5 Things in Common

I’ve always valued getting to know my students, and have spent considerable time at the beginning of the year ensuring that I am doing just that. This year brought a new challenge. On November 9th our class lists were switched up in response to parents’ choice of remote or hybrid instruction. This brought me fourteen new students. I became conflicted with what get to know you activities to complete as I had already completed many with my original group, thirteen students whom still remained with me. Within the hybrid model, Mondays are all together on zoom. I choose the first Monday to try a new getting to know you activity that took advantage of the zoom breakout room feature. I randomly assigned students to breakout rooms and had them identify five things that they all had in common. After returning to the main room, I provided students with the opportunity to share out what they identified within their group, and finally we came together to pinpoint five things which we all had in common. This was quite the challenging task, but helped illuminate that even though there are many differences among us there are also similarities. Looking toward the future, this is a task that I will continue to do with my students.