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Some really good activities here! Free team building games and exercises ideas to warm up meetings, training, and conferences. Team building games and activities are useful in serious business project meetings, where games and activities help delegates to see things differently and use different thinking styles. Games and exercises help with stimulating the brain, improving retention of ideas, and increasing fun and enjoyment.

Force field analysis is a management technique developed by Kurt Lewin, a pioneer in the field of social sciences, for diagnosing situations. It will be useful when looking at the variables involved in planning and implementing a change program and will undoubtedly be of use in team building projects,when attempting to overcome resistance to change.

"Design Squad Nation, a new series on PBS KIDS GO!, is inviting teams of kids to super-size Design Squad’s hands-on activities for the Design Squad Nation Build Big Contest. Working with their teachers, parents, grandparents, neighbors, and/or friends, teams are encouraged to think outside the box and show us how they can make our activities BIGGER. From creating a PVC Kayak, to a giant sized catapult, the possibilities are endless."

Laura Fleming is using Makerspace in her classroom. She's at New Milford HIgh School -- a place led by one of the best principals in the business, Eric Sheninger (his new book is awesome - out in January). Laura is using Mozilla's Web Literacy Standard and her Makerspace which includes robotics, stop motion animation and "Molecular gastronomy" and more. Wow. I'm fascinated. Take a look. "Setting up a Makerspace has been a priority of mine from the moment I started here at New Milford High School, and it's already well on its way to being achieved. Having a school principal who provides the perfect mix of encouragement and autonomy has, of course, been a great help, but it has also been very much a team effort: the school's tech team and custodians have been very supportive and cooperative, along with a diverse variety of students interested in 'making' experiences. At the heart of the vision for my Makerspace is to develop the space and to provide resources and opportunities that will aid in promoting web literacy.  These components encompass Mozilla's Web Literacy Standard.  The standard is make up of three key elements:  exploring, building and connecting and focuses on reading, writing and participating on the web.   "

Great information shared by Bob  Sprankle on why you should use Scratch with kids. If you work with elementary curriculum or teach in an elementary STEM or computer lab read this. "THIS is the true intent of Scratch. Mitch Resnick made Scratch with his team at MIT. The team is (purposefully) called "The Lifelong Kindergarten Group" because in kindergarten we are allowed (or used to be allowed) to try things out, build things and knock them down, make a mess, experiment, fool around with tools, CREATE! Resnick says that we should be allowed to be working like that ALL the time -for our entire lives-because that is HOW WE LEARN BEST. It is the natural way the brain operates."

Review of digital humanities scholarship tools

Plan now to join in on an "hour of code" December 9-15. Even if you don't have computers or have limited access, there are options for you to host an event. (As a bonus, educators who register will receive 10GB of free storage for Dropbox.) Plan an event and plan now. There are great tutorials and information for all ages about this event December 9-15. Join in. "Even if you aren't a student, you can take the Hour of Code yourself during Dec. 9-15. And you can help us recruit others to join the movement - at school, in your workplace, in the community. If you are an educator, host the Hour of Code as an activity in your classroom. If you're an organizer or employer, host an Hour of Code event as a team-building exercise, after-school activity in a club, or elsewhere in your community. Click the appropriate tab, and start planning your Hour of Code!"

team building activities

An example of Flowgram from sirexkat who discusses Adventures in Microblogging Flowgram is building a new multimedia-empowered way to communicate. The Flowgram product has captured the imagination of a prestigious group of individuals with exceptional track records. Flowgram investors include Reid Hoffman (Paypal, LinkedIn), Josh Kopelman (Firstround Capital, Half.com), the founders of Flickr, Bud Colligan (founding CEO of Macromedia), Rajeev Motwani (Stanford) and members of the founding team of WebEx and Tibco Software.

"In his new book, Adrian Bethune explores different angles of the life of children who are of primary-school age. For example, in a fascinating first chapter, Bethune examines our tribal roots, tapping into our pupils' primitive social instincts and their powerful effects on wellbeing and ability to learn. Citing the work of Louis Cozolino (Click here to view The Social Neuroscience of Education: Optimizing Attachment and Learning in the Classroom by Louis Cozolino on Amazon UK - worthy of a read itself) a tribal classroom embodies tribal qualities including a tribal leader, cooperation, teamwork, equality, fairness, trust and strong personal relationships. Such qualities enable everyone to feel valued and a feeling of a big family, helping secure positive relationships - the role of the teacher in this relationship is to help pupils feel like they belong, which is fundamental to learning. Developing this tribal theme, Bethune the proceeds to share ideas to be implemented in the primary classroom to help cultivate such positive relationships, including the design of a team flag, greetings and endings, teaching social skills, and building humour and games into the setting."

"The NFER Assessment Hub, which has been designed to help school practitioners build their confidence with classroom assessment, offers a host of free support written by NFER's team of assessment researchers with teaching backgrounds. This support includes a collection of short-read articles which introduce various aspects of classroom assessment, as well as an exclusive new practitioner guide series titled 'Brushing up on assessment', due to be released weekly throughout October and November. From guidance on understanding assessment policies to tips on making the most of assessment data, the guides will offer valuable insight and advice to support practitioners in delivering an assessment approach that is right for their pupils and their school."

Fun games that you can play. There are a lot of these that you can find and use for the classroom, as ice breakers and others. I found this site easy to use and had some cool ideas on it. I love games. This is going in my list of tools.