Creating Synergy is all about celebrating our differences and coming together to be better as a whole. In group projects, many students tend to work together to find the easiest way to get a task completed. They find a compromise between what a few of the group members wanted, and each do their part. Granted, for a lot of projects this works. It ensures that the group does not get stuck in the planning phase, and that the project gets moving. However, it also goes to ensure that the project will not be spectacular, or even better than what one person could have produced alone.
Synergy is about creating something where the whole is better than the sum of its parts. Its what makes a great algorithm, basketball team, or music group. So how can we encourage our students to develop this skill? To begin, we have to help them celebrate the differences between all of us. Finding what we have in common in great, but the great cohesion in a group comes when each person brings something that the others could not offer, not when they all sing the same tune.
Next week in class, we will be doing a whole class activity. I am going to roll the desks to the walls and clear some space. Each person will get a copy of the seating chart, with a picture of each person in class. Their task will be to move around the room, and find something unique about each person. This unique thing has to be something that nobody else in the classroom shares. Maybe they speak German, or compete in Pokemon tournaments. Whatever it is, we will find something and celebrate it. The class will have to communicate on a few different levels for this to happen. While they talk to each other, they will have to also talk to the class as a whole to find out if their unique attribute it truly unique. I look forward to this activity, and to see how well the students will communicate!
Synergy is about creating something where the whole is better than the sum of its parts. Its what makes a great algorithm, basketball team, or music group. So how can we encourage our students to develop this skill? To begin, we have to help them celebrate the differences between all of us. Finding what we have in common in great, but the great cohesion in a group comes when each person brings something that the others could not offer, not when they all sing the same tune.
Next week in class, we will be doing a whole class activity. I am going to roll the desks to the walls and clear some space. Each person will get a copy of the seating chart, with a picture of each person in class. Their task will be to move around the room, and find something unique about each person. This unique thing has to be something that nobody else in the classroom shares. Maybe they speak German, or compete in Pokemon tournaments. Whatever it is, we will find something and celebrate it. The class will have to communicate on a few different levels for this to happen. While they talk to each other, they will have to also talk to the class as a whole to find out if their unique attribute it truly unique. I look forward to this activity, and to see how well the students will communicate!