I am now learning what it really means to walk into a building for "year two" and to attempt to appear "fresh." Oh, I know that year two is all about writing, my passion, but I am now facing the challenge of finding new community builders, something that excites and inspires...
With my own students in my own classroom, we seemed to get into a rhythm, and we all knew how to revisit commmunity building. In the arena of professional development, we seem to "rebuild" as we go along monthly. In other words, I am continually looking for something clever and new...
So...what are you guys doing? I have become shamelessly self-centered and could use some fresh ideas. I'll share today's version of Kae's "faces" community builder, though. (Kae is a wealth of generous ideas, by the way...) She supplied me with four cute pictures of different children making extreme faces. The directions go like this: choose a picture (facial expression) that best reflects how you feel in the classroom right now...or best reflects how you feel about some of the strategies we've studied so far...and so on...Participants can quickwrite or simply record on an index card or simply turn and talk...
Last year I ran out of clever ideas for opening activities, so I took Kae's idea and googled weather pictures and asked participants to select a picture that relates to how they feel... This brings up a nice conversation about inferences and metaphors about weather.
Today I shared the "face" activity using pictures of my sweet grandbaby, a totally self-indulgent activity. I have to say, though, that we had a good comprehension discussion about inferences and interpretations with Hailey's pictures. (It also gave me an opportunity to enjoy my sweet grandbaby pictures as well as share a part of myself with the group.)
Oh, well...I hope that anyone out there who may be checking in on our blog might find some help...and share some help, too! I'm thinking about moving on to pictures of my animals...pictures of favorite movie/book characters...etc.
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9 comments:
Wow! what great ideas. I saw your face one at Pleasant Hope and loved it. I tend to do the same ol' things too. I do have the Kaegan book and can draw ideas from that. some of the ones I use are pretty elementary but can be adapted. I id the "T-shirt" activity several times and it sure helps you know a lot about people. On a copy of a T-shirt there pre-selected questions (which could be rewritten to adapt to any grade level. I can give you the Tk-shirt template. If I had a scanner I could scan and send it to you but ---oh well. Anyway here are some of the descriptors on the T-shirt:
(in the middle of the t-shirt_
Name
Favorite Free time activity
(by the neck of the t-shirt)
Descriptive word about you
(left sleeve)
2 things you do well
(right sleeve)
something you like about your age now
(bottom left)
Wish
(bottom right)
Special place in your life
Here is one I haven't used yet but it sounds like fun:
Think about a diufferent career you would like to have and one you would avoid. Give reasons for your choices.
(I guess they could take so many steps then stop and talk to the person closest)
I got this one from Shonna:
On an index card write what is going on in your life right now. Find someone you have not talked to today and share.
I'll search through Kaegan and see if I can find anything else and send it your way.
I can only imagine the struggle of finding something new the second year. The struggle that I have in one building is the lack of motivation to do team building activities. One teacher even voiced "we are a team and work hard as a team so you don't have to do these"...LOL I politely replied that I knew they were a great team, but only trying to give new ideas for them to take back to the classroom!...Any ideas to help the audience be more receptive?
Can someone create a blog, a notebook, a resource place, something where those creative souls can share their wonderful ideas with the rest of us mere mortals who are still trying to figure out which end is up? I really can use teambuilder ideas, but also different types of processing activities. Why are we all reinventing the wheel?
I don't know who elsie is but I know what she means about reinventing the wheel. This is ridiculous that we all feel that way. There should be a notebook or something available with page after page after page of ideas. I am constantly searching in Keagan etc. trying to come up with stuff. If you ask, you can get a wealth of information but we shouldn't have to ask. We don't have time to ask!! We should have that infomation at our fingertips at any moment.
Barb, sorry one of my comments came in 2 times. I wasn't sure it went through the first time so I hit it again.
Oh, my gosh...you guys are awesome. I'm going to use the T shirt, the career one, and the index card, too. Thanks so much! Right now I'm still imposing my pictures of Hailey on the schools I go to. I'm thinking of including my animal pictures another time this year. If I get industrious, I'll share with you guys!
My problem with doin pictures is I never know where I am going to be or whether the technology is in that location. I know Kirbyville has smart Boards but i am always in the breakroom which has NO technology. kwhen I am in Hollister I am in the conference room which has a white board and i suppose they could hook up a projector for me but it is just "one more thing" to have to deal with.
Hope all the ideas you are getting is helping.
I go to Hollister Tuesday but will not use technology other than my CD player. when is your next day in Hollister?
I don't go back to Hollister until the 23rd of October...We're collaborating...and I'm modeling. We meet in an empty classroom, and those teachers have SmartBoards, etc., and I can use my flashdrive in their desktop computers, so it's so easy.
I completely understand the dilemma with trying to drag in a projector and setting up the technology. Even if you're great at it, who has time? It must be more common in the secondary schools because all of mine are equipped!
*I'm in a school every day next week, but I'll try to call!
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