Apart from deepening the learning experience, team building was a key
item on the agenda.
This week's class allowed me to discover the importance of team building
in order to accomplish certain tasks. The first activity was aimed at
generating rules that will guide our action as a group and to ensure that tasks
are completed on time. The other activity was a 'get to know you' type of
exercise. It’s amazing the way this simple activity can allow you to discover
new things about the people you interact with on a daily basis. Additionally,
aside from knowing my group member a little better, the team building
activities encouraged effective collaboration and communication to complete
tasks assigned for this class. In essence, team building exercise is one
strategy i will implement in the classroom to build positive relations among
group members and foster effective communication and collaboration.
The topic of interest
for this class session focused on atmospheric energy. The Sun is the source of
heat energy and light on Earth’s surface. Additionally, a percentage of radiation
from the sun is absorbed by earth, while a percentage is reflected and
scattered. One way in representing this information was by drawing an annotated
diagram which helped in understanding the transfer of heat energy to the Earth.
In addition to that, key skill in geography is to interpret diagrams. Thus, this
class allowed me to sharpen my skills in interpreting and explaining a diagram
related to the greenhouse effect and the ways in which CFC’s, deforestation,
carbon monoxide emissions and fossil fuels affect the atmosphere.
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| Source: https://images.google.com/ |
After interpreting the above diagram, it was
time to compare answers with my fellow team members. Unfortunately, one of the
Triple S team members were not present but we still managed to work around it. In
an attempt to deepen our learning experiences, we were instructed to present
our interpretation of the diagram as a group. This was an indeed fulfilling
exercise for me because I was able to engage in some form of critical thinking.
Each group were required to ask the presenting group a question. As a result, some interesting
questions were raised after each group presented which I intend on investigating to deepen my understanding about the greenhouse effect, the causes, the consequences and the ways in which it can be controlled.
Ultimately, I’m
looking forward to more activities that will foster effective communication, and
collaboration among group members, and critical thinking because
these are the strategies that I will be implementing in my classroom.
Great post! Thanks for sharing. I liked how you focused on teamwork, because this is a critical goal of this course. I wondered what reasons you would give to your students to help them be better team members? How will involvement in teams change how you see yourself and others? What misconceptions do you hold about teams that you are letting go of through your experiences in this class? Looking forward to your responses to these issues.
ReplyDelete
DeleteDeveloping ones planning and coordinating skills, becoming an effective leader and developing problem solving skills are some reasons that I will give my students to help them be better team members. Additionally, I will try to show my students that by becoming a better team member, will result in a better outcome of the task that is to be completed and accomplished in a timely manner. Instead of telling my students the reasons, I may want to give them several tasks to complete in their teams and allow them to figure out why it is important to be a better team member. This may be accomplished by questioning them about the challenges they have faced and ask them how they think they can improve in becoming better team members.
The more I work in teams the more it will allow me to re-evaluate the way I manage to complete tasks to assist my team when they are depending on me. Involvement in teams will allow me to detect my strengths and weaknesses and others as well. In doing so, this will allow me to recognize the things I can work on and the things my team members can work on so we can complete the tasks assigned to us in an effective and timely manner.
I must say that I’m quite open to the idea of team work because I appreciate the value of it. Therefore, I do not hold many misconceptions about working together as a team to complete tasks. I do believe that team work is quite beneficial in the sense that it helps you develop certain skills which I have mentioned already in this comment. However, I must say that at the back of my head I have always thought that one must choose group members who are easy to work with and who can pull their weight so the group can attain the highest possible marks. However, from working in teams throughout this B. Ed. Programme, I’ve realized that there must be some balance. You can’t have four of the strongest team members in one group and the weakest in another. Then one team will have an advantage over the other and one team will be deprived at truly developing to complete a task of high quality. We tend to not choose people we believe will bring us down in our assignments. Although I’m aware of the importance of balance among team members I still tend to choose members who I know are capable of pulling their weight in a group to produce an assignment of high quality.
In this class I did not have the opportunity to choose my group members and I was quite worried how it will turn out. I’ve already worked with one of my group member and I know what she is capable of doing when it comes to team work. However, I have never worked with the other therefore I’m not sure of her strengths and weaknesses. I am yet to find out. I anticipate that things will work out for the best so we can all attain high marks and also further develop our skills as a team. I’m not sure if this answers the third question but this is my take on this particular matter. If anything else comes to mind, I will post about it.
Thanks for elaborating on this post. Great development of the critical self-reflection.
ReplyDeleteThanks miss!
ReplyDeletewell said, team work is a strategy that can be utilized in the classroom when there are students of mixed abilities. i always try to encourage group work. 1. its less work to mark when each group hands up one assignment and 2. the stronger ones can assist the weaker ones
ReplyDelete3. A collaborative effort is always full of different ideas that are unique and excellent.