As many teachers know, the task of creating teams is a puzzle. Trying to balance student satisfaction, honor their choice, balance gender, balance strengths, and match personalities is no easy order. Today I was reminded that student voice can be incorporated into this process. I had a handful of highly engaged and reflective students offer to help me draft up the teams. Their knowledge of each other helped a great deal with the personality bit. They also proved to have quick minds and grasped the concept the balancing act that was our challenge. Once we finalized the teams by arranging slips of paper a few of the volunteers entered them into a shared Google doc. Some students have expressed concnerns about teams, but my message to them is that part of the learning has to do with cooperation and developing the skills to work through team challenges. The next step is to have teams develop contracts whcih will help guide the teams in their responsi. A big thank you to the students that helped today.
11 Comments
16penanic1
10/21/2011 12:30:44 am
I feel that the project is going smothly and that the teams are fair. I also beleive that my topic is intertesting and it is fun to do. I am looking foward to helping my organization.
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Nalani
10/21/2011 12:32:22 am
putting the teams together according to their personality is a good idea.
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16sabomar1
10/21/2011 12:33:19 am
That's the most important part of the PBL to be with people you have connections and the same abbilities.
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Nalani
10/21/2011 12:33:35 am
Matching up the teams according to their personality is a good idea.
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16smutgab1
10/21/2011 12:34:15 am
I like how you took in consideration how us students like to be grouped. It was a good idea choosing other students to choose the groups because they know us more personaly, therefore they can put us in more efficient groups.
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16hasbahm1
10/21/2011 12:34:39 am
I really agree with you about compatability among classmates. Sometimes at the beginning most of the students don't like their teams, but as time goes by they start really working in teams and learn how to deal with each others weaknesses and stregnth. A niceway to figure out groups for big projects its to make a small project with the same teams to the compatability among them.
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16rodrgon1
10/21/2011 12:34:44 am
I think we should get the liberty to choose our groops. We work better with people we get along with better. I wouldn't be confortable going to a house with a person I barely knew.
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16jeregae1
10/21/2011 12:35:58 am
I like that you take in consideration the teams, to make them balanced and equal.
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16cruzmar1
10/21/2011 12:37:13 am
I think that the idea for this project is really intersting a helful for those kids in the organization who need help.
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16tronmon1
10/21/2011 12:47:11 am
I think that students should be able to choose their groups because when you are with people you enjoy time with, you are encouraged to work harder.
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Maria A Selman
10/21/2011 07:35:55 am
I understand that kids like to work with their friends, but they are old enough to learn to cooperate in groups with student with different personalities.
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AuthorZach Post specializes in creating relevant learning opportunities to help students and teachers engage in their rapidly changing world. His focus is on leadership, technology integration, and collaboration. Currently, Mr. Post works at Saigon South International School in Vietnam. He has been an educator since 2001. Archives
October 2015
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