The issue of teamwork is a common one for many teachers. Do you find that your students aren't working together as well as they could be? Do you find yourself witnessing more conflict and confusion than actual goals being met? If this sounds familiar, perhaps it's time for some classroom team building.
What is classroom team building? Essentially it's a seminar that allows your students to learn more about teamwork through a series of games, activities, and discussions. These typically start with an ice breaker session that allows the instructor to inform the students about the overall purpose of the seminar and what sort of activities they have to look forward to. An ice breaker session is also useful for letting students get to know one another better through introductory sessions. It's not uncommon for the instructor to try out a few easy games to get them in the mood for fun. These include activities such as call and response games, name memorization games, and more.
Once the ice breaker session is over, it's time to proceed to the next series of classroom team building activities. These often include athletic games such as relay races, group tag, group blind man's bluff, crack the whip, scavenger hunts, and other fun games. Along with being invigorating, these games help teach concepts such as leadership, decision making, thinking on one's feet, and communication under stress. These games also help enormously in disguising learning as play.
In addition to athletic games, there are plenty of verbal and mental classroom team building games too. These include games like the telephone game, hypothetical situations, memorization games, storytelling, optical illusions, drawing games, and more. Along with promoting creative thinking, students also learn more about empathy and public speaking.
Of course, regardless of how careful you are, inevitable conflicts do arise. However, in learning to solve these problems and work toward a common goal, your students will learn more from these conflicts than by any other activity you have them accomplish.
These are only a few things to expect when undergoing classroom team building games. By treating your students to a day of team building activities, you can guarantee that they will take these concepts with them and continue to use them throughout their school careers. In addition to this, they make great job skills as well. Learn more today about how these amazing seminars can instill teamwork values in the minds of your students!
