Virtual Class Building & Team Building

 In pre-pandemic times, we know the importance of cooperative learning structures and cooperative grouping.  We know that that these routines keep students engaged and optimize their learning.  We know it is essential to teach kids how to work together to achieve a common goal, and to learn from one another, while building relationships.  The question is, how has this been working with online learning?  For many of us who are simply struggling to survive this pandemic and new world of online learning, it may be something that has been forgotten, or just plain difficult to achieve.

I believe that now more than ever, it's so important to ensure that we are implementing team building and class building exercises even into our online learning.  Children are being isolated from their peers and have minimal social interaction.  Not only do we know that collaborative learning structures help students learn more efficiently, it's also essential right now to focus on helping students to have that peer interaction with one another. And as Kagan has taught us so well, cooperative/collaborative learning only takes place once effective team building/building relationships has occurred.  The students need to know each other and feel comfortable with each other in order for them to effectively open up and work together.  

So that leads us to this important question, HOW can we implement team building exercises through virtual/online learning??  I know that team bulidng and class building has really been a struggle through virtual instruction.   I am going to give a few ideas here in this blog, that will hopefully help you out, if you're looking for some new ideas!

Class Building

First you want to start by building relationships with the class as a whole.  You want to get to know each of them as much as you want them to know each other.  This can be done through something as simple as a morning circle.  I teach 5th grade and we start every morning on zoom with our morining circle question.  Usually, you will want to start with questions that will be fun and engaging to the kids.  I often use the "would you rather" question prompts.  The kids LOVE these.  Here is one great resource I found that has a very conclusive list of "would you rather" questions for kids:

Click here to access a list of conversatons starters for kids!

I conduct these questions in a variety of ways:

1)  Type the question in the chat, they can send their response to me privately or to everyone.  I can further this discussion by asking for students to raise their hand and elaborate or share their responses.  I can also use the spinner to call on students at random after they've been given time to respond.  Additionally I can call on a student to share and then ask them to call on the next student to share, etc.  Once they get a little more comfortable with each other, I'll often throw them into quick random breakout rooms in pairs or groups to discuss the question as well.

2)I often use Nearpod which is an interactive white board site.  Here I will send students the link, which will take them to the Nearpod board with the question displayed.  They then type their answer on their virtual sticky note and everyone can read everyone elses responses. I read them aloud as they post them, and elevate or highlight any of participular interest, thus sparking further discussion.

These questions help to bring about a positive attitude when starting the day.  The students really look forward to them and will start to engage in the dialogue voluntarily after a while.  At this point in the year we have all learned so much about each other, things we like or don't like.  I often see students referring to something another student likes in the chat.  It's really cute. Morning circle questions are fun, simple, and a great way to build your class community and sense of belonging.  Below is a video of my students engaging in one using Nearpod.

Team Building

Once you have spent a bit of time building relationships with your class a whole, you can move into team building.  You first want to establish norms for the breakout rooms so that students know what is expected.  Then you always want to start with fun, non-academic tasks.  The purpose of this again is to help students build relationships and get to know each other so that when it comes time to now complete academic tasks as a group, they will feel comfortable talking and sharing with one another. 

One GREAT way to do this through virtual instruction is through the use of "virtual escape rooms." You don't need to make them yourself, there are TONS out there already created.  I have purchased a few off of Teachers Pay Teachers.  The purpose of these activites is that students have to talk and work together in order to complete the tasks in the escape room to move onto the next room.  The goal is to be the group who finishes first.  The kids absolutely love these- they love anything that's a race right? They really have a lot of fun doing them.  Below You can watch a video of my students working to complete an escape room project.

Kagan recommends doing 1 non-academic team building activity once a week just to help students continue to build those relationships.  That's not always possible, not even in the classroom.  If I can do a non-academic team building activity once every couple weeks I feel pretty good about that.  My kids work collaboratively to complete academic tasks on a daily basis through breakout rooms.  I have really seen them grow in the way they talk to each other, feel comfortable with each other, etc.  I definitely attribute this to the time we spend class building and team building- building relationships with one another.  

I hope this helps you get started, or further supports you in building relationships with students!

Virtually Learning,

Megan Brown

megan.brown@omsd.net