I am pretty fortunate to be able to dabble in synchronous, asynchronous and blended learning environments. I really appreciate a shared virtual space and have found that many of my “tried and true” activities can effectively be applied to the online classroom. There is an amazing book out there by an amazing teacher that I highly recommend every teacher has on their desk:
These activities are golden for all parents too, seriously, this book has saved my sanity on many a long car ride. You won’t regret buying it. I promise you!
Some of my favourite activities to get students interacting and participating:
Fact or Fiction. Send students on an internet search to discover if something is true or not in one minute. When some of the items unverifiable, it keeps it interesting and prompts a little debate. Students can post a link in the comments to evidence. For example: Creating a phony entry in your address book will stop viruses from mailing themselves out from your computer. (False)
A personal favourite is a simple “talk-a-lot” activity where you simply tell the class anything you can think of for a full 60 seconds… all talking at once, including me! Depending on the class, sometimes, I give a theme like “what would the perfect pet be and why, convince me.” It creates a noisy, lively, minute of Meet time. It’s very rare that students don’t participate and a safe way to speak online without the nerves being the centre of attention often brings.
For my older social-emotional learning programs, there a few things I make a habit of doing. When we meet asynchronously, I am always careful to greet everyone by name as they join. My first activity is usually a quote that represents the theme or mood of the space we’re creating. I share the meaning it holds to me in a very authentic way and I leave the invitation for others to as well. I find this is a helpful way to establish a sense of warmth and as I am usually in my office, the background is also very intentionally set to establish a specific mood (nature art, plants, etc.). I even have a plug-in water feature but I usually don’t open with it 🙂
I find the activities I do really vary depending on the subject and nature of the course I am teaching.
I had never really checked out Jamboard before my wonderful group member and fellow learner here, Tammy, shared its praises. I have now been doing some exploring. I recommend you check out this teacher who makes some amazing templates for Jamboard.
https://twitter.com/GiftedTawk?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor Her Twitter account actually shows animated versions of the different things.
This site here https://linktr.ee/GiftedTawk has the same templates for you to take and make a copy!
Happy week 9 and looking forward to week 10 of the course!
March 13, 2021 at 1:08 pm
Hi Kate,
I have never heard of the “Talk-a-lot” activity before but I think it would be fantastic to try. I agree that it could be transferred over to the online world, especially if it is synchronous learning. I know a couple of my grade six classes would get a kick out of it for sure. I wonder if you could apply it to the side chat as well, let’s say in a google side chat? All the kids typing their thoughts out live in a constant stream of thought?
Do you know where I could buy the book above? I have searched Google but it seems to be out of print or sold out.
March 13, 2021 at 1:22 pm
Looks like Amazon should have some copies. I have the print but also ordered the pdf version for convenience, I think from http://php7.bluebus.com.eg/cgi-bin/file.php?article=3.minute.motivators.revised.and.expanded.edition.by.paterson.kathy.pdf&code=8fa172413193c3f8ce32a434597b8319.
Kathy was a professor at UofA and has a number of very practical books – I hope someone somewhere keeps them in stock!
For grade 6, my students’ favourite activity was fortunately/unfortunately. You partner up and one student is “fortunately” and another is “unfortunately.” Give a theme and they go back and forth. For example:
1: Fornatutely I love school
2: Unfortunately tomorrow is Saturday and there is no school.
1: Fortunately I have a lot of homework so it will be just like school
2: Unfortunately the rest of us will be having fun so there will be nobody to work with.
and so on…
Put them on a 60 second timer and then switch roles for another 60 seconds. Before long the class will get quite (almost too) creative!
Maybe a breakout room activity!
March 13, 2021 at 3:10 pm
Hey Kate,
Great post as always! I really like the number of ideas that you bring to the table as well as giving us a book with more activities that suit our varying styles, which I saved for a later purchase on Amazon. The one activity that I found myself attracted to the most was the “fortunately/unfortunately” activity. It is a great way to get students talking, and I think it would work really well when teaching ESL students. I am still trying to figure out how that would work online setting, but I love the idea anyway! I have you tried that activity online? If so, how did it go?
Thanks for all the tips!
Have a great weekend.
Michael
March 13, 2021 at 4:57 pm
Hi Michael! I haven’t actually tried it online. There is another quick talking game I have done during Google meets that has worked well. It’s called “You did what?” You pick the order that students will speak in (I usually post in the comment the order so people know – students can have a “pass” but rarely use it) and give a lead statement. For example, your pet started talking to you, you landed your spaceship on the moon, you looked in a mirror and didn’t see your reflection, etc., and you go through the list with everyone adding the first thing that pops in their mind. When the energy falls, throw in a new lead statement. You are pretty much guaranteed ridiculousness, absurdity and everyone talking. There’s an added benefit of finding out what your students really like as their hobbies, interests, favourite celebrities and so on are usually where the conversation goes. I haven’t really played around with any of these activities in an asynchronous environment but I imagine some might be adaptable. Thanks for your kind words and for taking the time to comment!
March 14, 2021 at 9:06 am
Hi Kate,
Thanks for sharing this book and some really great icebreaker/community building ideas. Have you tried any of these activities with adult learners or colleagues? LIke Michael, I thought the “fortunately/unfortunately” sounded like it could really work well (and could get everyone to share something in a sync session…which is sometimes hard!). Chris’s idea of having the talk a lot in the chat might be fun too (I am wondering what it might sound like to have 15 people talking at once in a synchronous session :)).
Michelle
March 14, 2021 at 10:04 am
Oh wow! I am blog famous! Thanks for the shout-out. We have been using JamBoard more often since it was introduced as part of our staff meetings, as a way of getting everyone’s input quickly, but allowing us time to think about the contents on our own time. It has provided us with some great further conversations, and thoughtful responses to others’ ideas.
One of the greatest things about these courses are the lived experiences of other educators and the tools they use. That talk-a-lot activity is one that I tried in a youth leadership program that I used to facilitate. It was called something else, and it was supposed to be only two people at a time, but I adapted it so that everyone could participate, mainly for time constraints. I think I’ll try it at lunch time one day when my students are talking over one another with excitement. One of my main strategies as an educator is to learn new things, adapt them as needed, and learn more things! It might be more difficult in a Google Meet, particularly with some of my students who have sensory processing difficulties, but they all can type with some skill, so perhaps we could give “type a lot” a try!