Getting to know you,
Getting to know all about you.
Getting to like you,
Getting to hope you like me.
-Lyrics from the movie “The King and I”
(Check out the following link to see Marie Osmond as Anna in The King and I. Rosie O’Donnel Show: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rJheD6XZDsg)
As a teacher wishing to become successful in the classroom, one of the most important tasks he or she should do is to know students better. A good teacher can connect learning with students’ individual experiences. When planning instructional activities, the teacher may take into account what students enjoy or dislike the most. The teacher may also use different device to encourage students to get to know each other better. Thus, a supportive learning community can be establish to sustain good learning and collaboration. The following are a few simple tasks that help enhance such a function.
- A warm-up icebreaker: At the initial meeting, a mutual interview worksheet is provided to students for them to interview and introduce each other. (See this The-Mutual-Interview worksheet.)
- I-am-unique exercise: The teacher will create a two-column table using MS Word (as below) for students to come to the major computer to enter their uniqueness match as they see the display from the overhead projector.
| Unique things | Names of people who share the same uniqueness |
| I have lived in a foreign country. | John D., Melissa P., Karen W. |
| I am bilingual. | Melissa P., Karen W. |
- Celebrate birthdays with a customized birthday song for students who were born in a given month. The teacher or classmates can prepare a nice slide with pictures of the birthday person(s) with a birthday song . The customized birthday song with names can be created and downloaded from this site: http://1happybirthday.com/
- Create an “All About Me” book and share. Both the teacher and students can work on this project together. They will gather pictures, interesting facts, and cultural aspects to be incorporated in a scrap book. They can even include some new learning, including vocabulary words for each other to catch up. Hang the books on the wall and have a quiz on facts about each other. It’s fun. (An example from the past: The Many Places I Have Been (PPT))
- Create a picture album and put it into a movie with text and music. The example in the following file is a collection of photos being specially treated with Photoshop special effects (using Virtual Painter). ACB2014.mp4
