Get to Know You

Context:

Building a strong working relationship with students increases their motivation, forms a mutual respect and maintains their engagement through class time. Implementing getting to know you games, provides that opportunity to understand each student for who they are, what they like and how they learn best. These activities have a strong focus at the beginning of the year, where an established classroom community can form straight away. Further, strengthening the connection and meeting as a whole class. It also provides students with the opportunity to form new friendships as they get to know one another.

Annotation/Action:

I have completed Get to Know You T-Shirts and A3 Posters of what they enjoy doing in their life. Further, I have used a 'Get to Know You' ball during a game, where the students read out a question that their left thumb lands on, and answers it to the class. Lastly, I had students complete the following sentence on a small piece of paper, 'I learn best by...'

These activities were extremely effective for the first couple weeks of school as students took the time to not only reflect on themselves but to also create something that would be on display in the classroom and have a sense of ownership. Students felt proud to have their T-Shirts and A3 poster boards displayed in their classroom as it allowed anyone who entered P1C, to get to know who they were individually. The Get to Know You Ball has several different questions on it, that provides students the opportunity to elaborate on their interests, dislikes, memories, favourite things etc. This was a good ice breaker game and created a relaxed environment and build rapport quickly in the classroom. Students thoroughly enjoyed using this in a game of silent ball where if the ball comes to you, you read out the question that your left thumb lands on, and answer it to the class. It was interesting to hear perspectives of all students.

Result:

It has been effective in forming strong working relationships with students. I believe I know my students thoroughly well and because of this strategy, their is now a form of mutual respect between one another. The stronger my relationship is with a student, the more engaged they are in my teaching lessons. I have found that student participation increases, every time the relationships form strongly. Not only for a student-teacher bond, but it has also created opportunities for the students to make new friends along the way as well which has been fantastic to observe.

Evaluation:

Get To Know You activities will always be part of my teaching. I strongly believe that building relationships with my students are the most important part of teaching and is the basis of setting up everything else that happens in the classroom. Not only have I learnt about students likes, dislikes, families, beliefs, background cultures etc, but it has also promoted weekly conversations as well as planning activities that includes different aspects of who the students are as individuals.

Standards:

1.1 Physical, social and intellectual development and characteristics of students

1.2 Understand how students learn

1.3 Students with diverse linguistic, cultural, religious and socioeconomic backgrounds

3.3 Use teaching strategies

4.1 Support student participation

Activities