What is Zoom you ask? Well it's more than just a picture book!
While I was working on updating and adding to my Diigo library going through all my saved links I came across my Zoom link. For those of you who know me, you know that I have taught a different grade every year since becoming a teacher. I have taught grades Kindergarten through 3rd and 5th through 8th, only 4th grade left on my check list (but lets hope I get a few years in Kindergarten before moving again to another grade).
In those year I have complied a few tricks to help me survive all these transitions, and Zoom is one of my favorites. I first came upon this team building exercise in Group Dynamics which I took during my undergrad and I have used it with children as young as 2nd grade all the way up to middle school. The group that struggled the most with this activity was my 8th grade students who I had complete the activity as an introduction to expectations for group work for class projects. After the activity we discussed means of communication, how the group was affective, and the frustrations of the project. This discussion lead to what an effective group looks and sounds like and what I expected from group projects. While this activity can be used as a simple icebreaker or game, I think that it has the potential for so much more and the discussions and insights that can come from it are amazing. So if you have the time, give it a try and let me know how it went =)
Thank you, Anna. I just added the Zoom activity web page to my Diigo Library for future reference. I do remember doing an activity like this one at St. Joe's, probably as part of training to teach the first year seminar course.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the link Anna-I'm going to save it to my Diigo! I have seen these books before-very cool! My school also used it as an ice breaker with the teachers and office staff. It actually caused more confusion than not-most had never seen the book and walked around aimlessly looking for a similar picture.Time became the underlying problem-not enough of it to figure out the sequence of pictures. boy, that sounds like everyday in a classroom (not enough time)!
ReplyDeleteJustin and his late co-teacher Mike taught me Zoom during my Undergrad at SJC in a groups dynamics class. Every time I use this activity I think of them and how much I learned.
ReplyDeleteIt can be a lengthy activity so it can be hard to work into the classroom setting, but I have found that is worth time because of the discussion it has lead to, even in the younger grades.