I know so many of us have strong opinions on Icebreakers. I, myself, have a complicated love-hate relationship with these awkward first encounter games. I personally hate being forced into these games and conversations. I would much prefer to make connections with people in a more sincere way the first time I talk to them, but I definitely feel more comfortable after learning a bit about people before jumping into a lengthy professional relationship. So for our kids we tried to be creative and enjoy their company in a genuine way the first week while getting to know them.
On Monday, the first thing we did was play the classic Concentric Circle Icebreaker. The link wasn't the one we used but explains the exact process. Ultimately the kids answer questions and share with one another. We used some different questions that were particularly interesting: "What's your favorite cereal?" and "What's your spirit animal?" They also had to introduce themselves before each question they answered.
The one I'm most proud of is the "Who Done It" game we played Tuesday. Basically each group was given a bag of faces on popsicle sticks of the staff at CTEC. A fact was placed placed on the board, teams of 4 guessed who they thought it was (usually given 60 sec to concur) and then we revealed the answers. Students were surprised, interested and genuinely connecting to us and our experiences. On Wednesday, students were put into groups of 5 and asked to build their own game like ours. The instructions were pretty basic. Then Thursday, the kids got to play each other's games and it was great!
On Friday, we played what we called a collaborative competition game. We broke all the kids up into 4 big groups and asked them to send up one representative in a competition. Some of the competitions were: who can stuff the most marshmallows in their mouth, best dancer, who can crab walk the fastest, who can solve a maze quickest, who can juggle the best. This one definitely got everybody super excited.
CAMPUS EXPLORATION
Another unique, but important piece of our first week was the time we spent preparing our kids for the college campus. Obviously we talked about the shared space and making sure we respect the people and buildings on campus, but we also talked about the other resources and awesome perks of an Early College. On Wednesday, the seniors at the other Early College on campus came and gave our kids an hour tour of the campus in their eyes. They took them to the library, the student union, a couple important classroom buildings and such. The Q&A session really took on some great conversations. Some of the most powerful things that caught my ears that my students also echoed:
- Don't mistaken your struggle for you not wanting to be here
- The teachers will push you and its because sometimes they believe in your ability to succeed more than you do
- If you need an example of someone who has a difficult background and did it, come talk to one of us
- Make friends and lean on those people to create success beyond petty fights
- Take pride in this opportunity
I couldn't have said it better. And it will resonate with them more from peers anyways. Then the next day we put together a quick 7 mission scavenger hunt where they sent pictures to a Remind account. Here's an example of one:
And of course, the most exciting was Friday's Lunch on campus. Because they got to eat non-school food on a college campus and hang out in the comfy chairs and charge their phones. And I'm sure there was snap-chats sent to show their old friends what they were missing out of. Most of the kids mentioned this was their favorite part of the week because of the freedom and ability to be out of the classroom as well as the wise advice from people who have been where they are.
Growth Mindset
The other really important part of our school is starting a school culture. We focused first on defining growth mindset. After defining it, we asked students to go to the content teacher where they had fixed mindset first. I bet you were all shocked that I had the most for math. There we did our best to give them some helpful hints about how to obtain growth mindset in our courses and how we would help them do that. We fielded some questions about growth mindset and our courses. Then students went to the content teacher where they felt they already had a growth mindset. I then spent more time asking questions that I realized I hadn't asked nearly as often before. I asked these kids "What about math makes it easy to have a growth mindset?" Some students had stories of watching their math grade fluctuate in both a positive and negative direction, and by putting in extra work or slacking off they watched it change. I had a few that struggled to verbalize it and then a few who missed the mark completely. Some just said they've always been good at math (smh). So I tried to explain how that was more of fixed mindset based on talent.
We came back together as a big group and watched Angela Lee Duckworth's TedTalk on Grit. We fielded out a couple questions and the kids facilitated a conversation. Then each kid took a Grit Test to find out a score. Our goal is to revisit this score and see how accurate it is and try to better it through the year. I believe we are going to use this as part of a journal for our teacher cadet course.
Social Contract
Okay. So, this post has gotten really long, but I feel as though these things all helped develop a successful first week and school culture thus far. Last thing! The social contract we built with our kids follows closely with Capturing Kids Hearts protocol. Here is the method we used to build it. I'm not going to write a ton about it (I've already written a ton) except that it was wonderful, involved all student's input and impressed me. This was my first time seeing it and it was spectacular. This is our final social contract for the whole school. We are going to have kids sign it and hang it in all the classrooms and possibly outside our front doors.
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