In a post a few months
ago I shared “The BreakoutEDU sessions to connect, build
relationships and teamwork were as challenging as they were insightful.” Well,
this still stands true today!
Rafranz Davis immersed us in discussion of Your
Signature Story emphasizing how our life experiences change us and how do we
use that to drive positive change. Jeffrey
Humphries used the BreakoutEDU experience as an icebreaker activity for
#TOR16 educators to share something about themselves with our #GoogleEI cohort.
Inspired by both education leaders, I took these concepts and modified them to
create an assignment for my students.
Students shared a brief story setting up their mini
BreakoutEDU about their ‘spark’ that shapes who they are as a learner today.
Once the box is opened, students shared their 3-minute Signature Story
emphasizing how their life experiences change us and how we use that to drive
positive change in our learning.
The results?
There were cooperative
group student planning, going through several iterations on how they want to
design their BreakoutEDU session. Also, discussions and ongoing collaboration
between groups on various strategies for creating clues and selecting riddles
to challenge their peers. Students’ excitement as they were looking forward to
trying peer-created BreakoutEDU games. And, most importantly, understanding and
recognizing that all our peers, kids sitting next to us have their own life
experiences, experiences they come with them to school with each day that are
set aside or used to shine.
With permission
from a reluctant learner to include in my post, this reflection captures his true ability as a learner:
What was the focus of the learning task?
**The focus of this learning task was to find out who we
were as class community members, what we bring to the learning and find out what inspires us the most.
What new learning did you gain and how would you use this
new learning?
**I gained the ability to step up and present without fear to explain my story. I would use this in new learning experiences by being able to
create a puzzle and presenting my signature story in an interesting way. I realized that I enjoy coding and that it is valued at school to build on my understanding in other subjects.
How might you further build upon your ideas or overcome
challenges you encountered?
**This will help me build ideas that could maybe help
people/the world. For example, coding/programming could maybe make a difference in people
with disabilities. We could make a robot or something to guide them and play
with them. This help me overcome my fear which is talking to a large
group of students/parents/teachers.
My reward?
Helping students
find or identify their own spark and supporting them into transferring that
across other learning experiences to persevere and strive towards their goals
in and out of the school. The many “thank yous” from students followed by them
asking for more opportunities to plan, design and lead sessions.
Here’s a link to
the Storify of students leading their BreakoutEDU sessions: https://storify.com/ZeliaMCT/students-breakoutedu-signaturestory
Outline of the
student assignment:
#signaturestory:"learning about space & thinking about what's beyond our understanding, always wondering" @tdsb @breakoutEDU #breakoutedu pic.twitter.com/29ZPHpgyT8— MsTavares (@McM_MsT) December 21, 2016
"As humans we make mistakes & that's how we learn 2 move forward"-student #breakoutedu @tdsb signature story #tor16 pic.twitter.com/fx9BYGlKeU— MsTavares (@McM_MsT) December 6, 2016
