Jody

Jody Johnson** – Icebreaker ** · Introduce yourself using the Discussion Board. **Your original post is due by Thursday of this week (11:55 pm).** (Besides your name, include **two** items from the following suggestions: your work/school goals, pet(s), favorite activity or hobby, type of music you like, food likes/dislikes, or your favorite TV show.) · Answer the following prompt: You are about to depart on a 6-month visit to the planet “Gaga”. While previous visitors to this planet have brought the basic supplies one would need to survive (food, water, shelter, electricity, transportation, etc.), you must bring your personal supplies. Space is limited on the shuttle; each student/passenger may take **one** carry-on sized bag. What five (3) personal items (favorite book, CD, food item, clothing, stuffed animal, etc.) would go into your suitcase? Briefly explain why each items is a “must have”. · After posting your thread, respond to a minimum of two (2) other students’ post. **Responses are due by Sunday night of this week (11:55 pm).** This is a **required** posting and will count towards your total participation grade for the course.
 * Course:** Family Child Care 101
 * Task:** Introduce yourself to class members
 * Objective:** Find commonalities with other students; begin to build community of learners
 * Author:** Jody Johnson, B.S., Early Childhood Education Specialties, Inc.
 * Method:** Asynchronous
 * Instructions:**
 * NOTE:** If you are unfamiliar with how to post to the Discussion Board, see the “Orientation” document (embedded link here) or visit the Blackboard tutorial (embedded link here).
 * Author’s Note:** Research has shown that students who are actively engaged in the course discussions are more likely to complete the course as well as gain more benefit from the materials presented (Conrad & Donaldson, 2004).

This activity is a great way for most of the students to start feeling comfortable, just entering the course; it is not overwhelming and does not require a lot of personal information. Also it is energizing and takes students’ interest, which is very important for e-environment. The idea of giving student a choice of what information they want to share with each other is very beneficial for the class environment (no matter if it is on-line or F2F), this way students don’t feel tide up in the corner and know that they have a control over their own space and privacy. Also as I read a couple of ideas crossed my mind about how to widen this activity as a tool throughout the whole course in order to move participants from one Phase of on-line communication to another and tide it up with the content of the course, that are being taught. Here they are: 1. For example, when the students will get to know each other well enough and it is going to be the time for them to move to the next Phase of more intensive collaboration and communication, you can go in depth by introducing them to the second step. Second step (in a couple of weeks) is going to be the following: By the time you reached the shuttle with your well consciously packed bag, you found out, that there is not even enough space for one back per each participant. And in order to solve this problem you all need to collaborate and decide on the list of 10 “must have” items that you are going to take with you as a whole group in order for all of you to survive. This might be a good time to introduce Wiki as a great tool to come up with the final list for the whole group. Don’t forget to put that the time is limited and if they will not come up with the final list by …they are all going to DIE!!!!! Which means fail the course in the real world J 2. After they are done with the activity you can provide your feedback tide up with the content of the course. For example, you can link it to the key elements of co-teaching, that in any child care the teachers are going to see their “must teach” things and methods as more valuable and important, but we always need to remember that it is not going to lead neither us or children anywhere and that only through collaboration, acceptance, active listening, respect, etc. we can reach a happy solution. Actually this is just a tool and you can link different insights and dynamics which took place during the activity with different key concepts of the course you are teaching. **//Note://** Dear Jody, I tried to provide more real course related feedback for the part 2, I looked through your Intro, trying to figure it out where Family Child Care 101 course from is and what the exact objectives are, so I can link my feedback to it. After reading your intro I assumed that this is one of the Cal State Fullerton courses, I checked their web-site, but it didn’t seem like there was a course like that, so I just went ahead and provided general ideas.
 * __Critique of Jody Johnson Ice Breaker Trip to Planet Gaga by Kseniya Orlovska__ **

J ody, This sounds like a fun and exciting trip to planet “Gaga. “ I’m ready to go but I don’t know if I could narrower it down to 5 items! This activity requires your students to have to do some critical thinking and prioritize to those 5 items. I think this is an interesting and creative way for students to get to know their classmates’ likes and dislikes. Good job setting a time limit after the original posting and the second deadline for the response to their classmates’ initial posting. Well done! Angela Jody, I would like to jump in to second Angelas critique. I think it's great ice breaker and really opens up imagination as a valuable asset for group work. It invites students to be imaginative or express genuine emotions or openess. (Conrad Table 5.1, page 47. This activity also encourages students to read one anothers threads and respond to one another. Nancy
 * __Critique of Jody Johnson Ice Breaker Trip to Planet Gaga by Angela Plunkett__ **

Jody,

This activity opens student interaction for a lot of creativity, which does help to engage students. You have proposed a unique course with some underlying goals that are different than many academic courses. For that reason, I think you could retain the creativity and at the same time focus on the content with a little tweaking.

One of your goals, I would suspect, is to connect these hoe day care providers so that they do not feel isolated and they can share knowledge and experience. So for the introduction part, I would have them indicate their general location (they don’t have to give an address, but wouldn’t it be nice to know who else is doing this in your vicinity?), what age children they prefer to care for, one favorite activity they like to do with the kids they care for (and /or similar questions).

For the creative part of the activity, how about they go to planet “Gaga” (they may have been there already many times in the past depending on how long they have provide child care!) with 3 of their kids and they name the 3 items that they feel would be most important to take and explain why they need them.

With these variations, you retain the creative element while bringing in community building with a purpose that extends outside of the classroom walls.

LeeAnn