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At the beginning of every new semester, I (Jessi) have my middle school students fill out a notecard about themselves. It is a simple questionnaire with some basic and quirky tidbits, and serves as an icebreaker of sorts. Little did I anticipate the tremendous impact this simple activity would have in my classroom. I do tell my students that I share this information with the class before they fill out their cards but they are so eager for me to share their cards once they learn how the game works. (It is like Guess-Who.) Effective facilitation requires building a team that is positive and connected. When educators are developing a student-driven environment, it is vital that they facilitate team building just as a sports team coach builds and drives camaraderie. The notecard activity serves as a catalyst for student interaction and fosters genuine connections among peers. It becomes a foundation for building kindness by teaching students to have empathy and mindfulness.  Notecards completed by middle school students. Designing Questions When crafting questions for students, start with the fundamentals such as birthdays and preferences. To spice things up, consider incorporating “would you rather” questions. Really there is no rule to designing the questions! Sample Questions:
How to Play Utilize any downtime or early clean-up moments in class to engage students with this game. Simply select a notecard and read out the answers without revealing the respondent’s identity. Encourage students to raise their hand to guess who provided the response. Once a card is read, mark it, and move on to the next one. This game serves as a motivating incentive for prompt clean-ups. Prizes or Not Prizes for this game are optional. Students are rather happy to play and participate without any prizes! What’s next? Once all cards have been read, create a new series of questions for students to answer. The depth and complexity of questions increases for this round two! Sample Questions:
[re]Think how to build your community
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 Have you ever noticed your energy dips during the 3rd quarter? I (Roni) have. It’s about the 3rd Quarter where kids get squirrely. Right after the holiday the weather is gray and so is the skip in your/my step, the students… are…dragging. It’s about all you can do to look ahead to Spring Break but in between you have testing and your 8th graders have gone nuts. I teach Preschool through 8th grade, so I run the gamut of children's behaviors and see kiddos who can’t wait to get back to me and some who put their head down on the table and can’t wake up. What’s an art teacher to do?
I want THEM to have the ideas, the choices and experiences. PLAY for me is the answer. PLAY BASED LEARNING IS MY ANSWER: I dive deeper into play and community when I want to give up on the sound in the art room, endless questions and a reliance on me that I work and model hard to teach out of my students. I want THEM to have the ideas, the choices and experiences. PLAY for me is the answer. Play has been said to be the work of children by both Maria Montessori and Jean Piaget. I say, it is the work of adults as well. I created the Collaborative Cup Challenge to engage and get my students (and myself) back on track. I originally developed this for a class of kids who had a hard time working together respectfully. This community based challenge is what I need to remind me what I love about teaching. The relationship building, the collaboration of ideas, the laughter as well as working through a problem and compromising and then having the AHA! MOMENT…look what we created together that was not here minutes ago?! That is the magic for me and the laughter is icing.Try this challenge to foster independent as well as collaborative thinking and get yourself and your class back on track.
Steps: 1- Prepare cups with rules on the cup. We are fostering their autonomy and we want them to figure this out. One cup for each table of 4 students. 2- Sit four students at a table. (Want to add in a bit of Social Emotional Learning?) Put two students who have a difficult time working together and you will see some amazing relationship skills emerge. 3-Every student should ideally have their own roll of tape. 4-Tell students that they are to collaboratively build one object together. They can discuss what they are building, build it in parts together BUT there will be one abstract sculpture or concrete on their black paper at the end of 15 minutes. 5-Create a sculpture garden! On an index card fold over as a tent :students will name their sculpture, add their names and place on black paper. Walk around view and hold a reflection/critique;take photos. “This is crazy fun!”~ 6th grade review, with all students begging for more time, laughing, talking, and cheering one another on. I give them 30 minutes more. The collaboration and teamwork was palpably
[re]Imagine your 3rd Quarter...
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