Videos for May 26, 2015 World Bank Visit

Videos for a group of my students and some other youth and adults during a morning visit with a World Bank Working Group Tuesday, May 26, 2015.

A brief, general overview of issues related to sweatshops in the global garment industry from The Toronto Star Newspaper. Original article and videos can be found here: http://www.thestar.com/news/world/clothesonyourback.html

Mrs. C's Essential TED Talks ... and a few extras!

I was inspired during a discussion at #NAISToF today to start tweeting some of my favorite TED talk videos ... and then realized there were too many I would want to share!  This is the start of my list.  

Please share your favorites in the comments or by contacting me on Twitter @MrsC_Teach !

All titles are hyperlinks. Click to access the videos listed.

Kimberly's Essential TED Talks:

"The Power of Introverts"
"The Danger of a Single Story"
"Glimpses of Modern Day Slavery"

"Hackschooling Makes Me Happy"

"On Building a Windmill"
"The Unheard Story of David and Goliath"

"The Power of Belief -- Mindset and Success"

"The Other Brain"
"Where is Home?"
"Everyday Moments Caught in Time"
"We Need to Talk About an Injustice"
"The Key to Success -- Grit"
"What Teachers Make"

I am excited that only one of the videos from my list above is on Mashable's list of “15 TED Talks That Will Change Your Life” and only two are on TED's list of “The 20 Most Popular Talks of All Time” (as of 7/31/14).

Here are a few more non-TED videos I recommend:

"The Revolutionary Power of Photography"
"Changing Education Paradigms" (an oldie but a goodie)
"The Story of Stuff"
"The Story of Solutions"

"Maine School Engages Kids With Relevant Problem-Solving Challenges"

How can we avoid the perpetuation of privilege in integrated service learning?**

My mind is spinning from my first full day at the NAIS Teachers of the Future program at Episcopal High School in Alexandria, VA.  I am honored to be a part of this year’s cohort.  Instead of trying to make sense of my copious notes, I will flesh out a challenge we discussed in small groups today.  Thank you to Shannon Montague for the protocol we used for this.  This is something on which I am particularly focused at my school, as a result of my close work with Elizabeth Ricketts and Branson Skinner of The OR Network.

There are numerous ways to begin to chip away at the “helping others” aspect to most service learning programs.  Here are some suggestions.  Please feel free to comment with questions if there are points which need additional clarification.

• Be VERY intentional with language, think through all potential discussions ahead of time and start with inclusive and person first language and be consistent.  Students will follow your lead.
• Deemphasize differences and highlight commonalities.  Find shared ground so that different groups can come together as one community.
• Educate on the topic prior to the personal interactions to avoid oversimplification and decrease assumptions.  Know the groups with whom you are working and their circumstances.  Try to avoid surprises with your students (not all can be avoided, but planning can decrease their number).
• Discuss assumptions with both groups.   What assumptions of privilege or lack thereof are there? What is the root of the assumptions?  Why might they be true or false?  What complexities are overlooked by making assumptions?  What is the history behind the assumptions?
• Provide similar (educational) experiences for both groups so there is common ground to discuss and explore together.  Shared experiences, be they shared as a large group, or shared at different times in different places, provide an easy entry point for peer conversations.
• Work towards a common goal that helps all involved in addition to something that helps the other group involved.  Tackle a global issue impacting everyone participating from all groups so that you are all working together.
• Provide opportunities for students to learn something new that they wouldn't otherwise from the group with which you are working.  We all have gifts to share, how can your students grow n unexpected ways from this experience?
• Make it something that can engage students beyond their time with you.  Have an immediate project, but ensure it is within a larger structure so students can continue with their passion in the future after they have (sniff) left your classroom.

Potential challenges you will likely encounter along the way include, but are not limited to that …

• Service is inherently viewed as being for others (or the environment).  See above for suggestions about how to expand the overall experience so that the service is in a broader framework.
• Students are not aware of their own privilege and so there is a lot of unpacking involved.  Addressing assumptions ahead of time may involve helping students understand how many assumptions they make about their peers or their neighbors.  Simply discussing what a family vacation may look like to different families can highlight how we assume common backgrounds when they often are not present.
• Students can feel like they have less riding on the successful outcome of the experience than the other group involved.  You must find ways for your students to feel invested in the program, invested in the relationship, invested in the broader issues, and invested in the success.  This can be challenging and will vary widely based on individual circumstances and programs.

Some takeaways from bumps along the road and ways I have grown from them:

• You can’t force relationships, sometimes the interpersonal relationships do not develop beyond the superficial connection.  However, if you find ways to highlight personal commonalities early on, this can help avoid a disconnect and facilitate relationship building.
• Students can choose to not engage.  Unfortunately, this can make the experience less rich for others beyond the ones choosing not to engage.  By more closely monitoring the process, interactions, and keeping an eye to consistent engagement, if you catch disengagement early enough you can find ways to pull students back in.

What successes and challenges have you faced in re-framing service learning in your community?  Let me know in the comments or on Twitter @MrsC_Teach !

**This could also be titled “An effective summary of everything I have learned through collaboration with Elizabeth Ricketts and J Branson Skinner of The OR Network.”

ps. Check out our #NAISToF tweets from the program!

Inspired Attire: Integrated global service learning

The work I do in my homeroom and social studies classes with the organization the.or was recently highlighted in the Alumni Magazine. You can find the article on page 52. Enjoy!

Olympics and Graphs

This is by no means groundbreaking, but it will be one of the options available to students in my sixth grade math class during our graphing unit.  During the unit they will learn the fundamentals of the coordinate plane, as well as review measures of central tendency and bar and pie graphs.  I am a big proponent of choice in the classroom - this mini-project will allow them to practice one of these main themes.  The poster will be one option on a menu unit, which is a modification of some of the ideas from Universal Design for Learning (I plan to blog about that experience/technique sometime over the next few months).

Graphing Winter Olympics Poster Guidelines

Select a poster topic from the options listed below.  Make sure your poster meets all of the requirements on the rubric.  It should be neat, colorful, and creative.  All information should be displayed clearly and writing should be very neat or typed.  Please ask a teacher if you have questions about expectations.

Use these websites:

Winter Olympics medal information: http://graphics.latimes.com/winter-olympics/

Population information: https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/

For countries that have changed names (such as Soviet Union à Russia and other countries or East & West Germany à Germany), however you choose to combine or separate results, be sure to state it clearly on your poster.

Option 1:  Create a scatter plot of the number of gold medals by country population for 10 countries from the 2014 Winter Olympics.  Write a 5-7 sentence reflection on the results displayed in your scatter plot (What surprised you? What trends did you notice?).

Option 2:  Create a bar graph of the number of gold, silver & bronze medals for 10 countries from the 2014 Winter Olympics.  Write a 5-7 sentence reflection on the results displayed on your bar graph (What surprised you? What trends did you notice?).

Option 3:  Create three separate pie charts of the distributions of gold, silver & bronze medals for the top 5 medal earning countries from the 2014 Winter Olympics.  Write a 5-7 sentence reflection on the results displayed on your pie charts (What surprised you? What trends did you notice?).

Option 4:  Calculate the mean, median and mode number of gold, silver & bronze medals for 15 countries from the 2014 Winter Olympics and clearly display your results.  Write a 5-7 sentence reflection on the contrast between the measures of central tendency (What surprised you? What similarities/differences did you notice?).

Option 5:  Calculate the mean, median and mode of the total number of medals for 5 countries from the past 10 Winter Olympics before Sochi (1976, 1980, 1984, 1988, 1992, 1994, 1998, 2002, 2006, and 2010) and clearly display your results.  For each country, write a prediction of how many medals you think they earned in Sochi in 2014 based on their past performance and explain why you predicted that amount.  After making your prediction, check the Sochi medal total and see how close you were.  Write a 5-7 sentence reflection on how your predictions for 2014 for each country compared to their actual results in Sochi (What surprised you? What similarities/differences did you notice?).

Option 6:  Come up with your own way to graph medal information from the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi and write an accompanying 5-7 sentence reflection about your results.  You must clear your personal idea with your math teacher.

Ahh ... Homework

Yesterday I received an email from three former students.  This was part of their message:

[we] have two questions that we would like to ask you.

We were wondering why do you assign mandatory homework?

What is the use of it?

I'm quite certain they were unaware of how loaded their questions were or that I had been (briefly) discussing/lurking on this topic during the #isedchat on Twitter (archive here) two nights before they contacted me.

After some investigation, I discovered that they had contacted several teachers and were preparing for a debate.  I'm not sure what the full context is, but I decided that I would share my thoughts with them as freely as I felt I could.

This was my reply:

My first year as a teacher (at another school) I wasn’t assigning much homework at all and at Back-to-School Night a parent came up to me and told me that she thought my class was too easy because there wasn’t a lot of homework.  That was an interesting early introduction to how differently people feel about this issue.  A few years later in my first year at a different school I had a nightmare that my students didn’t have any time to play or have free time after school because of all of the homework they had (not just from my class).  So you can tell, homework is something I think about a lot.

When at all possible, I prefer to give flexible homework.  For example, my current CNN Student News assignment is to watch videos for two specific dates (Tues/Thurs) each week, but the discussion question responses do not have to be turned in until Monday.  An upcoming math HW assignment is to choose 6 out of 20 questions to complete, as opposed to me assigning specific numbers.  I don't seem to be able to get around to doing this for every homework assignment.  I really, really like projects because my hope is that students can take a fundamental topic and connect it to something that has personal meaning for them.  I hope they make students connect more deeply with topics.

But I don't think I've directly answered your two questions yet ...

Why do I assign mandatory homework?  What is the use of it?

• Different students learn at different paces.  Sometimes students need additional practice beyond what takes place at school to really get a good understanding of a topic.  I would love to be able to tailor individual homework for every student, but there isn't the time.  Some students who need additional practice would not complete it if it were not mandatory.  I try to limit the amount of nightly homework time I assign so that everyone gets a little practice, and for kids who need it less it won't take too much of their time.
• There is a lot we try to cover in the school year.  Even though each year it seems like teachers try to cut out little things here and there so we are trying to squeeze in less, it always seems like there never is enough time.  Part of being able to get through everything involves using time outside of the school day.
• I prefer to use class time for things that require face-to-face time with me or discussion with other students.  While this doesn't always happen, in my perfect world, that's how it would be.  With that in mind, I often (like with CNN current events videos or textbook reading) try to assign things for home that don't need that layer of interaction.  Although, as I say that, wouldn't it be interesting if we watched CNN Student News as a class at the same time and had realtime discussions about it?

So, in writing all of this, I think my big take away is that it all boils down to time available to cover topics in the curriculum (more Social Studies) and meeting each student's pace of learning (more Math).

There are many educators who are strongly opposed to any kind of homework - I actually think I lean more in that direction the longer I teach.  The difficulty for me is being able to get through everything ... and since I am not the only one who teaches the subjects I teach, I am not free to just eliminate topics from my classes.

And while I neglected to mention it in my email (I typed it off the cuff and didn't sit and draft & revise), learning time management skills is another reason I often cite in discussions about homework.  It was brought to mind again after reading Andrea Townsend's article in "The Atlantic."

I find that each year I walk a fine line between wanting to make sure my students are prepared for the rigor (and work load) they encounter in future years, but also allow them to be kids.  And then I read articles like Joanne Lipman's in "The Wall Street Journal" and wonder if maybe I should be assigning more ... just kidding!

I think purposeful homework can be useful, but in my perfect world we would be able to accomplish most of what we want to during the school day and our students would be free to explore personal interests after school.  If we gave them more time, maybe they could find a robotics club to take the place of math or science homework, join a book club to take the place of English/language arts, or start their own blog and cover all matter of topics.

Implementing Change Effectively

This is a presentation I created for the Emerging Middle School Leaders Institute, organized by Independent Education. More information about the institute can be found here.

Online ERBs from a Teacher Perspective (updated 2/14/13)

While I consider myself a bit of a techie, I do not have any official capacity related to technology at my school.  As a result I was not involved in the organizational end of running the online ERB tests at my school.  This post is a set of tips after a successful first day of administering them to my homeroom. 

Our tech team and learning specialist made sure we were VERY well-prepared for today!

Tip 1: Reinforce upfront that there will be problems

Our learning specialist really hit this home and it was very helpful.  We knew that there would be glitches, but we also knew that she and the IT team were working overtime to address all of them.  By very openly acknowledging that there is a learning curve the first time you try something new, especially on such a large scale, teachers were more willing to offer feedback because they didn't feel like they were doing something wrong.  It really helped the process to approach it as a learning experience.

Tip 2: Train teachers early

Two months prior to administration, the teachers were led informally through both sides of the student tutorial, having the opportunity to explore the teacher proctor experience, as well as the student test-taking experience.  This took place in a large group.

One month prior to administration, the teachers were formally trained on how to administer the tests, including running through detailed instructions in the administrators manual, and discussing how the online test experience differed from the paper version.  This took place in grade level groups.

As mentioned, teachers were trained in both large and small groups.  Having the chance to ask questions and get more one-on-one feedback and support in the smaller grade level groups was valuable.  The first run through worked well in a large group because it was guided practice and exposure, as opposed to a training where teachers were supposed to be taking notes and focused on exactly what they would be doing during administration week.

Tip 3: Run the tutorial with students at least two weeks before administration

Having this experience (see Tip 4 as well) allowed for updates to instructions and schedules based on any problems that arose or confusion on the part of teachers.  It also allowed our IT leaders to make some updates on their end to account for glitches related specifically to running the tests with may students at once on our particular system.

Tip 4: Test run the tutorial with as many students as you can at the same time

Two weeks prior to administration week, all students who would be taking the test at the same time during the testing week worked through the online tutorial at the same time.  This allowed IT to be sure we had the technological capacity to withstand the load of the students doing the online tests during official administration.  It also provided teachers with the experience of working through potential tech issues with IT available and on call.

Tip 5: Have IT and tech support available during tutorials and administration

Our amazing, amazing IT team was readily available, either in person or by phone, during the tutorial and testing sessions.  They were focused on the testing as their top priority and were very responsive.  In addition, our learning specialist and trained administrators (we had one additional trained faculty member per grade level) were in the hallway outside the classrooms for immediate support.

Tip 6: Provide updated schedules and instructions on different colored paper

Each time a revised set of directions or new schedule comes out to adapt for issues that arise or to meet teacher needs for weekly class time, use a different colored paper for the copies.  This way when you want to ensure teachers are referring to the most up-to-date information you can tell them that they should be looking at the blue instructions and the green schedule.

Tip 7: Leave extra time in the scheduled test sessions for addressing the unexpected

The schedule that was set up for us allowed for at least 15 additional minutes, at times as much as 25, in each testing session in the schedule.  This is not extending the time allowed for the actual test, it meant that all of the teachers in the administration area were keeping kids quiet in their rooms for a longer period of time.  For the groups for whom administration went smoothly, this meant there was an extended time of quiet break and resting once they finished the test.  For the groups which had tech glitches or other issues, this additional time allowed all students to complete their tests in the time available.  It also decreased teacher stress to know that there was a cushion already built in.

Tip 8: Have a specific system for naming the test sessions

We were instructed to name the sessions using the following system “last name-room number-test initials.”  For example: smith123vr (for Mr. Smith administering the Verbal Reasoning test in classroom 123).  On the date of administration this made it easier for the individuals on the administration end to see where a student was if any issues showed or came up within the testing system.

Tip 9: Highlight one major difference – tests split into sections

One major difference between the paper test and the online test is that online a single test may be split into multiple sections.  While taking the paper test, when a student finishes the entire test, she may go back and review all questions from the test in any extra time available.  While taking the online test, each test is split into multiple sections.  When a student finishes each section, he may go back and review all questions from that section.  Once he has finished reviewing that section and moves on to the next section, he cannot go back to the first section at the end of the testing session.  This needs to be clear to students so that they can manage their time accordingly and take a few extra minutes to review in the middle of the test (at the end of each section).

**** Tips 10, 11 & 12 are additions after our final day of online ERB testing.

Tip 10: There is a difference within the online system - Math 1 & Math 2 are part of the same session

This was confusing to us (teachers) at first, when you set up the session for the Math 1 & Math 2 tests, there is only one "Mathematics" test available.  At the end of the Math 1 test students see a slightly different screen that says "Stop" in big red letters.  They are told they must close the session to complete this section of the test.  They have no other option but to close the session, so there is no danger of them accidentally starting the Math 2 test.  After the break time between testing sessions, students re-enter the same session number they used for Math 1, and it starts them back up at the beginning of Math 2.  I am guessing this is because the test makers want to ensure that the Math 1 and Math 2 tests are administered on the same day (since a test session only lasts for 24 hours).  Bottom line - it sounded confusing to the teachers because it was different, but in reality it wasn't confusing at all to the students.


Tip 11: Fun feature! Additional mouse over information in "Student Location" column

There is a column in the proctor screen that allows the proctor/teacher to see on which question each individual student is working.  Up until this morning, I didn't know that I could tell the difference between Susie, who was just starting "24 out of 36," and Annie, who had completed all 36 and was reviewing "24 out of 36."  If you hover your mouse over the "24 out of 36" a small pop-up message will appear that tells you how many actual answers a student has entered (so for Susie it would have said, "24 out of 36 answered" and for Annie it would have said, "36 out of 36 answered").  It also lets you know what percentage of the overall test this represents.  It was very helpful when I figured that out today!


Tip 12: Have loaner or extra computers on hand.

Our IT department had back-up laptops available for students to use in a pinch.  So if a student's laptop all of a sudden was having issues connecting to the network to access the test, they could swap to a different machine without much time being wasted.  This was really helpful when the issue was related to the machine, not the test or the network.



Overall it was a great experience, despite the adjustment period and stress of doing something new with such important testing.  The benefit of having the test results immediately available to the administration would, I think, make this a worthwhile venture for any school with adequate access to technology!

Our students' work is lovely and deep, but I have miles to go before I sleep*

On Friday, our middle school students involved in diversity work put on the annual Student Diversity Assembly.  They are, in a word, amazing.  Each year I am blown away by the maturity and insight our 7^th and 8^th graders bring to this event.  I am also consistently amazed by the bravery of our 5^th and 6^th graders to stand on stage and talk about these enormous topics.  While the event always takes a mountain of teacher logistical support, the students are the ones who pull it together.

Highlights from this year:

•  our playback theater group who performed at a local diversity conference brought their work to the assembly and performed on topics of friendship and diversity raised by the audience
• members of our 5^th & 6^th grade diversity club shared excerpts of an activity in which all students participated earlier in the year, reflecting in writing on bullying and name calling
• a talented 8^th grade videographer interviewed students about what diversity means to them, had quotes of students asking, “What is diversity?” in multiple languages, and put together an insightful but delightfully humorous short video for us to watch
• the 15 6^th graders who attended a recent diversity conference shared personal reflections about what they learned and how they were going to make a change in their/our community
• members of the 7^th and 8^th diversity club put together a slideshow that challenged stereotypes and pushed all of us to question our assumptions (it was pure middle school and beautifully done)

Ultimately, we do it all for the students.  When they can stand up on stage and share, almost as eloquently as any adult could, their thoughts on such challenging subjects, on some level there is clear progress being made! 

So I walk away from this feeling energized by the diversity work taking place in our school, but knowing there are still “miles to go before I sleep.”  Diversity work is never complete.  There are always new facets of diversity being “discovered” and valued in our culture and school communities, and those which we already prioritize continuously morph and change before our eyes.

*Thanks to Robert Frost for my cheesy adaptation.

From There to Here (or "Clowns to the left of me, Jokers to the right, here I am, Stuck in the middle with you.")

For a leadership institute in which I am participating I was asked to answer the following questions.  I realized that my response was much too long for the context and so am posting my full reply here.

Why did you become an educator? When did you realize you wanted to work with middle school students?

In composing this response, I realized that at so many points along the way it was either chance or a leap of faith that resulted in where I find myself today.  For someone who strongly believes that all things happen for a reason (although at times we need to dig deep or allow space and time to find that reason), I can’t help but think that this is exactly where I am supposed to be.

While I have always enjoyed working with children, when I entered college I initially declared international relations as my major.  After taking a psychology elective and discovering that my school’s international relations program was more economics focused than I would have liked, I changed my focus to a psychology major.  During my junior year I took a course in adolescent psychology and everything clicked.  I had so many light bulb moments in that class.  I went from thinking about adolescence as an age of nuisance, to thinking of it as an age of incredible growth that looks frustratingly awkward from the outside.  I think this was the first critical moment that pointed me down the path to where I am today, an educator strongly committed to working “in the middle.”

Upon graduation from college, I had very little direction.  What I did have was a strong desire to help others, but I wasn’t sure what or where my focus should be.  I began temporary work with a non-profit that supported women in developing countries.  While fulfilling, it wasn’t a viable long-term option.  After some reflection I decided that, “I can be a teacher.  It can’t be that hard.” 

Logically, I was hired by a school that stretched its teachers thin (as one would hope for someone with my minimal experience).  It was a beautiful independent school community, but I was not really mentored or provided with any significant guidance. I was, almost literally, handed my textbooks, shown my classroom, and sent on my way to figure it out.  I did find mentors of my own, and had a very positive relationship with everyone in the welcoming and diverse school community.  I loved the children I taught in my high school Italian and middle school Spanish classes that year.  I felt drawn to the younger ones for reasons I could not explain at the time.  Despite the wonderful students, this was one of the most challenging years of my life.  Family circumstances drew me across the country and I moved on after one year.

After passing over opportunities for work that was more corporate in nature, life found me working on a psychological study of the long-term impact of early childcare on children’s development.  The children in the study happened to be in 5^th and 6^thgrade during the two years I worked with the group.  The spark I had felt during my first year as a teacher was rekindled.  And then September 11^thhappened.  As many in the country did, I found myself questioning my role and my future.  If I had been one of the thousands who had died, would I have left the world a better place than when I entered it?  What had I done or was I doing to leave a lasting mark that in some way improved our lot?  The classroom was calling me back.

I decided that I could not return to the classroom as ill prepared as I had been my first year, so I enrolled in a Masters of Education program and began to search for teaching positions.  After several months of dead ends, I found myself with an offer to be a classroom assistant in a kindergarten class in a small K-6 independent school.  With no other options on the table, I tried to convince myself that being back in a school would be wonderful and that this was the inlet I needed to get back into the system.  Something didn't feel right and I was apprehensive.  At the eleventh hour another offer came up to be a part-time middle school Spanish teacher in a slightly larger K-8 school.  I jumped at the opportunity and was able to convince the head of school to allow me an advisory to increase my hours and compensation.  I dove in and never looked back.

Over the years my roles in the schools in which I have worked have shifted and morphed, adapting to the needs of the institution and to my willingness to lean into discomfort.  I have found myself, on numerous occasions, proving myself after the schools in which I worked took a leap of faith, so to speak.  Actually, this was how my early career in education progressed ... 

... the 2nd trimester starts tomorrow and we don't have a schedule?  I can do that!

... the 6th grade advisory curriculum needs formalizing?  I can do that!

... we don't have a formal transcript system and someone needs to work with the developer?  I can do that!

... we have two extra sections of math to be taught?  I can do that!

... ordering agenda books is too expensive and we need to create them in house?  I can do that!

... the language arts teacher is on maternity leave?  I can do that!

I've shifted to a place of seeking out opportunities and finding things that elicit an "I want to do that!"  While I still occasionally jump up with an "I can do that!" I have become more focused in my energy and efforts, discovering where my strengths truly lie.  Ultimately, I can't imagine myself anywhere but "in the middle."  The middle years are dynamic, enthusiastic, tumultuous, open, unpredictable, malleable, caring, giving, and beautiful.  It sounds like I'm in love, and I think I am.  Regardless of the hat I put on within one, there's no place I'd rather be than stuck in middle school.

Getting to Know You

I am gearing up for the first day of school with students on Tuesday.  As usual, I'll be laboring on Labor Day, putting the finishing touches on the room and preparing everything I didn't get to last week.  My better half is a good sport and takes the kids to the local Labor Day parade, where they march with their preschool.

I brought some work home, and spent time today working on one of my favorite getting to know you activities.  As we lead up to the first day, I speak to teacher who had my students last year and/or read my students' files.  I'm not looking for academic experience, test scores, or behavioral track record.  I'm looking for hobbies and interests.

Once I have a sense of one or more interests for each of my students (and hopefully many of them are overlaps), I select one per student and then search for an image that represents that hobby or interest.*  I print and laminate the image and post them on the doors to the cabinet just inside the classroom.  One of our first activities on the first day, is that I explain to the students that there are 16 of them and 16 images.  Each image needs a partner and then need to figure out who should get which image.  My only other instruction is that no one can be forced to take an image to which they don't relate.  Each year there are a few images that end up with someone different than the student I initially had in mind.  Two years ago I had a student very upset with the image that was clearly selected for her and so we selected a different one together.

It is so much fun to overhear the conversations and to watch them learn about each other, even those who have been in school together for years.  While first day jitters clearly play a factor, I learn so much about them from the get-go - negotiating skills, who is assertive, who sits back and lets others take over (in addition to the obvious discussions of who has shared interests).

A week or two later we do a fairly generic Homeroom Scavenger Hunt, where they have to get each person in the homeroom to sign a different box on their page.  Options include things like, "It takes me over 30 minutes to get to school," "I sometimes speak a language other than English at home," "I am a night own," and other similar statements.  I am careful to avoid statements that might imply valuing one situation over another, and almost everything has an equally positively phrased counter point.

Last year I discovered a wonderful new activity, called the GoBo Window.  It was created by Rodney Glasgow (Director of Diversity at Worcester Academy) and a second educator, whose name I did not catch.  Students fold a paper in half (hot dog style) and, while still folded,  fold it in half again to make a square.  Unfold the second fold (so now it is hot dog style with a crease down the middle) so you have two external squares and two internal squares (when you lift the flap).  On the left external square students write the prompt, "You may know that I ..." and on the right external square they write, "You may think that I ...".  Lift the flap and, on the left internal square facing you, students write the prompt, "You probably don't know that I ..." and on the right internal square the write, "You probably couldn't guess that I ...".  The statements they use to complete each prompt must be true and can be as revealing as they want.  I provide them with a sample window with examples about me and I then give them 3-4 minutes to complete the sentences.  I then have them circulate the room until they have interacted with everyone else in the room, including me (I make a new one for the group activity).  When they face a partner they hold up their own external window and silently read that of their partner.  Once they have finished reading, each asks the partner, "Will you open your window?"  They respond in the affirmative and then lift the flap to share the more revealing/interesting information on the inside.  They are not allowed to comment on what they read, just say, "Thank you for sharing" to each other at the end and then find a new partner.  Last year I did this in late-February, after attending the Friends Council on Education's Diversity Peer Network meeting, at which I participated in the GoBo Window activity.  The students LOVED it!  They were fascinated to see how much they didn't know about each other, even by February, and it gave them some new things to talk about.

I am apprehensive and excited to learn about my group of students this year, and hope they enjoy getting to know each other as much as I enjoy helping facilitate the process!



What are some of your favorite getting to know you activities?  Please share them in the comments section!


*I now note the website sources of all images I use in my classroom.