building community in the classroom maha bali
TRANSCRIPT
Building Community in the Classroom
Maha Bali, PhD
Associate Professor of Practice,
Center for Learning & Teaching,
American University in Cairo
Image by Scott Maxwell via Flickr CC-By-SAhttps://www.flickr.com/photos/lumaxart/2137737248/in/photostream/
Chocolate Activity
Chocolate box image: Jonathan Reyes CC-BY-NC via Flickr:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/jpaxonreyes/5442938096/
Tell us about yourself…• If you picked a galaxy jewel: tell us something you
think you share in common with many others in the
room
• If you picked Ferrero: tell us something you think is
unique about yourself
• If you picked something else: tell us something you
think most people in the room didn’t know about
you
Reflection• Why do you think I used chocolate?
• As a community-building strategy, which is a better
pedagogical choice: Ferrero or Galaxy Jewels?
• When would chocolate be a bad strategy
altogether?
• I will share how/why I use this activity in my own
classes
Workshop OutcomesDuring this workshop, I hope you will:
• Experience diverse community-building activities
that can be used for different purposes at different
times during a semester
• Explore possible ways to adapt or create new
community-building activities for your objectives in
your classes
Exercise: Why & How? • Why would you want to build community in the
classroom?
• What do you currently do to build community?
Strategies, ideas, etc..
• What kind of challenges do you face?
• Share with group on your table
OPPORTUNITYISNOWHERE
• What do you see?
• Different ways/purposes for this
exercise?
• Things can sometimes go wrong…
My Why & How• My reasons for building community in
my classes
• How I get my ideas:o Internet including google search and my PLN
o Corporate world
o Other workshops/teaching (e.g. FYE at AUC, some teacher
handbooks)
o I make many of them up (e.g. the chocolate activity we
just did)
Role of Community• “There are three facets of a classroom and
school environment: 1) the physical environment, 2) the emotional environment, and, 3) the academic environment… To establish a positive classroom climate, safe emotional environment, and to begin building community immediately requires deliberate, conscious planning and strategies.”
• Anne Shaw (2013, August 13), Director, 21st Century Schools, “Back to School StrategoyBuilding Community” Edutopia article: http://www.edutopia.org/blog/back-to-school-strategy-building-community-anne-shaw
Building Community: 3 levels• student-student (one on one)
• student-teacher
• student-teacher-class (all of us as a
group, whether the entire group or
smaller groups)
Building community during strategic times:
• First day of class
• First 5-10 minutes of class
• Online in-between classes
• Other?
• How about…. All the time???
Suggestion…• To make the most of this workshop, as we go:
For each activity/idea/exercise we do, you might like
to think/write about:
• Can I use this in my classroom? If not, why not?
• How might I modify/extend this for my classroom?
• What kind of challenges would this pose?
Getting to Know Individuals
Ingredients of Me, from my blog:
http://blog.mahabali.me/blog/just-for-fun/ingredients-of-me/
Small/Large Group Activities
• Jeopardy Game: Name the Game
Game (very simple)o I used it in my own class to test pre-knowledge and start
students thinking about the topic we’ll be taking for the rest
of the semester
• Get outside…
• Scavenger Hunt activity: Twitter
Scavenger Hunto Meet a learning outcome by having students play in pairs
or small groups – outside the classroom
Ice-breakers/Conversation Starters
• Conversation starter: Learning is like
flowers; OERs are like food
• Brainstorming: 1+1>2
• Props e.g. digital citizenship toolkit
Community Online• Discussion forums, blogs, wikis (ideas in other
workshop)
• Opportunities for personalization
• Continuous (not limited to class time)
• Some students more comfortable online
(e.g. shy face to face)
• Room for 100% participation
Image: Social media art: by mkhmarketing via Flickr CC-BY https://www.flickr.com/photos/mkhmarketing/8468788107
Beyond Activities• Giving students space:
o What choices over topics can you give students?
o What choices over modes can you give
students?
o How much room for decision-making can you
give them?
o Consider relevance
o Consider how students can support each other
o Consider how to reduce competition
Exercise: for your course• Think of a learning outcome or class activity that
might benefit from including/converting a
community activity or ice breaker
Challenges• What’s on your mind?
• Time – but can you afford not to?
• Diversity in the class vs. seniors in the same major
• Some student attitudes
• Trust takes time to build, you can’t force it
