Tag Archives: Shaya

New ideas!

How do we begin building group dynamics in the small or large group? Facilitators have shared with me some great ice-breakers and have left the supplies in the grey drawer:

a. Throwing ball competition (from Shaya and Emily bought the plastic balls): This is for the small group. You divide the mini-group into 2 and each group is one one side of the room with an imaginary line between the two. In 1 minute, each team will throw the balls to the other group (you get to time this activity). After the minute is over, the winner will have the least number of balls on their side.

b. Knots (from Kieran and the supplies are in the set up is already done): This is for the large group. You divide the large group into 3 (4 participants in each table). There will be four cups on the table and the participants has to use an orange string (each person holds one side of the string) to maneuver the cups in a certain pattern – i.e. as a row, stack up after another, or pyramid. The winning team will finish the task first.

c. Story-telling (Cole and Serb): This is for the small group. Each person gets to pick one word to write down on a piece of paper. A snowball fight begins and each individual receives one piece of paper. As a group, a story has to be formed as each individual contributes one/two sentences using the word they have picked.

d. Charades (Kieran): This is for the small group. The group is divided into two and each group 'presents' together. In the group of three people, two people will act out what is written on the powerpoint slides (i.e. Kolbs Cycle) and the other individual has to guess the word written.

e. Ninja (Deb, Kyle, Jeff): This is for the small group. Each individual gets one 'action' – to block/attack the other person using their arms. This is done in quick succession and the winner is the person who isn't 'hit'.

f. How would you describe me in 3 words (Rowshan): This is for the large group. Each person has a piece of paper and they will talk to 3 other individuals. When each chat is done, they will write 3 words to describe the individual.

As with any activity, these will require modifications based on the participants and grouping.

Connecting Day 1 Sessions

In the April (8,15, 16) ISW, we introduced the day 1 theme sessions as a single theme session on Lesson Design (Theory). We created a worksheet that the participants used during the 4 parts of the lesson (LO; Motivation; PL; Assessment). During each part, they were asked a couple of questions on the worksheet that got them to apply the lesson to the design of their first mini-lesson. At the end of all 4 parts they had 10-15 minutes to look at their mini-lesson and make changes to it based on their worksheet.

This worked well on a couple of levels:

  1. It connected the 4 theme sessions we do on day 1 without  the facilitators having to design them together.
  2. And it helped our participants solidify what they were learning by providing them with an opportunity for an immediate application of their learning (on which they also received feedback in the afternoon).

If you are interested to know more, send myself, Mabel or Linda an e-mail or stop by the office:-)

Ice breaker!

All My Neighbors

This could be a good large group ice breaker.

from the Cornell Trainer Network Icebreaker-Mini Conference held on July 2nd, 1996

This game is a distant cousin to “musical chairs”. Everyone begins by sitting on chairs in a circle with the facilitator standing in the middle. Facilitator explains that the person in the middle needs to find some “neighbors”. To do so, they’ll make a true statement about themselves and hope that it will be true for others. Everyone that “identifies” with the statement has to then stand up and go to the middle of the circle. When facilitator indicates (using chimes, etc.) everyone who is standing in the centre needs to find an empty chair and sit. This means that someone will be without a chair, and they get to go to the middle and find some “neighbors.”

After giving the above instructions, the facilitator begins with something like: “All my neighbors wearing blue jeans”. At this, everyone who is wearing jeans should jump out of their seats and go to the centre. When facilitator indicates, everyone in the centre will look for an empty seat. The odd person outgoes to the middle. And so on!

This game can easily last ten to fifteen minutes.

Energizer

Clean Up Your Room
For Small Group

Props needed:  Soft objects to throw – at least one per participant and a way to mark 2 halves area used for the activity

Form two groups facing one another in a line. Draw an imaginary line in the center. Give each person at least one soft object to throw. Explain the imaginary line is the center of the room and they are responsible for keeping their side of the room clean by throwing all objects to the other side.

When the sound is made time is up and the side with the “cleanest room” wins.

Grad Team Principles: Living Conversation

Our team is undergoing a process of re-articulating its guiding principles, and this is a process we would like to engage in through conversation with our whole team. Joseph, Jason and I will each be initiating a conversation in this blog about one of the principles we came up with in an initial conversation. Please comment, or start a new post to share your own thoughts, respond to what you’ve seen others say, or just reflect. We will read what you write, and the eventual statements of our principles will grow from the conversation we have here.

Living Conversation

The work that we do in our roles as members of the Grad Team at CTLT, relies a lot on the concept of a “living” conversation. By conversation we mean as much a conversation with others as a conversation with contextual (physical, inter-cultural, social, pedagogical, etc.) spaces, theories, practices, meanings, processes and applications.

A “living” conversation is a conversation that both breathes and listens, where knowledge creation and understanding take place on-goingly and through the acts of theorizing as a process of complication – The kind of theorizing that takes place in relational, practical and creative ways of making meaning through recursive, reflective, responsive forms of engagement. A “living” conversation means that we do not engage in and/or interact with others, spaces, knowledge, etc., with a non-flexible and predetermined agenda.

Both in the work we do as Educational program developers and as facilitators we enter all forms of conversation with an open mind, we engage in constant questioning of our assumptions and processes, and redirect, redesign, and realign our paths. A “living” conversation also implies that the work we do carries on beyond our involvement with it into other spaces and conversations. It echoes beyond the work that we do and takes on a life of its own.

How do you relate to this definition of a “living” conversation? How would you define it in the work that you do? And how does it impact your work?