Seeing potential: Looking at something and seeing what could be done with it.
- Seeing potential helps us look beyond the obvious and see what can be done with a current object and/or situation. It helps us become good problem solvers.
- Object Transformation Challenge: As a challenge, our group was given tabs from soda cans. We were asked to see the potential in these random objects and figure out what we could do with them. Our group came up with as many ideas and we tried to think outside of the box. ( We knew what to do since an example challenge with a cup was carried out as a class)
Object Transformation challenge
- This challenge could be very beneficial for student development. It teaches students that they do not have to accept things as is and encourages students to challenge the status quo.
Community:
- Name Game Challenge: For this activity, every member of our group had to come up with an individual word. Our group members then put the words together to form a group name. Ours was “Passionate Raspberries Catastrophic Dumbells”. This is a great activity for the classroom since it forces all the members in groups to play an equal role in developing a group name.
- Sculpture Challenge: For this challenge our group was given a branch. Every member decorated the branch with symbols that represented who they are and attached a card to the branch representing what they could do to build a community. All the branches were then tied together to create a community tree sculpture. Beyond the creative and artistic aspects of this activity, it is helpful in building a classroom community, where every student works together and plays an active role.
Community Tree
Every Detail Matters:
- A final concept that we learnt during this class was that everything we as teachers do in the classroom, from the classroom set-up, to our body language, to the activities we carry out, has an impact on how the students feel and what they indirectly learn.
“I have come to the frightening conclusion that I am the decisive element. It is my personal approach that creates the climate. It is my daily mood that makes the weather. I possess tremendous power to make life miserable or joyous. I can be a tool of torture or an instrument of inspiration, I can humiliate or humor, hurt or heal. In all situations, it is my response that decides whether a crisis is escalated or de-escalated, and a person is humanized or de-humanized. If we treat people as they are, we make them worse. If we treat people as they ought to be, we help them become what they are capable of becoming.” – Haim Ginott
Ink Blot Challenge
At the start of the lesson, every student was asked to spray a piece of irregularly shaped paper with ink and then give the item a title. This activity is a great way to force students to think outside of the box since nothing about the activity could lead to anything typical. The activity could be a great introduction for a math unit, a story writing unit and more.
Sarah Turgel, Emily K.,Tina Lin,Ariella Lightman