school year should be to get to know our students. This is important for several reasons. First, the better we know our students, and the more they know we know them, the more invested they become in school. Also, a dynamic and vigorous learning environment is built on relationships. When we create strong connections with our students, we create a learning environment where risk-taking and collaborative learning can take place. Finally, the better we know our students, the better we can help craft learning experiences that match who they are. Knowing our students is fundamental to real differentiation (6 Strategies For Getting To Know Your Students).

To put into practice what I discussed above, I am going to have my gifted 3rd-6th grade students do the following Hyperdoc starting with our first meeting together.

autobiography-Download

Link to the Google Doc – https://docs.google.com/document/d/1pi54QMZVoE0X6NWW6gKSe2MFsuLEqfbq6wYgkNb4Aec/edit?usp=sharing

Using a Hyperdoc such as this has the additional benefits:

• It leverages the use of technology which consistently is of high interest, high engagement for my learners.
• It is a Choice Board.  Choice Boards:
  • Allows students more freedom with a choice of activities
  • Allows students to work at their own pace
  • Promotes independence and responsibility (Differentiate Learning With Choice Boards)
• It supports several of the ISTE Standards for Students:
  • Empowered Learner: Students leverage technology to take an active role in choosing, achieving and demonstrating competency in their learning goals, informed by the learning sciences.
  • Digital Citizen: Students recognize the rights, responsibilities and opportunities of living, learning and working in an interconnected digital world, and they act and model in ways that are safe, legal and ethical.
  • Knowledge Constructor: Students critically curate a variety of resources using digital tools to construct knowledge, produce creative artifacts and make meaningful learning experiences for themselves and others.
  • Creative Communicator: Students communicate clearly and express themselves creatively for a variety of purposes using the platforms, tools, styles, formats and digital media appropriate to their goals. (https://www.iste.org/standards/standards/for-students)

Building a Learning Community

Along with getting to know my students, having them get to learn more about their classmates, and hopefully, assisting them get to learn more about themselves. community building activities are important in my classroom. It begins the first minute of the first day of the first week of school and continues throughout the entire school year.

From Columbia University:

Community building in the classroom is about creating a space in which students and instructors are committed to a shared learning goal and achieve learning through frequent collaboration and social interaction (Adams & Wilson, 2020; Berry, 2019; McMillan & Chavis, 1986). Research shows that when students feel that they belong to their academic community, that they matter to one another, and that they can find emotional, social, and cognitive support for one another, they are able to engage in dialogue and reflection more actively and take ownership and responsibility of their own learning (Baker, 2010; Berry, 2019; Brown, 2001; Bush et al. 2010; Cowan, 2012; Lohr & Haley, 2018; Sadera et al., 2009).  (Community Building in the Classroom).

. . . and from ASCD:

A growing body of research confirms the benefits of building a sense of community in school. Students in schools with a strong sense of community are more likely to be academically motivated (Solomon, Battistich, Watson, Schaps, & Lewis, 2000); to act ethically and altruistically (Schaps, Battistich, & Solomon, 1997); to develop social and emotional competencies (Solomon et al., 2000); and to avoid a number of problem behaviors, including drug use and violence (Resnick et al., 1997). (Creating a School Community)

I’ve written several blog posts about team building activities I’ve used with my elementary students and often use again with them as (1) they really like the activities, and (2) there is almost always more to learn even in repeat activities. (Note: team building activities or group initiatives are quite different than ice breakers. The group of students are presented with a challenging problem that require cooperation, communication, and creativity. It is the challenge that my students love.)

Team-Building with Elementary Students

Yes, there are mounds of curricula students must master in a wide breadth of subjects, but education does not begin and end with a textbook or test. Other skills must be honed, too, not the least of which is how to get along with their peers and work well with others. This is not something that can be cultivated through rote memorization or with strategically placed posters. Students must be engaged and cooperation must be practiced, and often (10 Team-Building Games That Promote Critical Thinking)

My blog post, Team-Building with Elementary Students, describes ten team building activities I have successfully done with elementary students. Their favorites have been:

• Traveling Tangrams
• The Great Egg Drop
• Pipeline
• Catch the Foxtail (their absolute favorite)

Team Building Activities That Support Maker Education, STEM, and STEAM 

Since my gifted classes have a strong focus on STEM, STEAM, and Maker Education, I often use team building activities that not only build community but also supports STEM concepts:

Team Building Activities

Other team building activities can be found within the following resources:

• Team-Building with Elementary Students 
• Teampedia
• Wilderdom

As a parting shot, I’d like to mention that some teachers believe they do not have the time to do activities such as these. To that, I counter with several arguments for their use:

• Getting to know the students and building a community often act as a form of prevention for behavioral management problems. When learners have trust in their teacher, their peers, and the environment, they become more engaged and less likely to “act up.” This form of prevention actually saves time in that the educator doesn’t have to deal with misbehavior.
• School should be lots more than just the transmittance of content. It should include social emotional life skills that will assist learners in navigating in their worlds outside of school now and in their futures.

Virtual Improv Activities for Remote Learning

https://jonathonleiner.medium.com/improv-games-for-virtual-space-66cbf4b77c97

Given my experiential education background, I’ve always been fond of and have used group team building and problem-solving activities with all of the age groups I teach – for example, see Team-Building with Elementary Students. I’ve written several blogs about teaching remotely during the pandemic and how remote learning can be engaging, exciting, and include student-to-student relationship building activities.

• Emotional Check-Ins in a Teaching Webinar
• Virtual Team Building Activities

I believe that all learning, face-to-face or online, should have the students doing things rather than be passive learners. Recently I went to a workshop on virtual improv activities. I really loved it and am now incorporating these type of activities into my online teaching of both my college students and my elementary students. These activities elicit the same excitement, energy, and engagement as the face-to-face team building activities.

Improvisational theatre games are traditionally used as an ice-breaker for theatre actors to feel comfortable with other actors as well as the script of the play. The skills and processes of this technique can be introduced in the beginning or at the end to [a virtual class] to initiate communication and encourage collaboration. This can be an educational tool to develop communication skills, and creative problem-solving and supportive teamwork abilities. The rules of improvisational theater, or ‘Improv’ as it is often called, are: don’t hesitate, pay attention, never block or negotiate, always add something positive, and don’t be scared of silence. Following these rules, elements of Improv can be successfully transferred from real life settings into virtual team sessions (Improvisational Theatre Can Breathe Life Into Virtual On-boarding).

What follows is a sampling of improv games:

Club Gesture

Everyone chooses a quality to share about themselves, and picks a gesture or movement to represent it. Going around the circle, each person says their quality and demonstrates the accompanying gesture, and the whole group does the gesture too. Ex: Gloria says, “I’m Gloria and I’m highly organized,” pantomiming arranging objects in the air with great focus. Everyone then does her gesture of arranging objects in the air. Alternate version: Each person makes a gesture but does not verbally share their quality, and the group guesses what their quality is (Improv Games for Virtual Space by Jonathon Moses Leiner).

Dance Party

One student on camera acts as the dance teacher. You play music, and the “dance teacher” dances to the song, all the other students try to follow the dance steps to the best of their ability. Every time the song changes, a different student takes over as the dance teacher. This is a great energy builder. (Pro-tip: The challenge is not about how good of a dancer is each student, it’s about how silly can everyone be) (10 of the Best Virtual Improvisation Games for Distance Learning).

Tell Me a Story

Human beings are naturally born storytellers. With this online energizer, you’ll take some time to connect to one another through telling a shared story and be encouraged to have fun while improvising too!The teacher tarts with a line like “Once upon a time, in a land far away, 5 people got together to solve all the world’s problems. Everything seemed easy, until one day one of the people saw on the horizon…” and invites the next person in the group to continue the story and add the next line. This keeps going until everyone’s contributed to the story (20 online energizers for virtual teams and remote meetings (20 online energizers for virtual teams and remote meetings).

Object Improv

Two students do a scene on cam, a third student (or you) has a bell. Every time the bell is rung, one of the improvisers in the scene has to grab any nearby item and immediately use it in the scene. (Pro-tip: challenge the students to make the item very important. For example, if you ring the bell, and one student grabs a stapler and introduces it into the scene, the other improviser should make the stapler relevant to the story) (10 of the Best Virtual Improvisation Games for Distance Learning).

Puppies and Kittens

First, separate the room into two groups: puppies and kitties. You can have the groups either use nonverbal feedback icons or put their hands up to delineate which team they’re on. If you’re being particularly creative, have them change their background image to either a puppy or kitten! The aim of the game is for the puppies, one at a time, to say hello to the kittens in any way possible and try to make any of them smile or laugh. Use speaker view in Zoom so that each puppy is seen and heard clearly when it’s their turn. Whenever a kitten smiles or laughs, they join the puppy team. Continue until only one kitten remains or everyone becomes a puppy (20 online energizers for virtual teams and remote meetings (20 online energizers for virtual teams and remote meetings)!

Energy Ball

Facilitator shows the group an [imaginary] energy ball, then physically remolds it into a new object, declares what it is and pantomimes using the object, and then the whole group uses the object. That person then chooses who to pass the object to next, and that person remolds it into a new object, and so on. Ex: Alejandro remolds the energy ball into a telephone. He holds the phone up to his ear, everyone mimes using the phone, and then passes it to Nia. “Phone call for you, Nia.” Nia receives the phone, says “Oh hi!” on the phone, and then remolds it into a pitchfork, lifting up hay… (Improv Games for Virtual Space by Jonathon Moses Leiner)

Kamehameha

Facilitator sends “energy blasts” as depicted below to different sides of the screen: LEFT, RIGHT, UP, DOWN, CENTER. The group dodges the blasts by moving in the opposite direction of where the blast is pointed. Blast left → dodge right, etc. Up requires ducking, down requires jumping, and center can be any direction. An optional point system could be included to tally successful dodges and/or hits (Improv Games for Virtual Space by Jonathon Moses Leiner).

Tell Me a Pitch

In the online pitch, we recommend setting up a slide deck of weird and wonderful objects and then, inviting your participants one by one to pitch whatever comes up on the next slide to the rest of the group [without knowing what that object is]. Time it so participants have thirty seconds to pitch and keep things moving – bonus points if participants can think outside of the box while pitching. This is a great online energizer that encourages improvisation (20 online energizers for virtual teams and remote meetings (20 online energizers for virtual teams and remote meetings). 

Picture of Shoes

Have each of your participants take a picture of their shoes and upload it to an online whiteboard or Google Slides. You can ask participants to take their photographs in the meeting itself or beforehand if you want to keep this energizer short and neat. That said, it can be very fun for people to take photographs in the workshop. Change it up by encouraging funny poses or use of extra props. You then invite people to discuss their footwear and tell a story of their chosen shoes. It might be that they’re wearing comfy slippers they got for a recent birthday or running shoes they wore while completing a 10k (20 online energizers for virtual teams and remote meetings (20 online energizers for virtual teams and remote meetings)!

Video Games for Relationship- and Team Building

I had the privilege of taking a workshop on Fortnite Creative facilitated by Steven Isaacs. I decided to take this workshop because I knew that many of my students (3rd-7th grade gifted students) were playing Fortnite. The idea of using a violent game during classes was not appealing to me so when I heard about Fortnite Creative, I got excited about learning more.

In Fortnite Creative, players can create structures on a private island and share them with up to 16 players (including the owner) for various multiplayer game modes with customizable rules. Players can place, copy and paste, move and erase objects, including ground tiles, items, and game features. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fortnite_Creative)

This means that players can actually build structures on islands along with other players who they invite to join their party.

During the workshop, Steven talked about and show a video of his middle school students’ Rube Goldberg Machines. I love Rube Goldberg machines so the thought of students being able to build one using a gaming platform that were already using was very appealing to me.

Fornite Rube Goldberg Machine Lesson Plan

From Steven’s Fornite Rube Goldberg Machine Lesson Plan:

Who doesn’t love a good Rube Goldberg Machine? Full of humor, wit, and based on simple machines, Rube Goldberg inventions are described as overly complex machines comprised of a number of automated actions to solve a simple problem. I can only imagine how thrilled Rube would have been if Fortnite Creative mode was available in his day. In
this lesson, students will learn about simple machines, engineering, and automation. They will design and build a Rube Goldberg Machine in Fortnite Creative mode.

Some of the NGSS standards Steven listed in his lesson plan included:

• Motion and Stability: Forces and Interactions
  • MS-PS2-1 Apply Newton’s Third Law to design a solution to a problem involving the motion of two colliding objects.
• Energy
  • HS-PS3-3 Design, build, and refine a device that works within given constraints to convert one form of energy into another form of energy.
• Engineering Design
  • HS-ETS1-2 Design a solution to a complex real-world problem by breaking it down into smaller, more manageable problems that can be solved through engineering. (Fornite Rube Goldberg Machine)

(Disclaimer: Fortnite is not supposed to be used by kids under 13. The parents of the students in my class were familiar with their children’s Fortnite use and what we were doing during our Wednesday lunch club.)

I showed them the video, Student Fortnite Creative Rube Goldberg Machine, made and recorded by Steven’s students and told my students their goal was to build something like this. Since the only experience I had with Fornite was what I learned at the workshop, I explained that doing this would be all up to them. They had no problem taking this challenge and running with it.

My Reflection

This went better than I expected. Given that the Fortnite Creative simulates physics, I believe my students learned more about forces and interactions as well as properties related to energy conversion.

For me, though, the bigger benefits were with relationship- and team building. Because our district went remote and given that I teach gifted students at three schools, I combined the 5th-7th graders so we could meet all day on Wednesdays with an hour lunch for the voluntary gaming club. About 6 of my students play during our hour lunch.

Relationship Building – One of the group of students were new to me. Within a half hour of our first class meeting, one of the new 6th grade boys, A., started complaining, asking how long he had to stay. I went to the Fortnite Creative Workshop and the next Wednesday, I asked who played Fortnite and wanted to join a lunch gaming club. A. sparked right up. His attitude towards my gifted class and me took a 180 degree turn. Now, he says that he loves gifted class, engages in all of the activities, and is a strong class contributor throughout all of our learning activities. Since I am a Fortnite Creative noob, he always takes care of me in-world, making sure I am invite to their party, and can find my way around our class’s island for building. I believe this was due to my taking an interest in his life and integrating that into my class. Too often, the teacher expects students to join her world without taking an interest in joining students in their worlds.

The relationship between three students from one school and three from another quickly developed through their shared interest. It’s only been a few weeks and they seem like they have been co-students for years. In fact, they told me that a few of them (from different schools) met over the weekend to play Fornite.

Team Building – Years ago, I facilitated outdoor and experiential team building experiences for all kinds of groups: adult corporate and therapeutic groups for adults and adolescents. As mentioned, Fortnite Creative can be played together by a group. We kept our Google Meet open for ease of communicating during our gaming club. To hear my students working together to build their Rube Goldberg machine and play with iterations of that machine brought me such joy. Their comments were similar to those I heard when I did the outdoor team building activities. They built off of one another’s ideas, expressed satisfactory when iteratios worked correctly for them, and made sure everyone was included in their activities! To get a snippet of their interactions – see below:

Next up for our gaming club – Rocket League (as per my students’ request, of course).

Virtual Team Building Activities

I, like many others, was forced to move a face-to-face college class to virtual synchronous meetings in Zoom. This term I am teaching a group dynamics course. One of my goals is to have my students experience similar dynamics and processes as they would face-to-face. Typically, I do this through experiential group activities. My task has become converting these experiences to a virtual environment.

What follows are descriptions of some of these activities:

• Ice Breaker Wheel
• Never Have I Ever
• Two Truths and a Lie Via Flipgrid
• I Am Poems
• Padlet Partner Interviews Partner Interviews
• Team Contracts
• Flippity Scavenger Hunt – Virtual Escape Room
• Body Part Debrief (ala Michelle Cummings)

Ice Breaker Wheel

During the webinar, each student is given a link to the ice breaker wheel. Each student takes turns spinning it to get a question and then provides an answer to the rest of the group.

https://bit.ly/icebreakerwheel

Never Have I Ever

During the virtual meeting, never have you ever questions are asked. If individual students have experienced it, they jump out of their chairs. There are lots of websites that have these questions including https://icebreakerideas.com/never-have-i-ever/. Here is a list from that website:

Never have I ever . . .:

• Dyed my hair
• Baked a cake from scratch
• Fallen down in public
• Had braces
• Built something out of wood
• Been to Disney World
• Eaten a Krispy Kreme donut
• Screamed during a scary movie
• Been to a professional sporting event
• Rolled down a hill
• Toilet papered someone’s house
• Laughed so hard I cried
• Burned myself with a curling iron
• Gotten seasick
• Eaten food that fell on the floor
• Shared a sucker with my dog
• Had chickenpox
• Shopped at Home Depot
• Spied on my neighbors
• Plucked my eyebrows
• Ridden in a limo
• Had a pet fish
• Lied about my age
• Bought something at a yard sale
• Made a prank call
• Gotten a tattoo
• Had food come out my nose
• Had a massage
• Locked my keys in the car
• Ridden a horse
• Been lost
• Been to Europe
• Built a fire
• Been skydiving
• Played golf
• Had a manicure
• Made mashed
• Made all A’s in school
• Eaten a bug

Two Truths and a Live via Flipgrid

Many have played Two Truths and a Lie. For those who have not or who have forgotten the directions, here they are:

To get started, give out the instructions to the group by letting them know that each person will introduce themselves by stating two truths and one lie. They don’t have to be intimate, life-revealing things, just simple hobbies, interests, or past experiences that make each person unique. The lie can be outrageous, wacky, or sound like a truth, making it even harder for the other participants who have to guess which statement is a lie (https://www.thoughtco.com/2-truths-lie-idea-list-1-31144).

To do this online, each student records her/his two truths and a lie using Flipgrid (The teacher is the only one who needs an account. Here is more information how to use Flipgrid – https://flipgrid.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/360007460474-Getting-Started-Educators). The other class members make their guess for which is the lie via the comment function in Flipgrid. Here is an example:

I Am Poems

Students are provided with an “I Am” template, – https://freeology.com/worksheet-creator/poetry/i-am-poem/. Once the poems are written, participants are given a link to a shared Google Slide presentation (shared with anyone with a link can edit) that you started. They are asked to use one of the presentation slides to compose their poem and include a photo or image that symbolizes the essence of their identity. After all participants complete this task, the presentation, one poem at a time, is shared in the webinar platform.  Students read their poems to their classmates when it comes up in the Google Slide presentation.

What follows is an example from my class.

Padlet Partner Interviews

Padlet is used for this activity. (The teacher is the only one who needs an account. For more information about creating Padlets, see https://jn.padlet.com/ ). Students are split into partners (several of the webinar platforms allow for breakout rooms). They interview one another. They can come up with their own questions or they choose some from https://museumhack.com/list-icebreakers-questions/. Once done interviewing, the interviewer puts the summary of her or his interview on a Padlet sticky note and then selects an image (there is a Google search tool within Padlet) that represents the essence of that interview. When the whole group reconvenes, each group member shares one cool thing learned about her or his partner. Below is an example Padlet (screenshot).

Team Contracts

Team contracts are good to use if the group or team will be working together for multiple class sessions over a period of time such as for weeks or months. Groups are given the instruction to come up with norms that will make this a group where individual team or group members feel a sense of safety to disclose information about themselves and also to feel willing to take risks. The class is broken into smaller breakout groups of 3 to 5 people per group. One group member acts as the media specialist. They add norms and graphics based on their small group input and consensus of ideas.

What follows are example team contracts completed during a Zoom session. The following two examples were completed by small groups using technology – the first one with https://www.canva.com/ and the second one with a Powerpoint slide.

The next example was done with one person cutting out letters and adding key terms that her team members brainstormed.

Flippity Scavenger Hunt – Virtual Escape Room

Flippity,net has a template for creating a virtual scavenger hunt/escape room. Here are the directions for how to do so https://flippity.net/ScavengerHunt.htm.

I created one for my group dynamics course if you want to try it out.

https://www.flippity.net/sh.php?k=1sj7Nvur4Wxoamz656B77DT070ibQMxR0VKUO3FgVB8M

(Hint: Some of the answers are open-ended. Some require specific answers. To make it through the entire series of locks, #6 is courage and #7 is active listening.)

Debrief

It is important to put a sense of closure at the end of the virtual group sessions. To do so, a prompt can be given to the students that helps them think and respond about their significant take away from the virtual class session. Each participant is given an opportunity to answer the prompt one at a time in an “around the group” fashion.

What follows are a few developed by Michelle Cummings of Training Wheels. The first is the Dice Debrief. Team members spin a dice and that number role indicates which question they will answer on the following graphic. If someone doesn’t have a dice, they can use a virtual one by just googling “virtual dice.”

The following debrief prompt, developed by Michelle Cummings, is the body part debrief. Each student picks one of the body parts and the corresponding question to answer for their session closing comment.

Beginning the School Year With Connections: 2018

I have written before about the beginning of the school year, Beginning the School Year: It’s About Connections Not Content.

I begin all classes focusing on having the students make connections between each other and with me.  I want students to learn about one another in a personal way. I want to learn about my students so my instructional strategies can be more personalized and tailored to their needs and interests.

As we begin this new school year, I want to share my own ideas for what I believe represent best practices for doing so. I have the following goals for beginning the school year:

• To have the learners get to know one another and if they do know one another, to deepen that understanding.
• To have the learners get to know me as an educator.
• To set the climate that the classroom will experiential, engaging, fun, and student-centric.
• To begin the process of having learners learn to solve problems as a group and work cooperatively with one another.
• To begin creating a supportive climate – where learners support one another and I support their learning efforts.
• To give the message that social-emotional learning is important.
• To give the message that we will use our bodies, art, team building, problem solving, and interactions with classmates in the classroom.
• To have the learners take ownership of their classroom.

What should also be obvious from this list is what is not on it – namely a focus on content-driven instruction during the first days of school.

These are the activities I used on the first day of school with my 2018 gifted classes of 2nd to 6th grade students (some similar to past beginning of the year activities and some new ones):

Thumball Ice Breaker

Learners arere asked to form a circle to participate in a Thumball Ice Breaker.

A learner tosses it to another learner. The catcher then responds to the prompt closest to her or his left them. After doing so, the learner throws it to another learner. I typically do two to three rounds where each learner gets the ball during a round. Example prompts include:

• Three Wishes
• Happiest Memory
• Three Yummy Foods
• Three Gross Foods
• Favorite TV Show or Movie
• Best Book or Author
• Great Vacation Place
• Funniest Cartoon

Warp Speed

As a former adventure educator, I have a fondness for team building and group problem solving activities, and regularly incorporate them into my classroom. A good list of these types of activities can be found on Teampedia.

Toss the ball around the circle until everyone has caught it once and it is returned to the leader. For Warp Speed, you need to establish a pattern of tossing one object around the group. Once the pattern has been established, ask the group to see how quickly they can move the object through the pattern with each person touching it in the order that has been established. Time this, and give the group several opportunities to improve their time (http://www.lifeway.com/studentministry/2014/07/07/game-warp-speed/).

As each effort is timed with the 3 second penalties per drop, I have them practice mental math. I show them their times as recorded via my iPhone, ask them to multiple the number of drops times 3 and then add this total to their time. On subsequent efforts, I ask them to subtract the difference. Later they compare their improvements.

Time to Take a Selfie Icebreaker

I found this activity via Caitlin Tucker’s post Padlet: Time to Take a Selfie Icebreaker https://catlintucker.com/2018/07/selfie-icebreaker/

First, teachers create a Padlet wall, title it “Time to Take a Selfie,” and provide a prompt with questions for students to answer. Below is a list of questions I have used to encourage students to share something about themselves.:

• Where is your happy place?
• What is the most adventurous thing you have ever done?
• What is the furthest place you have traveled?
• What is something you like about yourself?
• What is your favorite story (book or movie)?
• Do you consider yourself an introvert, an extrovert, or a mix? Explain.
• What is one thing you wish you had more time for in your life?
• What do you do to relax?
• When you are not at school, what do you spend most of your time doing?
• What is your most prized possession? Where did it come from and why do you love it?
• If you could only listen to one genre/type of music for the rest of your life, what would it be?
• Think about the best class you’ve ever had. What made that class so special?

(from my student teachers)

Jenga Ice Breaker

This is the Jenga game with the addition of icebreaker questions. It’s very simple to make. I used the Giant Tumbling Timbers for increased suspense but a smaller, generic Jenga game can be used. I found and typed up some icebreaker questions (examples can be found at https://funattic.com/76-fun-icebreaker-questions.htm), and taped them to the game pieces. It’s played like regular Jenga, but you have to answer the question on whatever piece you pull.

LED Enhanced All About Me Posters

I like using the All About Me posters at the beginning of the school year as it lets me know a lot about the learners in a very short time. I also use them to decorate my classroom walls. Since I have been involved in maker education, I show the kids how to use LED lights creating circuits with copper tape. They use these materials to create LED enhanced All About me Posters.

Eggbert the Slightly Cracked Egg: A Breakout Game

Story: Uses the children’s story, Eggbert: The Slightly Cracked Egg. Cast out of the refrigerator because of a small crack, Eggbert sets out into the world, using his talent for painting to try to blend in. Eventually he realizes that cracks are everywhere and reminds us all that our flaws are perfectly natural.

Topic Theme: This cross-curricular BreakoutEDU activities incorporates English, Math, and Social Studies standards as well as skills such as problem-solving and team building. I use this in the beginning of the year with my gifted students to reinforce that being different has its advantages.

Here are the specific details how to set-up and facilitate this Breakout Edu game: https://usergeneratededucation.wordpress.com/2016/09/04/eggbert-the-slightly-cracked-egg-a-breakout-edu-game/

DIY Operation Cooperation Classroom Quilt

This kit can be purchased from Oriental Trading Post – http://www.orientaltrading.com/diy-operation-cooperation-classroom-quilt-a2-57_9111.fltr Students get their own individual squares and are asked to decorate their individual pieces with symbols of their personal strengths. The class then figures out how to combine all of the pieces to form a class quilt.

 

 

 

Beginning the School Year: It’s About the Learners Not the Content

Too many classes, all grade levels, begin the school year with getting down to academic business – starting to cover content, discussing expectations regarding academic requirements, giving tests, and other academic information provided by the teacher to the students in a mostly one-way communication.  The human or social element is often disregarded.

I believe that all classes should begin with focusing on having the students make connections between themselves and the educator; and between one another.  I want students to learn about one another in a personal way.  I want to learn about my students so my instructional strategies can be more personalized and tailored to their needs and interests.  Beginning class with a focus on connections rather than content gives learners the following messages:

• You are the focus of the class not me.
• You are important as a learner in this class.
• You will be expected to engage in the learning activities during class time.  You will be an active learner.
• You will be expected to do collaborative learning during the class time.
• I, as the class facilitator, will be just that – a facilitator.  I will introduce the learning activities, but you will be responsible for the actual learning.
• I will get to know you as a learner and try to help you find learning activities that are of interest to you. (From my post: Beginning the School Year: It’s About Connections Not Content)

Two things that I believe needs to occur at the beginning of the schools year:

1. Get to know the learners – as individuals with unique backgrounds, interests, strengths, weaknesses.
2. Establish a learning community where all learners are seen as having value in our classroom

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Getting to Know Learners

One of our primary goals at the beginning of the school year is to get to know our students. This is important for several reasons. First, the better we know our students, and the more they know we know them, the more invested they become in school. Also, a dynamic and vigorous learning environment is built on relationships. When we create strong connections with our students, we create a learning environment where risk-taking and collaborative learning can take place. Finally, the better we know our students, the better we can help craft learning experiences that match who they are. Knowing our students is fundamental to real differentiation. (6 Strategies For Getting To Know Your Students)

This coming school year I am working with gifted elementary students. To support those messages I discussed above, I am going to have them do the following Hyperdoc starting with our first meeting together.

Using a Hyperdoc such as this has the additional benefits:

• It leverages the use of technology which consistently is of high interest, high engagement for my learners.
• It is a Choice Board.  Choice Boards:
  • Allows students more freedom with a choice of activities
  • Allows students to work at their own pace
  • Promotes independence and responsibility (Differentiate Learning With Choice Boards)
• It supports several of the new ISTE NETS for Students:
  • Empowered Learner: Students leverage technology to take an active role in choosing, achieving and demonstrating competency in their learning goals, informed by the learning sciences.
  • Digital Citizen: Students recognize the rights, responsibilities and opportunities of living, learning and working in an interconnected digital world, and they act and model in ways that are safe, legal and ethical.
  • Knowledge Constructor: Students critically curate a variety of resources using digital tools to construct knowledge, produce creative artifacts and make meaningful learning experiences for themselves and others.
  • Creative Communicator: Students communicate clearly and express themselves creatively for a variety of purposes using the platforms, tools, styles, formats and digital media appropriate to their goals. (https://www.iste.org/standards/standards/for-students)

Building a Learning Community

Community building activities are important in my classroom. It begins the first week of school and continues throughout the entire school year.

The intentional building and supporting of friendships is a cornerstone of a caring school community. Providing frequent opportunities for students to be in close proximity to others is not always enough to enable them to build a net­work of friends and feel connected to the classroom and the wider school com­munity. Careful classroom management and planning of student-student and student-teacher interactions, together with appropriate instructional strategies, can have a positive impact on social relationships and lead to the development of a support system that will enhance students’ learning in all curriculum areas. (Why create positive classroom communities?)

A growing body of research confirms the benefits of building a sense of community in school. Students in schools with a strong sense of community are more likely to be academically motivated (Solomon, Battistich, Watson, Schaps, & Lewis, 2000); to act ethically and altruistically (Schaps, Battistich, & Solomon, 1997); to develop social and emotional competencies (Solomon et al., 2000); and to avoid a number of problem behaviors, including drug use and violence (Resnick et al., 1997). (Creating a School Community)

I’ve written several blog posts about team building activities I’ve used with my elementary students and will use again with them as (1) they really like the activities, and (2) there is almost always more to learn even in repeat activities.

STEM Activities That Support

Since my gifted classes have a strong focus on STEM, STEAM, and Maker Education, my learners will be asked to do several of the following team building activities:

Team Building Activities That Support Maker Education, STEM, and STEAM 

Team Building Activities

Other team building activities can be found within the following resources:

• Team-Building with Elementary Students 
• Teampedia
• Wilderdom

As a parting shot, I’d like to mention that some teachers believe they do not have the time to do activities such as these. To that, I counter with several arguments for their use:

• Getting to know the students and building a community often act as a form of prevention for behavioral management problems. When learners have trust in their teacher, their peers, and the environment, they become more engaged and less likely to “act up.” This form of prevention actually saves time in that the educator doesn’t have to deal with misbehavior.
• School should be lots more than just the transmittance of content. It should include social emotional life skills that will assist learners in navigating in their worlds outside of school now and in their futures.

 

Team-Building with Elementary Students

Yes, there are mounds of curricula students must master in a wide breadth of subjects, but education does not begin and end with a textbook or test. Other skills must be honed, too, not the least of which is how to get along with their peers and work well with others. This is not something that can be cultivated through rote memorization or with strategically placed posters. Students must be engaged and cooperation must be practiced, and often. (http://www.teachthought.com/critical-thinking/10-team-building-games-that-promote-critical-thinking/)

I meet with two groups of gifted elementary students, grades 2nd through 6th, for a full day each week. I begin our days together with a team building activity. The benefits for doing so cannot be overstated:

• It sets the climate that cooperation and collaboration is an expectation in the classroom.
• It reinforces that each person’s ideas and contribution will be respected.
• It’s whole body-mind learning.
• It builds a sense of classroom community which carries over through all of the classroom activities.
• Communication, listening, and problem-solving skills are developed and enhanced.
• Divergent thinking is honored and expected to successfully approach and complete the activities.

Lists and descriptions of team-building activities can be found at:

• Teampedia
• Wilderdom

Several of the activities require some props. I enjoy making my own but they can also be purchased from the stores that sell sports goods to schools:

• https://www.palossports.com/store/prodpage3.cfm/CategoryID/30581/SubCatID/2807/file.htm
• http://www.ssww.com/sports-pe-recreation/team-building/
• http://www.flaghouse.com/General-Education/Cooperative-Play/
• http://www.flaghouse.com/General-Education/Project-Adventure/

Sample Team-Building Activities

Spaghetti-Marshmallow Tower

Materials:

• Mini-marshmallow
• Dry spaghetti

Task:

Split students into groups of 3 to 4 participants and given marshmallows and spaghetti (equal quantities of supplies per group). They are then given the task to only use the marshmallows and spaghetti to build the tallest tower.

Great Egg Drop

Materials:

• One egg per group
• 40 straws per group
• a few feet of masking tape – same amount

The Task:

Divide the group into small teams of 3 – 4.  Give each team one raw egg, 40 straws, 1 meter of duck tape, and other materials as listed above. Tell them that the goal is to design and build a structure that will prevent their raw egg from breaking from a high drop (from the top of the playground structure.

Traveling Tangrams

Materials:

• 7 pieces of a Tangram cut out of 4′ x 4′ piece of plywood
• print out of different Tangram shapes (e.g. see http://www.fun-stuff-to-do.com/tangrams.html)

The Task:

To begin, give all of the large Tangram pieces and a few copies of the specific Tangram shape that you want the students to create. As a group, they need to create that shape using all 7 pieces at the beginning of the crossing area/the beginning “shore of the river.” The rest of the activity is similar to the River Crossing team-building activity. The object of the activity is to get all members of the group safely across the river; a designated area 25 to 50 yards wide. They must go as one big group, not multiple smaller ones. Everyone must be on the river before anyone can get off the river, forcing the entire group to be engaged at once. Participants cannot touch the water (floor/grass) and therefore must use rafts (Tangram pieces) to cross. If one member does touch, the entire group must begin again. Once they reach the other side/shore, give them another Tangram shape to create and explain that they must stay on the pieces to form that shape. They can get off on the other side/shore once the Tangram shape is formed.

Copy the Structure

Materials: Several identical sets of Legos (or similar building bricks) that vary in size and color.

The Task:

Create a Lego structure out of different colored and sized Legos and place it somewhere in the room where it can’t be seen until the activity begins. Divide the group into smaller teams (depending on number of available Legos and size of the group). Each team should be given a set of bricks to build an exact copy of the Lego structure you have already built. The rules are that only one person from each team is allowed to go and have a look at the structure. When they come back to their team, they cannot touch the bricks, but they can tell the others how to build their copy. Anybody from the team can go and have a look, but only one at a time. Once another person comes back from having a look, the previous person can then touch their bricks to help build. Be sure to emphasize that the goal is for each team to complete an exact replica of the model.

Source: https://guideinc.org/2016/04/20/team-building-activity-lego-structure-copy/

Human Knot

Materials: none

The Task:

Starting in a circle, students connect hands with two others people in the group to form the human knot – right hand to right hand; left hand to left hand; connecting with two different people. As a team they must then try to unravel the “human knot” forming into a untangled circle by untangling themselves without breaking the chain of hands.

Pipeline

Materials:

• 1″ PVC pipe cut down the middle – a 18″ section per participant (pool noodles can be substituted)
• a golf ball

The Task:

Students, as a big group, are asked to work together to transport golf balls across a designated area through the chain of plastic tubes, lining them up and acting quickly so they don’t let the golf balls drop! That means that the first person in line must run to the end of the chain. A course can be set up ahead of time but I like to tell them the course as they go. If they are performing well, I ask them to go up, over, and through playground equipment. They can only touch the pipes not the balls. If a ball drops, the group must begin again. Once the marbles pass through their tube, kids have to move to the end of the line to keep the flow going.

Pinball Tarp Machine

Materials:

• One  tarpaulin is cut randomly with 8 to 10 holes and numbered from 1 through 8-10 depending on how many holes are cut (or two tarps if you want to have more than one group. I usually have two groups competing). The word START is written at one of the corners.
• Small playground ball – a little smaller than the cut holes

The Task:

Between 8 and 20 participants surround the tarp spacing themselves out evenly holding on to the tarp with both hands, creating a table top effect. Supply the groups with one small playground ball. Their goal is to get the ball to roll through the holes consecutively from 1 to 8 or 10. On each successful number, the ball is picked up from the ground and placed on START.  If the ball falls off the tarp or through a hole, the group can start from the number where they left off or if a more difficult challenge is desired, the game starts over. If more than one group is playing, then the team that gets their ball through all of the holes first wins.

Catch the Foxtail

Materials:

• Foxtail balls – 3 per group (http://www.usgames.com/p-e-activities/toss-catch/foxtails)
• Rock climbing webbing – 5-6 foot diameter loop (like a hula hoop) for each groups (I like webbing because: (1) it is soft and pliable, and (2) it sits better in students’ hands. Ropes could cause rope burns)

The Task:

Split students into 5 or 6 participants per group.  Each group is given three foxtail balls and a circle webbing. All members of that subgroup except for one student form a circle with the webbing so that the web forms into a big type of basketball hoop. The remaining member throws each of the foxtail balls one at a time up into the air. The task of the hoop holders is the try to get the balls through the hoop while all keep their two hands on the hoop. Getting the ball through the hoop after a bounce does not count. They often need to run together to get under the ball. After the three balls are thrown, the thrower switches places with one of the holders. All students should get a chance to throw the balls. The team with the most “baskets” wins.

Robot Drawing

There are two versions:

1. The Toobeez version – http://www.toobeez.com/teambuilding-book/17-Robot-Writer-Activity.html
2. The Duct Tape version – http://groupdynamix.com/ducttapegame/

Toxic Waste

Materials:

• two plastic bucket, one with 8′ ropes tied into it (I drill holes in the side and tied the end of nylon ropes through the holes – one per participant)
• plastic balls
• another piece of rope tied together to create a loop with a 8′ diameter – this acts as a boundary
• a much more expensive version can be purchased – http://everlastclimbing.com/products/toxic-waste-transfer/

The Task:

• Set Up – Set up the 8′ rope circle. Put the plastic balls into the bucket with the ropes. Put the other bucket next to it.
• Situation to Tell Students – A bucket of highly toxic popcorn (the plastic balls) has contaminated a circle approximately 8 feet in diameter. The toxic area extends to the sky (meaning that hands and arms cannot cross into the area. If the poisonous popcorn is not transferred to a safe container (the other bucket) for decontamination, the toxic popcorn will contaminate and destroy the population of the entire city.
• The Task –  You must find a way to safely transfer the toxic popcorn from the
  unsafe container to the safe container, using only the materials provided to you. Each student must always hold onto the end of his or her rope.

Tangrams: A Cross Curricular, Experiential Unit

Now that I am back in the classroom two days a week teaching gifted elementary students, I can do and report on the cross curricular units I plan and implement. There are several guiding factors that I use to design my units:

• They need to be hands-on and experiential.
• Learner choice and voice is valued.
• They need to address cross curricular standards. It is like life. Life doesn’t segment content areas into separate entities.
• They do not depend on the use of worksheets. Worksheets tend to address a single standard or skill. Plus, learning how to do worksheets is NOT a life skill.
• Communication, collaboration, and problem solving are built into the learning process.
• Reading and writing are integrated into the learning activities in the form of fun, interesting books and stories, and writing stories, narratives, journalistic reports.
• Educational technology is incorporated but with a focus on using it to interact with real world physical objects and people.
• A reflective component is included.
• The educator becomes a facilitator whereby activities are introduced and then the learners become the active agents of their own learning.
• The goal is to create the conditions for learners to say they the best day ever.

Tangrams: Cross Curricular Unit

The tangram (Chinese: 七巧板; pinyin: qīqiǎobǎn; literally: “seven boards of skill”) is a dissection puzzle consisting of seven flat shapes, called tans, which are put together to form shapes. The objective of the puzzle is to form a specific shape (given only an outline or silhouette) using all seven pieces, which may not overlap. It is reputed to have been invented in China during the Song Dynasty,^[1] and then carried over to Europe by trading ships in the early 19th century. . It is one of the most popular dissection puzzles in the world. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tangram)

Goals:

The students will be able to:

• Read and comprehend literature, including stories, dramas, and poetry, in the grades 4-5 text complexity band proficiently. (CCSS.ELA)
• Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, descriptive details, and clear event sequences. (CCSS.ELA)
• Classify two-dimensional figures based on the presence or absence of parallel or perpendicular lines, or the presence or absence of angles of a specified size. Recognize right triangles as a category, and identify right triangles. (CCSS.MATH)
• Understand that shapes in different categories (e.g., rhombuses, rectangles, and others) may share attributes (e.g., having four sides), and that the shared attributes can define a larger category (e.g., quadrilaterals). Recognize rhombuses, rectangles, and squares as examples of quadrilaterals, and draw examples of quadrilaterals that do not belong to any of these subcategories. (CCSS.MATH)
• Develop and portray characters including specifics about circumstances, plot, and thematic intent, demonstrating logical story sequence and informed character choices. (ELA and Visual Arts)
• Demonstrate ability to work effectively and respectfully with diverse teams. (21st Century Skills)
• Assume shared responsibility for collaborative work, and value the individual contributions made by each team member. (21st Century Skills)
• Solve different kinds of non-familiar problems in both conventional and innovative ways. (21st Century Skills)

Materials:

• Tangrams (can be made or bought – I have purchased several sizes and types over the years)
• Grandfather Tangram book (or via Youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x74l1ZM-zP0)
• Pictures of Tangram animals from Grandfather Tangram – a set for each student. I like the use of a set of cards so learners can’t see the next animal until they are asked to turn over the card when that animal appears in the story (or a projected via http://exchange.smarttech.com/details.html?id=9bfd751c-ca5d-4733-9748-475963892d53)
• Handout of Tangram shapes
• Large Set of Tangrams made out of 48″ x 48″ sheet of plywood (directions for how to make similar ones out of cardboard can be found at https://www.bloglovin.com/blogs/oh-happy-day-2622736/diy-giant-tangram-4939798307)
• Tangoes – a set per each pair of students (only higher price item for this unit)
• Templates for 3D Tangrams – found at http://www.tangram-channel.com/3d-tangrams-templates/
• Scissors, glue sticks, tape
• Chromebooks or iPads

Learning Activities

Read Grandfather Tangrams + Learners Create Tangrams for Each Story Character

Each learner is given a set of tangram puzzle pieces and a set of cards that shows how to make each tangram animal in the story. Grandfather Tang is read to the learners either directly from the book or through https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x74l1ZM-zP0 so it can be projected. The story is stopped each time there is a reference to one of the Tangram animals. Learners construct that animal using their own set of Tangrams.

Check-In with Tangrams

One of my morning activities with learners is to have them check in as to how they are doing that day. The check in for this unit is to create a Tangram that represents how they are feeling. Selections are made from a sheet given to learners:

Giant Puzzling Tangrams

Making the props for this activity is worth the trouble as it is a very high engagement, high learning, high reward activity. To set it up, an area is chosen that is about 50 yards long (outside or in a gym) and the giant Tangram shapes are placed in a pile at the start of this area. Learners are given a card that has the design of a Tangram at the beginning of this area. They need to produce that Tangram and then all get on top of that shape. Their goal then becomes to cross the designated area using the Tangram pieces as stepping stones. If they fall off, they must go back to the beginning and start again. When they reach the end of the designated area, they are given another Tangram shape they need to construct prior to stepping off. This translates into the need for them to maneuver the Tangram pieces into the design while standing on pieces.

Tangoes Tangram Card Game – Paired Challenge

Next, the learners play the Tangoes card game in pairs. The object of Tangoes is to form the image on the card using all seven puzzle in a challenge with another learner in a race to solve the puzzle. It helps build visual spatial skills as the cards don’t have demarcations for the individual Tangrams. I promote some cooperative work as I ask the partner who figured out the answer to help his or her partner to do so, too.

Make 3D Tangrams

Learners are given the printed out templates for a set of 3D Tangrams and construct them.

Create a Story from 3D Tangrams – Take Photos and Write a Blog Post

Learners think of a story using their 3D Tangrams and take photos for the scene(s) of their stories. They then upload these images to their blogs and write about their story.

(Postscript: Wow – I didn’t review their blog posts until after school. We are definitely going to discuss this student’s blog post during on next class session. Great teachable moment to discuss this real life situation of one of their classmates.)

Team Building Activities That Support Maker Education, STEM, and STEAM

Working as a productive and sensitive member of a team is looked upon by STEM-based companies as being a requirement to being an effective and contributing employee:

As technology takes over more of the fact-based, rules-based, left-brain skills—knowledge-worker skills—employees who excel at human relationships are emerging as the new “it” men and women. More and more major employers are recognizing that they need workers who are good at team building, collaboration, and cultural sensitivity, according to global forecasting firm Oxford Economics. Other research shows that the most effective teams are not those whose members boast the highest IQs, but rather those whose members are most sensitive to the thoughts and feelings of others. (http://fortune.com/2015/03/05/perfect-workplace/)

In academia, the majority of research in STEM fields is conducted through collaborations and working groups, where a diversity of ideas need to be proposed and analyzed to determine the best strategy(ies) for solving a problem. In the technology sector, product development is done as a team, with specific roles for each individual but its success is predicated on each member of the team providing a different skill set / perspective. Thus, students who are interested in both academia and industry will benefit from learning how to successfully work in a diverse team. (https://teaching.berkeley.edu/diversity-can-benefit-teamwork-stem#sthash.mHRBJQtV.dpuf)

What follows are some team building activities that use collaboration to explore and solve STEM-related challenges. Note that most of them require minimal supplies – costs.

Great Egg Drop

To begin, assemble groups of 4 or 5 and give each group various materials for building (e.g. 5-20 straws, a roll of masking tape, one fresh egg, newspaper, etc.)  Instruct the participants and give them a set amount of time (e.g. 30 minutes) to complete building a structure, with the egg inside in which the structures are dropped from at least 10 feet in elevation and then inspected to see if the eggs survived. The winners are the groups that were successful in protecting the egg. (http://eggdropproject.org/ and  http://www.group-games.com/team-building/great-egg-drop.html)

Marshmallow Tower

Give teams of 4 to 6 learners 20 sticks of spaghetti, one yard of tape, one yard of string, and one marshmallow. Given a time frame of about 20 minutes, the groups must build the tallest free-standing structure out of the spaghetti. The marshmallow needs to be on top. (http://marshmallowchallenge.com/Welcome.html)

Marble Run

The challenge is to create a marble track using the given materials and have the marble land in an 8” square and remain there.  Give groups of 4 to 6 students: 1 piece of cardstock, 3 straws, 1 piece of string, 3 sheets of paper, 5 mailing labels, 4 paper clips, 3 rubber bands, and 2 pencils to complete this this task. (http://www.homeschoolcreations.net/2013/04/marble-track-instant-challenge-logic-for-kids/)

Drop the Golf Ball

Give each group of 4 to 6 learners 12 straws, 18 inches of masking tape and a golf ball. The goal is to build a container that will catch a golf ball dropped from about ten feet. Each group selects a “ball dropper” who stands on a chair and hold the golf ball at eye level. Each team places its container on the floor under where they think the ball will land. Each group gets three attempts and the group that gets a ball to go into their container and stay wins. (http://icebreakerideas.com/icebreakers-high-school-students/)

Straw Bridge

The challenge is for groups (3-5 members each) to design and construct a model of a single-span bridge using plastic drinking straws and masking tape as the building materials. The bridge is to span a distance of 40 cm, with no supporting pillars to the ground in between the ends of the span, and be approximately 10 cm wide. It needs to be strong enough to support a suitable load. This might be a book, a can of food, or other object of suitable weight placed on the middle of the completed structure. See Straw Bridge Challenge Worksheet: http://cteteach.cteonline.org/portal/default/Curriculum/Viewer/Curriculum?action=2&cmobjid=197387.

Toy Hacking Team Challenge

This is based on Toy Take Apart. In the Toy Hacking Team Challenge, each group of 3 to 4 members is given three or four battery-operated toys. Their task is to take all their toys apart and then using at least a few parts of each toy create a new toy or invention.

Construct a Chair

This activity asks groups of 3 to 5 members to design and build a full-sized chair from corrugated cardboard (and a mat knife) that could support the weight of a person up to 150 lbs. for up to 5 minutes. The person seated will be in a “comfortable” position with his/her back leaning against the back of the chair.  (http://mschangart.weebly.com/architecture/card-board-chair-design-challenge)

DIY Instrumentals

Learners make instruments from recycled or natural materials. See http://www.howweelearn.com/spectacular-homemade-musical-instruments/ recycled materials for ideas. Separate learners in small groups of 4 to 6 members in each group. Inform them that they will be performing a musical piece using all of their DIY instruments for the rest of the group. After a practice time, bring groups back together for the performances.

Sneak a Peek

Build a small sculpture or design with some type of the building material (Legos, Tinker Toys) and hide it from the group. Divide the group into small teams of two to eight members each. Give each team enough building material so that they could duplicate what you have already created. Place the original sculpture in a place that is hidden but at an equal distance from all the groups. Ask one member from each team to come at the same time to look at the sculpture for five seconds in order to try to memorize it as much as possible before returning to his/her team. After they run back to their teams, they have twenty-five seconds to instruct their teams how to build the structure so that it looks like the one that has been hidden. After the twenty-five seconds, ask each team to send up another member of their group who gets a chance to “sneak a peek” before returning to their team. Continue in this pattern until one of the teams successfully duplicates the original sculpture. (http://www.teambuildingportal.com/games/sneek-peek)

Chapter in Handbook of Mobile Learning: Team and Community Building Using Mobile Devices

The Handbook of Mobile Learning has just been published through Routledge: Taylor and Francis – see http://www.routledge.com/books/details/9780415503693/.  I am excited to have a chapter in this edited book, Team and Community Building Using Mobile Devices.  Here is the introduction to my chapter:

People in the 21^st Century are using their own mobile devices – iPads, netbooks, laptops, and smart phones – to be consumers and producers of digital content, and to be active participants in online communities.  They are connecting with one another through mobile technologies in unprecedented ways. Computers, Wi-Fi networks, and smart phones allow young people 24/7 access to technology and to one another.   They are familiar and comfortable with social networking and using a variety of apps via their devices.  Nielson (2010), in a survey of teen mobile device use, reported that 94% percent of teen users identified themselves as advanced data users, turning to their mobile devices for messaging, Internet, multimedia, gaming, and other activities like downloads.

When educators leverage these types of informal learning by giving agency to the students to use their mobile technologies and by providing the structure and skills for their use within more formal educational settings, motivation and learning are increased.  Using mobile devices in educational settings as learning and community building tools can promote interpersonal communication, encourage young people to positively express their individuality and build their student-to-student, and student-to-educator relationships. The strategic and intentional use of cell phones, social networking sites, laptops, blogs, and digital cameras can build diversity and cultural sensitivity, teamwork and problem solving, self-reflection and self-exploration, and communication and self-expression.

This chapter introduces the use of mobile devices as a means to build community and teamwork within a variety of classroom settings: face-to-face, blended, and virtually.  This discussion has four components: research that supports the use of student-owned mobile devices for building community in the classroom, evidence to support the importance of promoting community in the classroom, team-building activities using mobile devices, and the results of a end-of-course student survey about using mobile devices for community building,

. . . and an excerpt:

MOBILE DEVICES USE PATTERNS SUPPORT COMMUNITY BUILDING

People of all ages, almost from all parts of the world, are using their mobile devices to communicate, connect, and share personal experiences.  They are building their own informal learning and social communities via their mobile devices and social networking sites.  This section discusses the research about mobile device use patterns.  It becomes the foundation not only for providing a rationale for the use of mobile devices in the classroom, but also serves as a guide for the types of technologies and activities that are best suited for mobile-driven community building activities.

Mobile Phone Ownership and Use Patterns Among United States Teens

A Pew Research report entitled, Teens and Mobile Phones, released April, 2010, noted that as of September 2009, 75% of American teens ages 12-17 own cell phone.  This number has steadily increased from 45% of teens in November 2004. Cell phones have become ubiquitous in the lives of teens today, with ownership cutting across demographic groups and geographical locations.

As expected, texting was the top activity of cell phone using teens with taking and sharing pictures, playing music, and recording and exchanging videos also being popular uses.

Worldwide Use of Cell Phones

Mobile device use has become a world-wide phenomenon allowing informal learning and social networking to cross over geographical divides.  Pew Research (2011) released a report entitled, Texting, Social Networking Popular Worldwide.  The three key findings from this report that support mobile-driven community-building activities are:

1. Cell phones are owned and used throughout the world.
2. Cell phones are being used for texting, taking photos, and using the Internet. Cell phones are owned by large majorities of people in most major countries around the world.  They are used for much more than just phone calls. In particular, text messaging is a global phenomenon – across the 21 countries surveyed, a median of 75% of cell phone owners say they text.
3. Young people worldwide are likely to use their cell phones for social networking (Pew Research, 2011).

The usage is similar to that seen with United States teens.  Text messaging is prevalent in 19 of 21 countries with a majority of mobile phone owners regularly sending text messages.  Many also use their mobile phones to take pictures and record video (Pew Research, 2011).

Mobile device use crosses across socio-economic boundaries and geographic locations.  People are using them for texting, photo-sharing, and other forms of social networking.  In other words, people are already using mobile devices to build their own informal learning and sharing communities, so it becomes a natural progression and extension to bring this type of learning into the educational environment.

Finally, here is a slidedeck that I use when presenting on this topic: