Organization & Time Management Introduction

Watch the video below to see an easy way to drive the point home to freshman about the importance of organization and time management. (Three Perfection games are available for checkout in the library). Consider having your Team Panther student teach the lesson.

Upcoming posts will deal with effective organization and time management tips.

 

Snowball Fight

1. Everyone in the class gets a blank piece of paper and writes 3-5 facts about themselves. 
2. Next they wad them up in a ball and the whole class has a snowball fight. 
3. After 30 seconds have students freeze and pick up one snowball.
4. Students  will read the facts.
5. Finally, students need to figure out whose snowball they have by walking around and asking each other.

Who Did it??

Who did it is a great activity to get students out of their seats and talking with each other.  With the Who Did it? sheet in hand, students seek out classmates with the qualifications listed and have them initial the sheet until it is full.

Attached you will find a Google Doc for the option to edit with different options and a PDF ready to print.

Google Doc - Please make a copy for your own use.

PDF

Would You Rather

Would You Rather is a fun way to formatively assess your students learning styles in the first few days of school. If you would like a copy of this to edit on your own, please contact Dena or Claire.

Helium Stick Activity

The Helium Stick game is a great team building, collaboration, problem solving activity.

Helium Stick

Materials

• Large group of 8-12
• 1 long lightweight metal rod

Set-up

• Line up in two rows which face each other.
• Introduce the Helium Stick- a long, thin, lightweight rod
• Ask participants to point their index fingers and hold their arms out.
• Lay the Helium Stick down on their fingers.  Get the group to adjust their finger heights until the Helium Stick is horizontal and everyone's index fingers are touching the stick.
• Explain that the challenge is to lower the Helium Stick to the ground as fast possible

Procedure

• Each person's fingers must be in contact with the Helium Stick at all times. Pinching or grabbing the pole in not allowed - it must rest on top of fingers.
• If anyone's finger is caught not touching the Helium Stick, the task will be restarted.
• Particularly in the early stages, the Helium Stick has a habit of mysteriously 'floating' up rather than coming down, causing much laughter.
• A bit of clever humoring can help - act surprised and ask what are they doing raising the Helium Stick instead of lowering it!  
• Some groups or individuals after 5 to 10 minutes of trying may be inclined to give up, believing it not to be possible or that it is too hard.
• Offer suggestions or suggest the group stop the task, discusses their strategy, and then has another go.
• Less often, a group may appear to be succeeding too fast - Be particularly vigilant about fingers not touching the pole.
• Eventually the group will calm down, concentrate, and very slowly, patiently lower the Helium Stick - easier said than done.

Reflection

• Once the group is successful, discuss with the group…
• What worked and what didn’t work?
• What was it like to work under pressure?
• How does this activity simulate a real-world scenario?
• What did you learn about relying on other people?