Unless your students are very different from ours, when asked, "What is teamwork?", most of them will automatically think of sports teams they have either seen or been involved with. When you take this a step further and ask them what teamwork looks like in a classroom or work environment there is typically a moment of silence followed by an outstanding dialogue where the facilitator can guide the students through the basics of group development. This dialogue is the beginning of group dynamics training in Geometry in Construction.
Team building in sports is fairly easy to accomplish because there is always a common purpose for the team to unite around, usually based in competing against another individual or team. This differs in a work environment slightly because we are usually not competing against anyone. The teamwork here revolves around getting all of the people in class, typically 40+ students, to unite in the common purpose of:
1. Working together to make every member a better math student
2. Teaming together to construct a complete house during the year
In addition to class projects which emphasize teamwork like the group quizzes in math and the balsa wood house construction, we also lead the classes through icebreakers and team builders throughout the first quarter of the year. One of the common misunderstandings regarding team building is that they are a bunch of "fluffy" games with no meaning. This opinion is typically the result of attending poorly facilitated group trainings. In fact, if facilitated correctly, team building can become the most powerful portion of the Geometry in Construction program. This is how you create a group that thrives together toward a common goal and is willing to do whatever it takes to become successful.
Below is a brief list of helpful reminders for facilitation success:
It takes time! Do not skip or shorten the investment of time during the beginning of the year regardless of how much curriculum you feel like you have to cover. The investment of class time done early in the year will strengthen the group and will provide an anchor for you to refer back to when there are difficult times in the program.
The first team building exercises are mostly designed around getting to know you/name recognition. These are very "low risk" activities for students.
The first few days are especially heavy on team building activites. Probably 50-80% of the construction time is allocated for these activities during the first 1-2 weeks.
All the activities are "just games" unless you as a teacher/facilitator process the activity. Once a game is over, ask questions of the group and make sure to allow plenty of time for responses. In observation, the most common pitfall here is that we as teachers ask a question and then jump in to answer the question when there is silence. Discipline yourself to not do this by participating in the activity with the students.
Good questions can revolve around feelings, obserations, and most importantly how the activity relates to the class/capstone.
The math teacher should be a willing participant alongside the students. The only time that the math teacher backs out of the activity is if there is a need for pairs and you make the number of participants odd.
After the first 1-2 weeks, you still need to do one or two activities a day. Process, process, process.
Remember that when the math teacher starts unit 2, the construction teacher will be starting balsa wood houses. The balsa wood house is a team builder. Students must struggle through the balsa wood house. If they can not build a balsa wood house as a team, they sure can not build a "real house" as a team.
