HAPPY SCHOOL. Textbook for teachers

HAPPY SCHOOL TEXTBOOK FOR TEACHERS

HAPPY SCHOOL TEXTBOOK FOR TEACHERS

Tõstamaa/Trondheim 2016

This textbook is the result of a cooperation project called “Happy School” between Tõstamaa Secondary School in Estonia and Charlottenlund Upper Secondary School in Norway. The cooperation project has taken place under the EEA/Norway Grants Scholarship Programme.

The project coordinators were Liina Käär from Tõstamaa Secondary School and Anne Sophie Hunstad from Charlottenlund Upper Secondary School.

The concept of this book and the texts have been developed by a project team of teachers from both schools. The photos have been taken by teachers from Charlottenlund Upper Secondary School and Tõstamaa Secondary School.

The designer of this textbook is P2.

Contents Introduction

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Project “Happy School”

4

What is happy school?

5

Challenges in the classroom

8

Charlottenlund Upper Secondary School

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Tõstamaa Secondary School

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The main aims for classroom learning in „happy school“

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The relevance of subjects

14

Combining studies with real life examples and activities

14

Projects which support studied materials

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Other projects run by Charlottenlund Upper Secondary School

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How to motivate students?

Humor and play in classroom

20 21

Humor in the classroom

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Play in the classroom

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Learning by doing

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Physical activity

80

Storytelling

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Positive evaluation for studies

84

Conclusion

87

References and recommended resources for further reading

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Introduction This document, a compendium of suggestions and ideas of how to enrich classroom work at schools, was born from a partnership project called “Happy School” which took place during the period of September 2014 - August 2016. It involves two schools from Estonia and Norway.

Tõstamaa Secondary School is high school with 150 pupils and 24 teachers. The school is situated in a 200-year old manor house in a small community, Tõstamaa parish, which is on the west coast of Estonia. The nearest town is Pärnu, 50 km east of Tõstamaa.

The main aim of Tõstamaa Keskkool (Tõstamaa Secondary School) is to offer qualitative and sustainable education to all children at school. The education has several objectives: 1. Develop pupils who will be able to cope with their life, work and social life. 2. Educate pupils to become responsible citizens for their own country, for Europe and the world. 3. Teach pupils how they can turn their everday life into a life-learning process.

The school offers the pupils free dormitory, free time activities, rural tourism management course on upper secondary level and the possibility to have courses to get their driving license.

Charlottenlund Upper Secondary School has about 1,300 students, mainly between 16 -19 years of age. Charlottenlund Upper Secondary School is situated in Trondheim with approximately 180, 000 inhabitants, and it is the third largest city in Norway.

The school offers both general and vocational studies in a total of 7 different study lines. In addition, they offer specially adapted education, and are responsible for education for prisoners. Until recently the school has also been responsible for the education of persons undertaking treatment for psychosomatic illnesses in Trondheim.

Charlottenlund Upper Secondary School’s vision is “talents in growth”; they wish to develop the unique skills and abilities in each individual at Charlottenlund. The main focuses include improving teaching methods in general subjects in vocational studies, creative use of ICT and contact with working life – both in vocational and general studies.

This project was funded by EEA/Norway Grants Scholarship Programme Estonia, 2014.

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Project “Happy School” Project „Happy School“ aims at developing creative and innovative methods to teach subjects which are usually considered to be „boring“ or „difficult“, such as math, science and technology, but also history, literature and language subjects, which can be more uninteresting for boys than for girls.

The target groups of the project “Happy School” are teachers from the project partner schools, community workers (local parish officials working with education and in the youth work field), and indirectly pupils from both participating schools. The most important aim is to find new, creative teaching methods and channels which make pupils want to study subjects that are often considered to be boring, uninteresting or too difficult. By using the ideas and methods developed through the „Happy School“ project, lessons may become more interesting or fun. Combining formal teaching/learning methods and non-formal teaching/learning methods might enhance the pupils’ motivation.

This compedium is the result of the project and contains examples of good practices of teaching methods in different subjects, instructions on how to use innovative and creative ways to make class-room work attractive to pupils in upper secondary school, and an overview of possible solutions for learning problems in the classroom.

To achieve this aim this compendium consists of articles about motivation, the main problems of classroom work, the relevance of subjects, positive evaluation and examples of exercises which could help to motivate pupils to participate in classroom work. There will be an overview of different types of non-formal possibilities which could enrich the everyday work at school, for example drama, real life experiments, jokes and storytelling.

The main aim for this project is to motivate and help teachers to find out, to work out and implement new teaching methods in their everyday work in the classroom. Youth culture, development of new technology and social media have had a huge impact on young people’s everyday life, and it has had a strong influence on their study behaviour. Those changes have raised new demands to our schools and teachers who have to find new methods to attract pupils’ attention to their studies. Accordingly, we find that cooperation is the best solution to work out and find new, creative ways of teaching in the classroom.

This project has lasted for 24 months, from September 1st 2014 till August 31st 2016. This period has included 8 work meetings and different activities to reach aim of the project.

The project’s contact person from Estonia is Liina Käär, liina@tostamaa.ee, Tõstamaa Secondary School, and from Norway Anne Sophie Hunstad, anne.sophie.hunstad@stfk.no, Charlottenlund Upper Secondary School. The project home page is https://happyschoolproject.wordpress.com/.

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What is happy school?

When thinking about “happy school”, two terms need some contemplation: happiness and school.

Happiness is the condition where the human’s body and mind are satisfied and feeling good.

School is the educational institution where students study and acquire knowledge and skills.

Can we put these terms together and talk about a happy school? Is it possible to be happy at school? Can students feel good when they have to make an effort for 6 - 9 hours a day and often in fields which are not interesting to them? Is it possible to achieve happiness in an environment where some aspects are neither relaxing nor supporting, and where there are a lot of demands?

These are only some questions we wanted to ask regarding happy school. To get some answers to these questions, teachers at Charlottenlund Upper Secondary School and Tõstamaa Secondary School asked their students what they think happy school is and what makes them happy at school.

In what follows you will find the questions and conclusion of students’ answers. The first question was: What is the best part of going to school? The Norwegian students said that it is to meet friends and socialize. The Estonian students said the same things, that it is a place to meet friends and socialize, but it is also important that the canteen offers good food. Few pupils mentioned interesting classes, playing in the classroom, interesting teachers or learning new things.

The second question was about the worst things in school. Students from Charlottenlund said that the worst things are to sit still all day, long school-days are tiring and to get up early. The Tõstamaa school students also said that it’s long days and a huge workload. They said that there are too many home assignments, bad relations with teachers, waking up too early and boring classes.

The Norwegian students said that they like to learn by doing practical activities; the Estonian youth gave more varied answers like using interactive methods, groupwork, listening to music and that learning depends on subject.

Motivation to learn is different for each student but students from Charlottenlund said that there are three main aspects: 1) the future, 2) to get the job I wish to get and 3) earn a lot of money.

It was almost similar for Estonian students who said that future is motivating, but also good grades, which weren’t mentioned by Norwegian students. The Estonian students said that their motivation sometimes depends on the subject, on the teacher, and on the everyday situation, too.

The main things which ruin the Norwegian students’ motivation are homework and poor food in the canteen. The Estonian youth said that their motivation goes down with disappointment (bad grades, bad feedback). The important non-motivating factors are tiredness, their phone, friends, noise in the classroom, bad relations with teachers and no connection with real life. The Estonian students didn’t mention bad food, but it was clearly expressed that good food motivates them to make an effort and work in classroom.

After the questions about motivation and learning at schools, the students were asked questions about the perfect teacher and the perfect student. Students from Charlottenlund said that the perfect teacher is cool, lively and cares about his or her students – not only the system. A perfect teacher is a person who is engaged and interested in the subject. The teacher’s joy rubs off on his or her students. The perfect student is someone who does what he/she is told to do. A perfect student shares his/her knowledge.

The students from Tõstamaa school described the perfect teacher a little bit more in detail: understanding, emphatic, symphatetic, beautiful, glad, lively, flexible and the one who uses different methods in the classroom and makes his/her subject relevant. The perfect Estonian student is someone who is eager to study, is polite, friendly and ready to help. In other words, students from

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both countries share the same views about the perfect teacher and the perfect student.

The last question asked was about students’ spare time activities and what motivates students to put in an effort to do them. The Norwegian teenagers from Trondheim said that the main activities they do are relaxation, soccer, schoolwork, dancing hip hop, sleeping and other leisure time activities. The main motivating factors are that the activities are fun and you get something in return. The main spare time activities for teenagers in Tõstamaa are playing games on their computers and on their phones, listening to music, taking part in different extra-curricular activities like singing, dancing, handicraft, acting and sport but also spending time with friends, reading and sleeping. The main motivating factors are success in these activities, good feedback, recognition, feeling good, self-development but also new friends, a new perspective of some fields, relaxation and getting out of the everyday routine.

After this research one small group of Charlottenlund Upper Secondary students was asked about the importance of having a good teacher and happy school. During the interview, the students shared a lot of their opinions and emotions. The conclusion of their talk is presented in the following list:  A good teacher varies his/hers teaching methods  A good teacher will give good and specific feedback: how to improve the results and in a way that students can understand it  A good teacher has a happy, energetic and positive charisma  A good teacher in “Happy School” gives the students information in good time about tests and reminds them some days before the test via “It’s learning” or other (sms) mediums. The students also mentioned that information about which pages to read, what to focus on and good tips about how to read and understand are characteristics of good classroom work

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 In “Happy School” differentiated teaching/tasks for the students are used, not only more exercises (there are different needs in the classroom – those who are “smart” and those who “struggle a bit”) but different activities and levels of tasks  It is very important that the teacher knows his or her subject well and knows the practical use of the theory in this subject  A good teacher makes the student feel ok after a test, not like a fool if he/she did not do well. If student didn’t do so well the teacher should at least try to tell to student that the next test is a new opportunity to do well!  If the student has problems understanding something and he/she really wants to learn, it should be possible to get extra lessons (just to pass the exam) As a conclusion of the research at Tõstamaa Secondary School and Charlottenlund Upper Secondary School we can say that “Happy School” motivates students to learn, and teachers know how to make all subjects relevant to the pupils’ everyday life. It is important to understand that each subject, each student and each teacher is different and this demands flexibility from all sides in a happy school environment.

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Challenges in the classroom Examples from Tõstamaa Secondary School and Charlottenlund Upper Secondary School One of the first tasks of the project “Happy School” was to make a survey of the problems which the participating schools have in their classrooms. The teachers at Charlottenlund Upper Secondary school and Tõstamaa Secondary School discussed all the problems they have faced in their classrooms and analysed which of them are obstacles to achieving a happy school. Below, the findings from both schools have been listed and briefly explained. In spite of the schools’ different backgrounds and sizes the problems connected to classroom work are much the same.

Charlottenlund Upper Secondary School 1. Student absence (makes it difficult to get continuity but also progression in learning) 2. Feeling of relevance (their lack of interest makes it difficult for them to want to learn) 3. Students lacking inner and outer motivation (as a result of several different variables both inside and outside school) 4. Behavioural problems (aggression, concentration, disturbance) 5. Work effort and attitude (negative attitude towards learning) 6. Low cognitive ability (understanding theoretical terms) 7. Poor language skills (Norwegian and English) 8. Low competence from secondary school 9. Reading, writing and numeracy difficulties (is a problem among many students) 10. Emotional and social problems (anxiety, depression, family problems etc.)

11. Low self-esteem and low self-confidence 12. Lack of self-discipline/stamina 13. Heterogeneous student group needing extensive support (teachers feel they are inadequate in providing adapted education) When students do not complete secondary school they seem to have lost purpose and motivation for attending classes. Furthermore, they have lost interest in trying to learn new and difficult subjects and theory. This, in turn, tends to lead to low self-esteem and self-confidence, behavioural problems, negative attitudes, lack of effort, and a feeling of relevance to their own life. In short, everything is connected. The political aim in the Norwegian school system is to integrate all students. This aim gives the teachers challenges in providing adapted education.

Tõstamaa Secondary School The teachers in Tõstamaa Secondary School divided the main challenges into different categories which helped in a better way to analyse the challenges and aims for the „Happy School“ project.

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Home related challenges: 1. Parents’ disinterest in schoolwork: parents and children don’t discuss learnt topics 2. Parents have too high/or low expectations of school: they don’t want to have any responsibility in their child’s learning and developing process 3. Unhealthy lifestyle of children: sleeplessness, alcohol use in high school, no physical activities 4. Too much “noise of information”, social media 5. No supporting conditions to learn at home: relations at home, poverty, no control or support at home 6. Children don’t have clear rules at home 7. Negative experiences and emotions about the school, parents create stereotypes about the school Teacher-related challenges: 1. Teachers are not motivated: students are too passive, no inspiration to find new ways to work 2. The teacher’s working tempo is too fast for some students 3. Discipline problems: too strict or too compromising which students use for their own benefits 4. There are not enough supervision or other feedback activities about learning outcomes 5. Student involvement in class activities is too small: the teachers don’t share the studying responsibility 6. Teachers are tired, in a bad mood: personal lifestyle and problems General/administrative challenges: 1. The curriculums and studies in certain topics are too facile (superficial), no depth 2. Teaching materials (books, task-books suggested/obligatory from government) are too old, not modern 3. The functions of the school have changed: after teaching social skills development + working with students special needs 4. The school budget is very limited (not too many options for study trips and etc) Student-related challenges: 1. Students are not motivated to learn and work: the topic’s relevance is not clear, the connection with everyday life is not clear, unlimited access to information and „famous“ examples of non-graduates don’t motivate students to learn 2. Students don’t attend the classes (no continuity in learning, focusing only to get marks, not to learn and develop) 3. A negative environment in the classroom: bad relations between students, bullying, general mood of protest and social non-acceptance in group 4. Students don’t know how to plan their time for studying, hobbies and etc 5. Students don’t have functional reading skills – difficulties in learning new topics (related with absence from school and they have problems with continuity of

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learning) 6. Negative experiences with a topic: tasks in class and homework are not too hard or are too demanding, and this doesn’t motivate 7. Too much to learn in one course, too much to study generally, difficulties with concentration - multitasking 8. Students don’t take responsibility in studying – they study because somebody else wants them to study 9. No or very few positive experiences with studying versus positive feedback comes too easily 10. Students sometimes don’t like some teachers and/or have difficulties with communication with teachers According to the listed challenges, the participating teachers set the main aims they wanted to achieve in the “Happy School” project. The aims are mostly related to classroom work, how to motivate and engage students into their studies, how to make them feel that they want to learn and that they are learning because they need that knowledge. The main aims of the “Happy School” project are presented in following chapter.

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The main aims for classroom learning in „Happy school“ After doing the survey of the main challenges of classroom work the teachers started to discuss what they want to observe in their classrooms. Every teacher had an idea about the perfect working environment and conditions. Therefore, they had a brainstorm and set the main goals for classroom work according to the survey’s results of challenges at school, and added methods on how to reach to their set aims. Below, the main aims and possible methods for classroom work according to the challenges in the survey are presented.

CHALLENGE: Students lack motivation to study THE AIMS IN “HAPPY SCHOOL” ARE: 1. Focused and enthusiastic pupils 2. Better results 3. Good performance by students, they are engaged in their studies 4. Pupils are doing their best 5. Focus and concentration on the task 6. Curiosity and interest in the subject (questions, extra work) 7. Task-based learning 8. Scholarship to university, pocket money from parents METHODS TO ACHIEVE THE AIMS: Humor and play in the classroom Positive evaluation from teachers, supportive attitude by classmates Different study methods CHALLENGE: There is a lack of relevance to the subject THE AIMS IN “HAPPY SCHOOL” ARE: 1. Students understand where, why and how they can use certain skills and knowledge, relevance of study material 2. Reaching students on their personal level (psychological, social, emotional level) METHODS TO ACHIEVE THE AIMS: Projects which support studied material FYR-project as an example (FYR – an acronym for “Fellesfag, Yrkesretting, Relevans” or “Core subjects, Vocational adaption, Relevance”) Self-reflection (after every subject, topic) Combining studies with real life examples and activities Involving guest lecturers, companies and organizations to studies

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CHALLENGE: Teaching methods are boring and don’t work THE AIMS IN “HAPPY SCHOOL” ARE: 1. The teacher wants to use and knows how to use new, innovative teaching methods – positive ways of using new methods 2. Good ICT skills and tools METHODS TO ACHIEVE THE AIMS: Humor and play in the classroom Involving guest lectures, different organizations, practical activities into classroom work Teachers share regularly their new experiences with new methods in their classwork Teachers are mentoring each other Continuous teacher training More cooperation between teachers Accessible database about different methods and examples of new innovative teaching methods Variation of methods in a subject CHALLENGE: Students have a lack of self-discipline and they don’t know how to plan their time THE AIMS IN “HAPPY SCHOOL” ARE: 1. Healthy and happy students 2. Students are on time and meet the deadlines 3. Students can handle negative emotions 4. Students are able to work with less interesting and difficult subjects 5. Students are prepared for classroom work; they bring materials and other needed tools 6. Respectful behaviour in the classroom 7. Students learn to plan their day and their work tasks well and get proper sleep at night 8. Students understand and keep a healthy diet and have an active lifestyle METHODS TO ACHIEVE THE AIMS: Time-planning tips for students Teaching how to study Improvement of the motivation for studies Improved relevance of subjects CHALLENGE: There is no supportive learning environment in the classroom and at home AIMS IN HAPPY SCHOOL ARE: 1. Positive class atmosphere 2. Trust between pupils and teacher 3. Respectful relations in class 4. Supportive home environment

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METHODS TO ACHIEVE THE AIMS: Classroom rules must be clear and respected Flexibility in the learning process Cooperation between teachers, pupils and parents Conflict management skills Regular contact with parents – negative and positive matters equally Active parents’ involvement in school activities CHALLENGE: Students are absent from school and miss continuing habit to learn THE AIMS IN “HAPPY SCHOOL” ARE: 1. Students take responsibility of their studies 2. Parents are responsible of their children’s participation in school work 3. Teachers support students and parents’ responsibility in taking part in school work METHODS TO ACHIEVE THE AIMS: Improved motivation of students Clear rules of classroom work Improved relevance of subjects To sum up, the “Happy School” project had six main challenges and their respective aims to achieve. During the project the participating schools were mostly focused on the students’ motivation and their feeling of the subjects’ relevance to their lives and education. These were considered the most important factors to achieve a “happy school”.

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The relevance of subjects Understanding the relevance: “No joy - no performance!”

There is no doubt that the best way of learning is taking place in the presence of joy, enthusiasm and creativity. When subjects or topics are interesting, engaging, fun, or just peak your curiosity, learning is easy, motivating and gives the student a feeling of contentment and mastery. On the other hand, subjects or topics not easily understood may trigger the student’s aversion towards learning. If the student beforehand has had bad experiences in a subject or topic, the motivation for learning is rapidly diminished. If the student’s earlier experiences are confirmed and even reinforced, the student’s motivation for learning comes to a halt. The teacher’s challenge is to make the subject relevant to the student. This can be done in different ways. Some suggestions are presented below.

A supportive environment is required to make students thrive and willing to learn. The teacher’s mission is to create a positive, safe and engaging environment in the classroom. Possible ways of encourging a supportive environment is to give positive and stimulating feedback to each student. Further, the teacher should incourage classmates to support each other both socially and academically.

Collaborative learing is another way of learning. Often, when two students sit together and share knowledge, optimal learning takes place. A feeling of mastering the subject or topic in addition to having a good relationship with the teacher surely enhances the student’s self-esteem.

Likewise, to enhance the student’s expectations and abilities, home involvement is often necessary. Facilitating formal and informal meetings with the student’s parents makes it easier for the parents to contact school. Therefore, we suggest inviting parents who are specialists in one or another field to classes to share their experiences and skills and to speak with the students. If the parents tell the students what kind of skills and knowledge they need in their profession, as well as pointing at the subjects they think are needed for that a particular job, it may help the students to find motivation to study these subjects more carefully.

Another important aspect of learning is how to make the students share the responsibility for learning with their teacher. A teacher has to make the student understand the importance of self-involvement and rehearsal/practice when trying to learn a subject or topic. The student must try to “do his or her best at his or her own level”.

In the following subchapters there are suggestions as to different methods which might help making a topic more relevant to the students.

Combining studies with real life examples and activities There are several options to make topics and subjects more relevant and connected to real life.

The responsibility for this lies on teachers who have to plan theoretical classes with practical examples. Teachers have to spend some more time to make connections and agreements with practioners and institutions.

Options to make a subject or topic relevant:  Visits to topic-related vocational schools and universities to see options to study

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certain topics further and what could be relevant career options after high school.  Parents or alumni come to talk about their job and what kind of knowledge they need to have in their work.  Guest lecturers from universities, vocational schools, companies or from other institutions come to explain and speak about certain topics.  Job shadowing - not only nationally organized job shadowing days (in Estonia usually in November, see the following link http://www.unistusedellu.ee/content/t%C3%B6%C3%B6varjup%C3%A4ev) but to do it on a smaller scale related to certain topics. For example:  in history class: job shadow at a museum, archives, researchers, for 2-4 hours  in math: job shadow an engineer in metal companies, or other fields  in chemistry: visits to chemist’s shops, hospitals, chemical companies  in physics: visits to metal, technology companies, laboratories, climate institutes  in geography: travel agencies  in language classes: travel agencies, restaurants, translators, magazines  in literature: libraries, theatres, novelists, magazines  Work placements/real life practice. For example, instead of written tests or exam papers students will do work placement or real life practice and present it to their teacher and other students: what did they do, what did they learn via practice, how was it connected with theoretical studies in the classroom, suggestions for classroom work, emotions and etc.  Bringing students personal experiences into the subject or a certain topic. For example:  In geography the teacher could make a travelling wall to bring personal experiences into the topic. A travelling wall is a big map put on the wall and all students will mark the countries or places they have been (or would like to go), and according to this each student could share his/her own memories or study more about the country.  In history: The students could find old photographs, letters, postcards of their family and discuss and analyse what kind of information such items give them about history.  In math: They try to do family budget. First, the class could watch a TV show together, “Teismeline rahaboss” in Estonia in TV3Play.

This TV show was a social experiment where a child decided for one month how to spend family money.  In chemistry: Students investigate what kind of chemicals they use every day in their cosmetics, food, laundry.  Participating in different projects where students can use their different skills and knowledge. Please see next subchapter for examples.  Organizing events or other activities at school or in the local community. Instead of theoretically written or oral exams, course works or tests, students could show

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their skills and knowledge in practical tasks organizing events or other activities. This method demands a longer planning period and cooperation with local communities or other institutions, but the project team have several experiences which show how alternative methods give students more motivation and better results in their performance. For example, 12th graders from Tõstamaa Secondary School had to organize a community Valentine’s Day party in their entrepreunership class. The orgnizational work took almost 3 months and the students had to plan the entire event, incuding all aspects of it, from the idea of styling of the party to organizing cleaning of the rooms after the party. The students’ Valentine’s Day party was very successful and many locals took part in it, but most of all – they felt more self-confident and happy after the successful task performance.

This task taught them team work, planning of the event, budget, costs and incomes, design and grammar, marketing, logistics, responsibility, creativity, management of conflicts, bureaucracy and communication.  Students can make interviews with specialists or documentaries about the subject or certain topic they are studying. For example, if students are studying chemistry and the Mendelejev table, they can find out where and how different elements are used in everyday life and make a documentary about it.  Experiments. Teachers, guest lecturers, students may test certain parts of theoretical studies in the classroom.

This list is one option to share some ideas on how to make a topic more relevant for students.

It is important that each teacher can find the best options to combine the theoretical part with practical tasks. Being flexible and able to see new opportunities is equally important in the meeting with new students and new trends in their practice fields.

Projects which support studied materials Here are a few examples of projects done by teachers at Tõstamaa Secondary School and Charlottenlund Upper Secondary School to support theoretical studies in the classroom.

Students from Tõstamaa Secondary School on their trip to Strasbourg

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European Parliament’s video competition History teacher Aimar Silivälja from Tõstamaa Secondary School took part in an EU animation contest with his 11th grade.

I have done animations with some classes. So far they have been quite simple ones – students draw backgrounds and figures and then the figures are moved on background as needed. This is filmed, usually in several takes and after it I have cut those pieces together into one movie. I plan to teach students basic video editing, so they can do this part themselves also. The first time I did it was for a European Parliament’s video competition. Another time it was to combine topics, info we had learned so far. Students have to write stories themselves, if necessary, they should also read texts, and so on. Students have liked it, because it is something different from usual lessons, they can do things together and be more natural. The downside is that it can take a long time. Once I hoped we could do it in two lessons, but it took 4.

I am adding a link for our competition video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EPmvLteu7lA Tõstamaa students won the award and a trip to the European Parliament in Starsbourg.

Practical work to develop manual for a computer based store cashier system Perly Døsvik, teacher at Service and Transport in Charlottenlund Upper Secondary School, teaches a class with students at different levels, both academically and socially. Therefore, she wanted to create a curriculum where all pupils would be involved, so that each student got to work with what he or she was good at, and that they would all learn and experience this topic where they needed it.

Perly shares her experience: What we did was to create a manual for a computer based store cashier system. (This method can be used in many more disciplines and themes.)

We used some time to teach ourselves the many different functions. Some students went to the store and tried the checkout system and made their own experiences in the store. Some students googled instructions on the Internet and studied various features of it that way, while others read a user manual we had on paper in a binder.

The students agreed in that the manual had to be easy to understand for everyone, and that all should have equal opportunities to understand the instructions. Therefore, the students decided to use mostly pictures, key words and arrows to show what to be done and how to do it.

A couple of the students were particularly interested in photography, and they agreed to taking the responsibility of taking pictures showing the different features that would be in the manual.

In purely practical terms, we used Google Documents (there are many other soft-ware options, too), where every one of the students could sign in and add or edit text, pictures or illustrations to the manual, as students found out the various functions. When we had all the information, pictures etc. needed, we proofread the document/manual together on the smartboard, and sorted the various subjects in a logical order, so they should be easy to find for those who would use the manual.

When the manual was completed, it was printed out, and each one of the students had to go to the store to check out and solve problems to ensure that the user manual was both accurate and understandable. After completing the project, all the students had learned a lot about what it takes to use such a computer based cashier system. They learned, among other things, adding new items, creating groups, adding costs, calculating sales prices and VAT, finding the many different statistics, and finding the products that will make the most money.

The evaluation showed that the students were very satisfied with this project, and that they

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learned a lot from this way of working.

This example shows that students need real practical tasks which makes them see and feel that all the theory is usable in practice.

FYR-project as an example in Norway The FYR project is a national project mandated by the Ministry of Education in November 2011. FYR is about making common core subjects more vocationally oriented and relevant with the aim to decrease dropout from upper secondary school. The FYR project continues until the end of December 2016.

FYR is a national project and is implemented in all counties in Norway. Research has been done during the project period and the results will be published at the end of project period.

Mandates and measures:  Run, follow up and give courses in methodology for the national network of FYR coordinators (English)  Develop cross-curricular teaching plans for sharing on a national digital website (NDLA) and on the school’s own web site  Improve collaboration between vocational and core subject teachers  Collaboration with local businesses  Internship programmes for teachers  FYR in-training courses for vocational and core subject teachers and school leaders from all combined upper secondary schools in Norway (with The Directorate of Education)

Other projects run by Charlottenlund Upper Secondary School Work skills competitions (school competitions in vocational studies). The World skills organization promotes skills. They aim to be: a skills power-hub and information resource library where educators, policy-makers, industry and other organizations redefine the value and improve the attractiveness of skills. See following link: https://www. worldskills.org. One of their activities is to arrange work skills competitions in collaboration with schools, business and industry.

Our experience is that this activity motivates and enhances students’ performances and makes them step out of their comfort zone, resulting in students feeling competent and self-confident. See following link: https://vimeo.com/164215494 Vocational studies in Norway are orga-

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nized as two years in upper secondary school and two years in companies as an apprentice.

During their first two years they go through a program of work placement in different companies as a part of their in-depth studies. The purpose of work placement is primarily to get experience in work skills in a preferred area of interest. This often promotes motivation and ambitions in students. The second purpose is to give the students a way to learn in practice what they alreay learned at school. This gives the students a feeling of subjective relevance. See following link: https://workqual.vma.is/index.php/WorkQual The previous picture shows students in a situation of work placement.

Youth Entreprices and innovation camps are other activities aimed at subjective relevance. The purpose of youth enterprises is that students get a realistic experience of how to start, run and end a company. Regarding innovation camps the students get experience in increasing creativity and working through the preferred idea at hand. The picture on the left shows a youth entreprice’s photo of their arranged LAN.

A unifying day for students and employees at school. The purpose of such a day is to gather all parts of a school environment to create an inspiring fellowship.

Regularly, throughout their school years, students in Norway get visits from local companies, lecturers as well as local training offices. This enables the students to see the relevance between what they learn at school and what is needed when entering work life.

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How to motivate students?

Motivaton means to want or to be willing to do something. According to Ryan and Deci (2000) to be motivated means to be moved to do something. They say that if a person who feels no impetus or inspiration to act is thus characterized as unmotivated, whereas someone who is energized or activated toward an end is considered motivated.

Motivation cannot be seen as a unitary phenomenon. People, or if we want to bring more precise examples by groups as students, workers, sportsmen and etc, have not only different amounts, but also different kinds of motivation. Willingness to do something does not only vary in level of motivation (i.e., how much motivation), but also in the orientation of that motivation (i.e., what type of motivation). Orientation of motivation concerns the underlying attitudes and goals that give rise to action – that is, it concerns the why of actions. As an example, a student can be highly motivated to do homework out of curiosity and interest or, alternatively, because he or she wants to obtain the approval of a teacher or parent. A student could be motivated to learn a new set of skills because he or she understands their potential utility or value, or because learning the skills will yield a good grade and the privileges a good grade affords. (Ryan, Deci, 2000: 54-55) According to the main challenges found in the project’s survey the motivation of students is the key element to achieve a “happy school”. The following methods and examples are divided into subchapters according to the aims mentioned on the previous pages. Each example is meant to give an idea and/or inspiration to find ways to make classroom work with students livelier and more interesting on both sides: both for students and teachers. We understand that all methods are not applicable to all courses and do not inspire all students. That’s why it is important to be flexible and test and adapt given examples according to one’s own group of students and subject.

To motivate students, it is important to ask why we want to motivate students. Is it because it motivates teachers to work? Is it because motivated students get better grades and it improves the the image of the school? Or do we want to enhance students’ performance in classroom work? The project team discussed motivation in a “happy school” environment and agreed that the main aim is to enhance students’ performance, and to do so there are several options:  Agreed aims – agreed methods and tools and maintain the aims in the classroom  Motivation to make an effort in different subjects  Understanding the relevance of the subject  A supportive environment in the classroom  Positive feedback to all students even if students perform poorly  Home involvement in schoolwork  Increasing self-esteem  Collaborative learning  Responsibility of students own studies  Relaxation and no fear of failing during the studies  To do his/her own best at own level Every subject should start with agreed aims in classroom work. Agreed aims is the first step

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towards happy school environment and this is a sort of agreement between teacher and students:  Introduction into the programme – the aims in subject’s curriculum and what should be achieved.  Agreement with students on how to achieve to the aims of the curriculum (if wanted - marked on posters on the wall in the classroom). This part is one of the most important parts of the agreed aims as the main activities during the course are decided. An overview of planned activities, tests and main home assignements should be given.  Individual coaching where each student sets his or her own goals at his/her own level: what they want achieve during their school year/in particular subject.  Initiate one evaluation session with the student each semester in each subject. The purpose is to make the student understand his or her responsibility and ability to perform in accordance with the agreed aims.

On the next pages, other methods and options on how to enhance students performance will be described. According to the project team agreement we are focusing mostly on motivation and relevance of the subject.

Humor and play in classroom “Play is child’s work.”

This is the what we expect to be true for kids aged 1-7. After reaching school age our perspective of children and what we expect of them seem to change: “Children’s task is to study”.

We seem to believe that the first stage in life is completely over once a new stage has started. It is hardly remembered that pupils are children until they actually graduate from high school, till they reach the age of 18.

Humor, play, games, interaction in a creative way are mostly dominating in kindergartens, but should be so in schools as well. Not only in schools which work with alternative curriculums but in every single school where children attend to get formal education. As long as those young people are considered to be children in our legislative system, we shouldn’t exclude the role of play in their lives.

And later too.

The following subchapter gives you a brief overview of different non-formal examples of how to bring humor and play into the classroom and how to let the youth study through play.

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Humor in the classroom Humor in the classroom is one of the key elements to motivate students to study and create a positive classroom atmosphere. However, it doesn’t mean that teachers need to be comedians or enterainers but it requests them to think a little more about how to include some fun into the study process. A positive climate for learning and enjoyment is correlated with retention of information and putting knowledge to work in everyday situations (including tests). (Elias, 2016) Humor and fun is something which usually is connected with good and positive feelings, emotions; it reduces stress and makes you relax. If teachers could bring even a little bit of fun into every class, then we could be sure that students also would feel more motivated and willing to come to his or her class. The use of humor is one way to stimulate interest in a subject matter.

Another positive outcome of using the humor might be increased student attendance in classes, a positive evaluation of the topic and improved results in the subject. Improved results are strongly related to humor as fun and humor help to gain and maintain the students’ attention.

It is proved that humor helps to improve relations between students and teachers, and if people like each other they are ready to make more efforts to comply with each other’s needs and requests. (Wanzer, 2016) There are different humor strategies which teachers could use in classroom but there is one absolute rule: No sarcasm and no hurting another person’s feelings. It should be avoided to pick on or “belittle” one particular student or group of students. Similarly, teachers should avoid irrelevant or unrelated humor in the classroom, like jokes about sex, stereotypes or related topics that are unfamiliar to the students.

Other aspects which should be taken into account are types of humor (cartoons, jokes, gags), placement of humor (in a key part of the lesson or at a random time of the lesson) and channels of humor (videos, telling, playing). Below you will find examples of different strategies of humor in the classroom. Before using those strategies, it is important to think in advance about how to use different types of humor, in which part of the lesson the humor should take place, and what the best channel for the topic should be. For example, if you are no good story-teller you should not tell jokes or stories in your classroom. Use some other channels.

The project team discussed different strategies of humor and got some support from literature, too, to bring out some ideas and suggestions to get more humor in the classroom:  Laugh at yourself – if you explain some topic in your classroom and you happen to have some of your own funny experiences related to the theme, don’t feel ashamed about sharing it with your students. Sharing your own experiences gives the students the feeling that you have had to learn a lesson yourself and you have made mistakes during your study process. Note that laughing at yourself should not go too far. If you continuously use self-disparaging humor you may lose your credibility.  Use humorous real-life examples to explain why a topic is important to learn and how people could make mistakes in their lives if they don’t know certain topics or skills.

Example: Cakes with misspelled words, advertisements or signs that use improper punctuation and etc. Many of those examples are available on internet pages, such as Pinterest.com, on different pages on Facebook, etc.  Add humorous items into tests, home assignements, study materials – small things can bring a smile into students’ faces and it reduces anxiety and stress.

Example: You can add funny questions into a history test like: Did Marie Antoinette love chocolate more than ice cream? Please, explain. – This requires student’s imagination and creativity to answer. Another way to reduce stress is to ask students to write one topic-related question into the test themselves and let the

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teacher answer it.  Collect files of cartoons, funny quotes, jokes, riddles, puns, gags, funny videos which give funny illustrations or examples of your topic.

Examples: Joke about math Teacher asks Juku: “If your sister have six apples and you take 2 of them away what is the result?”

Juku: “A terrible scream.”

Joke about smell, chemistry class before the topic of fragrances: Teacher writes a note in Juku’s diary: “Juku is stinking at school.”

Dad’s response to the note: “My child is not a flower you go to smell!”

Every teacher could use the internet and magazines to find jokes for his/her own topic. For example here is a page for jokes of physics: http://www.jupiterscientific.org/sciinfo/jokes/physicsjokes.html These examples will probably make the students laugh before entering a difficult topic or just for fun to make a break, or to open the students’ minds to learn something new. Some examples... ...in the maths class...

...in the French class...

... in art history...

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Some examples of videos: Youtube example showing the difficulties a person may have if he doesn’t understand a concept or method, or trying to learn something completely different.

Medieval helpdesk with English subtitles https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQHX-SjgQvQ Youtube example concerning how not to treat customers.

Don’t Mention the War! – Fawlty Towers – BBC https://www.youtube.com/watch?v= yfl6Lu3xQW0  Involve students by asking them to share their funny experiences about related topics or to prepare/find jokes, cartoons, videos on the topic. How often and in what format teachers involve students into humor is their own choice. This strategy should support the learning process via encouraging students to see a topic from both a serious and funny perspective.  Have a funny hat day, or mismatched socks day, or certain colour day, or some other funny dress-up time.  Build creative and humorous thinking by showing cartoons and pictures without captions and ask students to create them - individually, in pair-shares, or small groups.  To get more humor into the classroom is one option to present your topic in totally new, weird and unexpected way. Surprise is a good way to get students’ attention. If you add a funny element, it will put a smile on the students’ faces and make them more curious of how is it possible to handle the topic in this certain way.

Example 1: Take a new role in your class and explain your topic from this role.

You could be a sad or happy clown while explaining trigonometry in math, or you could be a king while talking about the French revolution. Involve students into the process and ask them, for instance, to explain geography from the view of an apple.

Example 2: Explaining Mendeleev’s periodic table might be quite long and boring for students who are not interested in chemistry. It would be much more useful if the teacher could add some more values to the table. The teacher could show a periodic table with country flags which explain the nationality of the scientists who discovered all the different elements.

See example on next page.

Another way to explain the periodic table is by showing an illustrative video of how the elements would behave if they were humans. See example from youtube: Chemical Party https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wBCmt_pJTRA In same way teachers could illustrate math, history, physics by creating roleplays by themselves and asking students to play different parts in their topic.  If the previous strategies did not work for the teacher, and he/she doesn’t know how to bring more humor and fun into classroom, then a good way to start is by using more non-verbal immediacy behaviours (smiling, laughing, vocal variety, gestures).

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See how a smile changes everything: http://www.boredpanda.com/so-i-askedthem-to-smile/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=link&utm_campaign=Newsletter Every teacher’s goal is to be effective in the classroom and help students learn. Educators want their students to be eager and engaged. Humor has the power to fuel that engagement. But remember: Too much fun and humor can be ineffective too. Use it moderately.

Play in the classroom “I feel more motivated while learning by playing.” This is a statement by one of the students taking part in the “Happy School” project.

Playing and games are connected – if we have a game, then we can play it. We can play many things, and this is a broader term. We can play games but also musical instruments, roles and etc. What is a game? Wikipedia says that a game is a structured form of play, usually undertaken for enjoyment and sometimes used as an educational tool. Robert Caillois defined a game as an activity that must have the following characteristics: fun, separate (it is limited in time and place), uncertain (the outcome of the activity is unforeseeable), non-productive, governed by rules and fictitious (it is accompanied by the awareness of a different reality). We can agree to most of these characteristics, but not with the „non-productive” as playing games could be one way to learn certain skills or get some knowledge.

Kevin Maroney has defined game as a form of play with goals and structure. This is good definition to include fun, separate from real-life, uncertainty, and rules and the fictitious. (Maroney, 2001) There are many definitions and explanations of a game’s nature. In conclusion we can say that a game is a competitive activity in which players contend with each other according to a set of rules. The aim of the game can be only pleasure but also to learn, to motivate and to engage more with the topic. It can imitate reality or to be purely based on fantasy, it can test a player’s physical, intellectual and social skills.

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Playing and games have got lot of attention lately in many fields of life: education, work, business, psychology, etc as being a very useful method to motivate people to perform their best.

Aristoteles saw games and play as a source of mental stability and harmony between body and mind. Many other theories and scientists have studied games and play in people’s lives and found their positive effect on intellect, behaviour and everyday life. (Mängu jõud, 2016) Educational or training games could be defined as a structural training activity with a content or process learning objective other than the completion of the activity itself. Training or educational games have the following characteristics:  There is a learning goal.  There are clear definitions of what behaviour is and is not proper part of the activity.  There is an element of competition between participants (though there may be no scoring).  There is a high degree of interaction between at least some of the participants.  The game has a definite point of closure.  In most cases there are definite outcomes (winner, solution or etc). (Kirby, 2006) Theses characterisitcs are important, but fun is equally important in games. The trainer or teacher should always be in control of the fun part of games (no fights, no insulting behaviour or other dysfunctions of the game).

There are many useful aspects of playing games: developmental, experimental, experimentation, variation in learning methods in the classroom, memorability, motivation, group responsibility, multiple relevance (multiple profit), peer learning, process learning, rapidity learning, realism, risk taking in a safe environment, skill development.

Using a game in the classroom is funny and good way of learning something new or fulfilling any other goal mentioned previously. One of the most important parts of playing a game is to understand and follow certain stages of playing a game:  preparing a game to fit into your topic: what type of game, what is the purpose of the game, how much time does it take, place of the game, …  introducing the game and its goals to students, questions-answers  playing a game  feedback to the game: how did it go, discussion of different parts of the game, emotions, what did students learn, good and bad parts of the game, suggestions  conclusion: home assignment, decision to go on with games in classroom, …

It is important to note that a game is not for the teacher but for the students, and they should be involved in every aspect of the play or the game. If students want more explanations, change of rules, give more or less time – the teachers should be flexible to make changes. If they do not understand, then it is necessary to explain it to the students.

Different types of games There are different ways to categorize games. Here we will give some possible categories, but there could be more ways to select games. At first there a brief guide of the main categories of games:  Auction games – where something is usually sold off for pretend money to members of the group. It helps to strengthen the group identity, motivate group work.  Audience games – part of the group serves as an audience for a few participants.  Chain games – participants direct activity to next group member.

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 Circle games – people talk or carry activities in turn.  Circle centre games – one person in the middle, the teacher should start in the middle and be the one to be extracted first. Most of these games are energizers and attention switchers.  Exclusion games – where one person or some group of people should be treated differently from the others in some way. These games are very sensitive and teacher should prepare and discuss the game with the students very carefully.  Individual game – each participant does something individually.  Moulding games – where one participant has the opportunity to mould, sculpt or order the group in some way. Need trust between team members and are actually very good games for team building and making people trust each other more.  Pairs games – students have to work in pair according to the rules of the game. It is a good way to motivate students to work with other students they usually do not interact much with.  Relay games – members of a team compete to carry out an activity or a series of activities. Team work and co-operation.  Swap games – groups will complete a listing, writing or drawing activity, and the results will be acted upon in some way by another group.

Another way to list the types of games is how those games are played:  Board games (chess, trip around the world, etc)  Virtual games (Kahoot, Jeopardy, …)  Physical games  Card games  Dice games  Pencil-and-paper games  Strategy games (chess, different board and virtual games which demand strategy skills)  Cooperative games  Role-play games (imitation of different situations like battles, events, …)  Conversation games (games that require only conversational ability)  Daring games (games of dare involve daring one or more people to engage in an activity that could result in damage to one or more of the participants. For example: Russian roulette)  Guessing games (Alias, ...)  Singing games  Letter games (involves the exchange of written letters, or e-mails, between two or more participants)  Playground games (includes some physical activity, tools like balls or other items.

Usually playground games are defined as children’s games. Most of these games include at least two of the following six features in different proportions: physical skill, strategy, chance, repetition of patterns, creativity, and vertigo.)

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 Quizzes  Memory games  Word games  Orientation games Last but not least – another way to categorize the games is according to the game’s purpose:  Energizers – games which help to break the tension and wake up the group to go on with classroom work.  Introductions – games which help to get to know classmates the first time or to get to know them better.  Action planning – games which help to put learnt knowledge into practice.  Assertiveness – to be able to distinguish different behaviour patterns.  Attention switching – enables for students to leave some topics for a moment, to get some energy.  Attributions – game to find out assumptions about some people or groups.  Creativity – games which help to find new ideas, solutions.  Decision making – actions which help to follow processes of decision making in a group.  Expectations/stereotypes – games to find out certain expectations towards some groups or people.  Feedback – activities which help to express opinion, to give feedback, to conclude some topics.  Listening skills – games which help to notice and listen others, different messages. It includes active listening skills, non-verbal signs.  Motivation – activities which help to find out the participants’ motivation.  Negotiation – games where participants have limited resources but they have to share it in a way to ensure everybodys needs.  Non-verbal communication – sensitivity of non-verbal signals.  Problem solving – games which support of skills of solving practical problems.  Self-disclosure – self-development, to find out own strenghts and weaknesses.  Self-perception – actions to understand one’s own self and how you seem to others.  Team-building – games to support group work.  Trust – games to find out trust to others.  Validation – actions which support the learning of certain skills or knowledge.  Verbal/written communication.

(Kirby, 2006) On next pages there will be a presentation of different instructions for games and activities of the last category. Each game or activity has comments given by the project team.

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Energizers, warming up Energizers are activities, usually physical activities, which are used when participants lack energy and concentration. An energizer is an activity to get the blood flowing and to re-establish a group after a break or after completing tasks. Energizers can be run to warm up the team/ group and promote group interaction.

Good energizers could be:  yoga or other workout exercises  dance (fun, energetic music) – the group must trust each other  singing or making other voices – again, the group must trust each other  short games or exercises before focusing on the topic Good energizers are small physical activities which test your abilities to manage some kind of a task while moving. The teacher may increase the level of complexity as the students learn more.

Activity nr 1 Proposer

Social science teacher

Title

Number and moving energizer

Ideal number of participants

Even numbered group of students

Level of complexity

easy

Activity’s objective

Wake up, give energy

The specific objectives of the activity

Wake up, energy

Used materials

-

Description of the activity’s steps

The teacher forms pairs of students instructing them to face each other while counting from 1 to 3. Each student is only allowed to say one number before the other student continues saying another number inthe correct order from 1 to 3. Next level: Number 2 is replaced by waving the hand (the number 2 is not spelled out). Last level: Number 3 is replaced by turning around oneself. This activity should be done as fast as possible. Most surely your students will laugh and get energized after this activity. Instead of waving one hand and turning around yourself the tasks given could be shouting “hello” and “jump”.

Activity’s results

This is short and good way to energize the group of students who are tired of classroom work.

Total time to complete activity

10 minutes

Activity’s evaluation / Impressions of the participants

Some of the students get a lot of fun as they try to do everything very fast and when they start to mix the counting and moving. Other students my take it slower

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and do everything in the correct order which has less fun but still puts them to move and gives energy.

Activity nr 2 Proposer

Economy teacher

Title

Budget song

Ideal number of participants

6 – 20 students

Level of complexity

Easy/Intermediate

Activity’s objective

Have fun while learning budget expressions and calculus.

The specific objectives of the activity

Learn the song by heart – so the students find it easier to remember budget calculus (new words and/or new theme).

Used materials

Teacher’s choice of budget expressions and calculus, textbooks, PC/Youtube, pencil and writing paper. You Tube (listen to melody used to make the song).

Description of the activity’s steps

1. The students form pairs in 2.

2. The teacher is giving each pair different well known songs which the students are to use with given budget expressions and calculus to create their own budget song.

3. They are then given two lessons to make their own song to hand in to the teacher, and if they wish, perform it in front of the other students. Students are free to mingle and may discuss with the teacher or other students during their song making.

4. The next lesson the teacher hands out his or her own “homemade” budget song for all the students to sing.

A piece of advice: The result of success from this activity will depend on how well the students know each other from before and each group’s dynamics.

Activity’s results

High level of cooperation, active use of PC and textbooks to fit the expressions to the given song. Most students were positive and actively enjoying themselves.

Total time to complete activity

3 lessons (2 * 45 min. + 1 * 45 min.)

Activity’s evaluation / Impressions of the participants

Oral evaluation: All students stated that they liked this kind of learning method. The students found the activity both educational and fun. The subject is often viewed by the students as a difficult subject to learn. This learning method gave them the possibility to learn difficult expressions while laughing and having fun.

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Activity nr 3 Proposer

Social science teacher

Title

The Balloon Battle

Ideal number of participants

Even numbered group of students

Level of complexity

medium

Activity’s objective

To give energy

The specific objectives of the activity

Teamwork, strategy, collaboration

Used materials

balloons, strings

Description of the activity’s steps

 Instruct everyone to tie a balloon to their left foot (you need balloon and strings for all participants), everyone gets a balloon and a string.  Divide the large group into several smaller groups or into 2 groups.  Instruct everyone about the team’s mission and the game’s duration: “All teams have the same goal: to protect the team balloons. The game goes on for 3 minutes. At the end the balloons will be counted and the team with the highest number of full balloons will be announced.”  Start and count down 3 minutes.

Activity’s results

This is a very good way to energize the group of student who are tired of classroom work.

Total time to complete activity

15 minutes

Activity’s evaluation / Impressions of the participants

Typically, the participants will have lots of fun. Many pupils might run around and attack other pupils’ balloons.

At the end of the game you can have conversations about team work, team strategy, perception of responsibility, and my favorite: the competitive human nature, which, at times, work against a win-win situation. For instance, if no one moves and attack other people balloons, every team accomplishes the goal of protecting the team’s balloons, and every team ends the highest number of full balloons.

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Introductions These activities are important to each group to get to know group members better or if they meet for the first time to get to know each other.

Activity nr 1 Proposer

Language teacher

Title

Hot seat

Ideal number of participants

4-30

Level of complexity

easy

Activity’s objective

The hot-seat exercise can be used if the group want to get to know each other better or it can be adapted into every topic at school.

The specific objectives of the activity

Get to know about specific topic

Used materials

Chairs

Description of the activity’s steps

Intructions of the exercise: take a seat which is called the “hot seat”. Each player or participant has a set time (1 - 3 minutes) to sit in the hot seat.

Once the player sits, the timer starts, and questions start in rapid succession (by the other participants).

Player can pass the question if it is not in accordance with the rules.

Activity’s results

Spesific knowledge of a topic

Total time to complete activity

10-45 minutes

Activity’s evaluation / Impressions of the participants

Students are eager to participate. The most important thing is to set clear rules of what kind of questions should be asked. The teacher has to supervise the activity.

Activity 2 Proposer

Social science teacher

Title

Group meeting/group meeting check-in

Ideal number of participants

5-25

Level of complexity

easy

Activity’s objective

Ice-breaker, getting to know each other

The specific objectives of the activity

Ice-breaker, team-building

Used materials

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Description of the activity’s steps

 At the beginning of group meeting or at the beginning of the school year with a new class, walk around the table asking each person to briefly answer a pre-selected question.  Give participants a minute or two to think of something to share before beginning.  List of possible questions are in Attachment.

Activity’s results

The group get more knowledge about each other, warmer classroom atmosphere.

Total time to complete activity

Total time depends on the number of participants.

Activity’s evaluation / Impressions of the participants

It is a very useful method with students who see each other for the first time and do not know much about each other.

Students like to discuss topics which make them get to know others on an informal level.

Attachment

Possible Questions: 1. If you could pick a theme song for yourself, what would it be?

2. What do you most admire about the person to your left?

3. What do you consider to be the best thing ever invented? Why? 4. What is one thing you learned from your parents?

5. If you could move anywhere for one year, where would it be?

6. What is your most compulsive daily ritual?

7. What is the oddest task you have ever had?

8. What is your favorite way to spend a relaxing weekend day?

9. What annoys you most?

10. In what way(s) are you superstitious?

11. Who is a famous person, living or dead, fictional or real, political, artistic, etc. whom you would like to have dinner with? Why? 12. What have you not done that you have wanted to do for years?

13. What’s your dream job?

14. What are the most important qualities you look for in a friend?

15. What one goal would you like to accomplish this year?

16. What part of your personality would you most like to change?

17. What is one fear you would like to overcome?

18. What is your favorite quotation?

19. What is the most beautiful place you have ever seen?

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20. What negative experience have you had that turned out to be for the best?

21. If talent weren’t an issue, what career would you choose for yourself?

22. What do you wish you had time to do every day? How could you make that time?

23. What is your favorite vacation spot? Why? 24. If money wasn’t an issue, what career would you choose? Why? 25. What person in your life has had the greatest impact on you? In what way?

26. What is your dreamday?

27. What have you done in the past year that has been completely out of character for you?

28. Explain the significance of one thing you are wearing or one thing you have on your person?

29. What is the thing you are the most interested in right now?

30. What is the most comforting (non-religious) thing you own?

31. What have you lost that you would most like to retrieve?

32. What was the best toy you have ever owned?

33. What is the single greatest act of kindness you have ever received from a stranger?

34. What is one of the simple pleasures of life that you truly enjoy, and why do you enjoy it so much?

35. What was your favorite board game as a child and why did you like it so much?

Activity 3 Proposer

Tourism teacher

Title

Hidden treasure

Ideal number of participants

6-30

Level of complexity

All levels

Activity’s objective

The purpose of this activity is to allow team members, who have not previously worked together, to become acquainted with one another.

The specific objectives of the activity

Ice-breaker, getting to know each other

Used materials

Work sheet, pen and pencil

Description of the activity’s steps

 At the beginning of the class/course, explain the importance of teamwork and camaraderie, as well as the

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importance of being acquainted with their new group.  Hand out a copy of Treasure Hunt to each person.  Ask everyone to circulate around the room, finding one trait you have in common (e.g. “grew up in Phoenix”), and one dissimilar trait (e.g. “sports fan” vs. “dislike sports”) for each person on the class, or as time permits.

Debrief Questions to Ask:  How many of us tend to be reticent on first meeting friends or team members?  How was this exercise for you? Threatening or nonthreatening?  What unexpected things did you find in common?

Activity’s results

Students, classmates know more one another.

Total time to complete activity

20-30 minutes, depending on number of participants

Activity’s evaluation / Impressions of the participants

It might be threatening to new classmates but with support by teacher it will be overcome quickly and in the end students like the exercise. This could be done with a group of students who has been studying together longer too.

Attachment

HIDDEN TREASURE WORKSHEET Nr Name 1 John Smith 2 …

Alike

Different

Activity 4 Proposer

Social science teacher

Title

A Penny For Your Thoughts

Ideal number of participants

6 - 20

Level of complexity

Easy to medium

Activity’s objective

The purpose of this activity is to allow group members, who have not previously worked together, to become acquainted with one another or to give students to get to know each other more better.

The specific objectives of the activity

Introduction, ice-breaker, team-building

Used materials

pennies

Description of the activity’s steps

 Have enough pennies for each participant to have five pennies.

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 Instruct each person to share something unique about themselves, or something they have done which is unlikely that anyone else has in common with them.  After they share the item, if no one else shares this in common, they may place one of their pennies in the center of the table.  If anyone else does have this item in common with them, this person(s) may also place one of their pennies in the center of the table.  Rotate to the next person and continue.  The first person who disposes of all their pennies wins!

Debrief Questions to Ask:  Why is it important for us to know more about each other?  How difficult (or easy) was it to share information about yourself with others?  How can we learn more about one another back on the job?

Tips for Success:  Give participants a few minutes to think of something to share before beginning.  If you have time, let the group ask questions after each participant shares their information.

Activity’s results

Shared stories which let people know each other better.

Warm and entusiastic classroom environment.

Total time to complete activity

Depend on number of participants, 20-45 minutes

Activity’s evaluation / Impressions of the participants

After 1-2 stories students will be more relaxed and open to share their own stories. Teacher has to supervise the whole group to keep time-limit.

Action planning An essential part of any course will be the element of action planning in which participants seek to apply what they have learned to their work.

Activity nr 1 Proposer

Economics teacher

Title

Students conducting mini courses

Ideal number of participants

6 – 15

Level of complexity

Low/intermediate/advanced

Activity’s objective

Authentic situation teaching others while learning different topics themselves.

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The specific objectives of the activity

Practice to learn a specific topic by trying to teach to others what they have just learned themselves.

Used materials

Dependent on the topics in focus (textbooks, PC, internet, pen and paper, Smartboard…)

Description of the activity’s steps

1. The students form groups of 3.

2. The students are asked to conduct a mini course in a specific topic to other students and/or the teacher.

3. The teacher is coaching the students while preparing for their mini course.

4. The students are given 2 lessons to prepare their mini courses.

5. The 3rd lesson the different groups are given a maximum of 5 minutes to hold their mini courses for the other students and/or teachers.

6. Constructive feedback is given from classmates and teacher after each mini course.

7. Each group member is given a grade after asking questions to each group member about the mini coursetopic.

A piece of advice: The topic should not be too difficult or comprehensive to ensure positive and engaged students (for advanced students this will not be a challenge). Small groups are recommended to ensure engagement from all group members. Giving each member of the group a grade also ensures participation from all group members.

Activity’s results

High level of cooperation and activity in students while working with preparation with the mini courses.

Total time to complete activity

4 lessons (2 * 45 minutes + 2 * 45 minutes)

Activity’s evaluation / Impressions of the participants

Oral evaluation: All students state that they learn a lot from working with this learning method. They found it educational, fun and authentic. They liked the fact that each group member was given a grade to make sure all participated (especially those students who normally worked a lot in group activities).

Activity 2 Proposer

Security teacher

Title

Jeopardy

Ideal number of participants

6 – 16

Level of complexity

Low/intermediate

Activity’s objective

Playful learning or repetition in the subjects of security and administration.

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The specific objectives of the activity

Learning or revising different topics in the subjects of security and administration

Used materials

Pen and pencil, Smartboard, a Jeopardy set with correct questions and answers.

Description of the activity’s steps

1. The class is divided into 2 teams (by hair colour or gender or…)

2. On the Smartboard the letters A to Z are shown. The letters A to H concern themes within First Aid. The letters I to P concerns themes within the topic of Health, Safety and Environment. The letters Q to X concerns themes within the topic of Work Ethics. And finally, the letters Y to Z concerns themes within the topic of Law. 3. Team 1 chooses a letter in the column of the wanted theme. The teacher tells the answer and the students will now form the question. If they succeed, they can choose another letter. If they are wrong, the other team can either choose to form the correct question to this letter or choose another letter, before forming a question regarding this theme/answer.

4. Continue till all the tasks are done.

5. The teacher marks a cross over each letter at the Smartboard whenever a letter is solved correctly with the right question.

6. The winner- and the loser team are given a small prize.

Activity’s results

The students were eager to manage most letters and questions to win the knowledge competition. The cooperation between the students in each team was very good.

Total time to complete activity Activity’s evaluation / Impressions of the participants

1 lesson (45 minutes) When the students finally understood that they had to think the other way around, that the answer should be the question, the students really liked it and got the hang of it.

In fact, the way to “play in” the knowledge was a good way to repeat the theory in focus, the students explained.

Activity 3 Proposer

Security teacher

Title

Completing slides

Ideal number of participants

6 – 16

Level of complexity

Low/intermediate

Activity’s objective

Learning specific topics working together as a team.

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The specific objectives of the activity

Learning how to search for correct information by searching on the internet or in textbooks while working together as a team.

Used materials

PC, Smartboard, pen and paper, textbooks, PowerPoint (digital tool), It’s learning (digital platform for students and teachers used in Norway)

Description of the activity’s steps

1. The students form pairs of 2.

2. The teacher gives the students a file of an incomplete PowerPoint presentation in a specific topic.

3. The students (in pairs of 2) are then asked to fill in the incomplete PowerPoint presentation and hand it in to the teacher.

4. After all the completed presentations are handed in, the teacher and students talk about/discuss the correct information (the complete PowerPoint presentation) in class.

Activity’s results

This gives a very good result regarding repetition of the theory in focus.

Total time to complete activity

2 lessons (2 * 45 minutes)

Activity’s evaluation / Impressions of the participants

The students work very well with this learning method.

They often ask to revise focused theory before tests with this learning method. With this learning method they work actively with their books when they filling in the power point presentation.

Activity 4 Proposer

Security teacher

Title

Giggle or facts

Ideal number of participants

6 – 16

Level of complexity

Low/intermediate

Activity’s objective

Playful learning in security topics

The specific objectives of the activity

Learning expressions, actual situations and how to solve a critical situations

Used materials

Pen and pencil

Description of the activity’s steps

1. The teacher hands out a paper of different statements to the students.

2. The students are then asked to choose either the statements as a giggle or a fact.

3. The winner is given a small prize (and the other students are given consolation prizes).

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Activity’s results

The students got good grades on this test.

Total time to complete activity

1 lesson (45 minutes)

Activity’s evaluation / Impressions of the participants

The students had to read the statements several times to make sure they had understood the content clearly before marking the statements as giggle or fact. Some of the statements were by purpose made fairly similar so that the students had to rethink before they chose which statement they was the correct answer. The students commented they liked to work like this.

Activity 5 Proposer

Math teacher

Title

Flipped classroom.

Ideal number of participants Level of complexity

All levels.

Activity’s objective The specific objectives of the activity

The students can learn mathematics (or other tasks) “everywhere” and at any time.

Used materials

Computer and internet access.

Description of the activity’s steps

Campus increment Khan Academy

Activity’s results Total time to complete activity Activity’s evaluation / Impressions of the participants

Some students are not able to learn by reading in a mathematics book. They need oral explanation.

Assertiveness These activities help to develop and improve participants’ self-confidence and to choose appropriate behaviour patterns. Activities help to distinguish aggressive, assertive or passive behaviour patterns.

Activity nr 1 Proposer

Tourism teacher

Title

Consensus

Ideal number of participants

6 - 30

Level of complexity

medium

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Activity’s objective

Assertiveness

The specific objectives of the activity

Assertiveness, team-building, decision making

Used materials

Papers, pens

Description of the activity’s steps

 Hand out the checklist (see Attachment) and ask participants to rank their ten most important qualities in descending order of importance. When they have done so, ask them to remove the five lowest.  Ask the group to come to a consensus as to which are the most important qualities in a 20 minutes periood.

Observe them doing so.  Discuss with the group how they came to the consensus they reached.

Activity’s results

Reaching to the consensus need groupwork and the teacher has to observe and support but not to help the group. Groups will discuss which personal qualities are most important for different staatuses in society: pupils, teachers, historical people, president and etc.

Total time to complete activity

45 minutes

Activity’s evaluation / Impressions of the participants

The teacher has to say very clearly who’s personal qualities are evaluated and it is a good idea to divide the class into smaller groups to give everyone in a group the chance to express their opinion. Each group should present their list to other and give explanation of their choice.

Attachment

Personal qualities checklist:  Have a good sense of humor  Be kind  Have fun  Be understanding  Be friendly  Be outrageous  Be trustworthy  Be outgoing  Take a joke  Be honest  Be critical  Be able to understand the other’s feelings  Be talkative  Be able to listen  Be creative  Be stylish  Be spontaneous  Be mature  Be child-like  Be wise

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 State their bottom line  Be logical  Be accepting  Know a lot  Listen  Be cynical  Be generous  Be confident  Be consistent  Be attractive  Be calm  Be correct  Be aggressive  Be innovative  Be in control  Be doing best he/she can  Be lively  Be predictable ….

Activity nr 2 Proposer

Chemistry teacher

Title

Goodies

Ideal number of participants

6 - 30

Level of complexity

Easy to medium

Activity’s objective

Assertiveness

The specific objectives of the activity

Assertiveness, team-building, self-disclosure

Used materials Description of the activity’s steps

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 Ask participants to think of four „goodies“ about themselves. These can be abilities, feelings or attitudes, but they should not relate directly to possessions. Ask students to consider:  What is goodie?  How and where was it demonstrated?  What were the consequenses?  Ask the group to talk about their findings.  Run the discussion on the basis of free disclosure (students can explain their findings and what they wish about themselves).  Lead this discussion into following topis:  How people feel about saying good things about themselves

 How does this activity feel about themselves  Does this activity change their groupwork/relations in the classroom?

Activity’s results

Activity will help to find goodis for everyone and if one cannot name more than one or two, the others should help to find more goodies.

Total time to complete activity

25 -45 minutes

Activity’s evaluation / Impressions of the participants

It helps the students to become more self-confident, but also with regard to classroom work. This activity is a good start to new topic. The teacher could ask students to list their goodis regarding their own self-evaluation in math or history or reading. If each student finds at least 1-3 goodies regarding the subject, it is a good start to work with motivated and self-confident students.

Activity 3 Proposer

Social science teacher

Title

If I Were You

Ideal number of participants

4-30

Level of complexity

medium

Activity’s objective

Self-perception, assertiveness, non-verbal communication

The specific objectives of the activity

Individuals act out how they think their partner would behave in a certain situation – self-perception, assertiveness, creativity.

Used materials

none

Description of the activity’s steps

 Divide group into a pairs and ask them to label themselves A and B.  B is to act out how A would act in certain situation (examples in Attachment). They have 5-10 minutes to discuss it.  B receives guidance from A on how A would really act, and modifies his or her actions accordingly.  Participants reverse roles.  Discuss the experience in pairs and then in main group.

Focus on the appropriate learning points.

NOTE: this exercise could be done in smaller groups as well. Topics should be chosen according to the topic or subject of the class (for example literature, history, economics, languages).

Activity’s results

Participants have to put themselves into another person’s position and to be assertive to behave as another person.

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Activity support creativity, self-perception, assertiveness.

Total time to complete activity

30 minutes

Activity’s evaluation / Impressions of the participants

Students like the activity as it offers them opportunity to be in someone elses shoes.

Attachment

List of possible situations:  How someone enters a meeting or social situation late  How someone brings bad news to a friend  How someone behaves when discovering his or her clothes are dirty in a public place  How someone reacts when he or she is arrested for murder  How someone reacts when winning a lottery  How someone reacts when getting a big social award …

Attention switching Activities with high reflective content can leave pupils thinking too hard, raise stress or tension level. To overcome or give little relaxing moment of this could be use attention switching activities which are often energizers too.

Activity 1 Proposer

Social science teacher

Title

Attention to others!

Ideal number of participants

10-30

Level of complexity

easy

Activity’s objective

Observation skills, attention, energizer

The specific objectives of the activity

Observation skills, sensitivity of the group characteristics

Used materials

-

Description of the activity’s steps

 Ask students to move freely in the classroom.  After 30 seconds ask them to stop and close their eyes.

After closing their eyes ask students to point in the direction of one ofe the group members who has some specific characteristic, for example glasses, blue shoes or etc. It is teacher’s task to find the characteristics which students need to notice and to point while moving in group. Repeat the activity 4-6 times.  After the activity lead a brief discussion about noticing

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others, how much do they notice people while walking on a street or being at school.

Activity’s results

Energized students, increased attention to group and to different details in classroom work.

Total time to complete activity

10-20 minutes, depending on the size of group

Activity’s evaluation / Impressions of the participants

Students really like the activity as it enables to move, switch attention and make them more curious about others.

Activity 2 Proposer

Social science teacher

Title

What Are You?

Ideal number of participants

6-30

Level of complexity

Easy to medium

Activity’s objective

Attention switching, energizer

The specific objectives of the activity

Attention switching between topics; creativity and tool to analyze specific events/people in some subjects like history, literature.

Used materials Description of the activity’s steps

 Divide participants into 2 groups. Explain that in this guessing activity each team will have to decide that there is something special, unusual or obvious about the other team. Examples might be: they are naked, they are blind, they are vampires, they are in cave, they are aristocracy in the French revolution, etc.  The other group will behave towards them as if this were the case and they have to guess what they are. You can give them a specified number of guesses (say three).  Allow them to take turns guessing. The trainer/teacher should know the right answer and he/she is allowed to give hints if answers are not forthcoming.

Activity’s results

This activity energize the group and after 1-2 rounds are people eager to ask questions. This game is suitable in history, geography, literature classes where students can behave according certain periood of time or place, or according certain book or another text.

Total time to complete activity

10 minutes till 20 minutes

Activity’s evaluation / Impressions of the participants

It is a fun and motivating activity. It needs some support in the beginning but it works out very well.

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Attributions This type of games and activities help to discover certain characteristics and assumptions about the people in different groups and about the situations.

Activity 1 Proposer

History teacher

Title

First impressions

Ideal number of participants

4-30

Level of complexity

Easy

Activity’s objective

Exercise to exchange or express first impressions.

The specific objectives of the activity

Self-perception, attributions, understanding of stereotypes

Used materials

Version 1: Photos.

Version 2: none when it is done with students in classroom

Description of the activity’s steps

Version 1:  Teacher shows photos of people to class and asks students’ opinion about the persons on photos.  After discussing the characteristics of people on photos, the teacher reveals the real background of people on photos.  After hearing the real stories of people on photos, discussions follow: Why, and according to which features did the students make their assumptions about the people?

NOTE: Teacher could adapt this exercise into his/ her subject. For example: showing photos of novelists, historical people, famous scientists, etc.

Version 2:  Remind group members of the first time that they saw each other. Introduce an exercise to share these impressions and to consider their accuracy.  Go trough a list of questions: What was your first impression of me?

What things about me gave you that impression?

Did I remind you of anyone else? Was that important?

Do you think this was the impression I wanted to give?

How accurate do you now feel the impression you had of me is?  Invite group members to form pairs and share their first impressions. Let them change pairs after 7 minutes.

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 After three changes bring the group back together and ask what students have learned about the first impressions that people make.

Activity’s results

Understanding of first impressions, how we create them and how it is related with different attributions.

Total time to complete activity

20-30 minutes

Activity’s evaluation / Impressions of the participants

This activity is good way to include fun and extra knowledge into different subjects like math, chemistry, physics, history, geography.

Activity 2 Proposer

Math teacher

Title

Cursed Assumptions

Ideal number of participants

6-30

Level of complexity

medium

Activity’s objective

Exploration of prejudice and reactions to it.

The specific objectives of the activity

Attributions

Used materials

Prepared cards, one to each student Blank cards, one to each participant Pens

Description of the activity’s steps

 Read out the prepared cards and put them face down in a pile. Ask students to write one other basis of prejudice on their card and put them on the pile.  Shuffle the cards and invite group members to take one card each.  Form pairs and ask group members to take in turns to announce the subject in their card, after which their partner is to make as many stereotyped remarks as they can. The person with the card defends that group against the comments. Then exchange the roles.  Reform the group and discuss the statements made, how generally they were believed to be valid, and the feelings people had when giving or receiving the remarks and what that tells group members about their own stereotypes.

Activity’s results

Investigation of stereotypes, attributions.

Total time to complete activity

20-45 minutes

Activity’s evaluation

There is a risk in allowing participants to insult each other on the basis of qualities that may actually apply to them.

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It is therefore vital that this activity be fully processed and that all feelings raised are fully discussed. It is very good way to investigate and to discuss different stereotypes.

Creativity Creativity refers to the development of the ability to find new ideas, new solutions or innovative ways to do something. Following activities will support participants’ creativity and abilities to find new ways to think or do things.

Activity 1 Proposer

Social science teacher

Title

Games People Play

Ideal number of participants

4-20

Level of complexity

Medium till hard

Activity’s objective

Creativity, team-building

The specific objectives of the activity

Creativity

Used materials Description of the activity’s steps

 Divide students into 2 till 4 groups (2 till 5 in each).  Explain that every institution, organization, group has formal and informal rules and processes. Most organizations and groups are very good at giving formal rules but not necessarily the informal ones.  The task of the group is to design a board game for new entrants to the organizations (school/class) or groups as a form of induction which will teach them about organization/group at the informal level. It should be fun to play. The prototype of the game should be ready to demonstrate after 30 minutes.  Each group should demonstrate their game and if there is time the groups could play each other’s games.

Activity’s results

Board games which allow to get to know informal rules of set group or organization.

Total time to complete activity

45-60 minutes

Activity’s evaluation / Impressions of the participants

Teacher supervision and support is needed. Students need some encouragement and a little bit support to get ideas of different board games. Once they have got the idea the following process is very fun and active.

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Activity 2 Proposer

Economics teacher

Title

Alias used in Economics

Ideal number of participants

Unlimited

Level of complexity

Easy

Activity’s objective

To learn terms and concepts related to economics subjects, and really understand the meaning of the words.

The specific objectives of the activity

Describe the term to the other students without using the word. The other students have to guess the right term.

Used materials

Paper

Description of the activity’s steps

The teacher writes economics terms on a piece of paper.

The students are working in groups.

The first student picks a card/paper and has to describe the economics term without saying the word, and the other students have to guess.

Activity’s results

To learn by playing gives more motivated students, helps to revise throughout the year.

Total time to complete activity

Depends on how many terms you want the students to describe.

Activity’s evaluation / Impressions of the participants

The students like the game because it is a fun and different way to learn economics terms.

Decision making These activites contribute to learning about the process of decision making in a group.

Activity 1 Proposer

History teacher

Title

Force for Change

Ideal number of participants

6-30

Level of complexity

medium

Activity’s objective

Problem solving activity

The specific objectives of the activity

Decision making, team-building

Used materials

Pens and papers. Large sheet of paper

Description of the activity’s steps

 Identify the change which the participants wish to bring about. This could be anything from a local community issue to a classroom issue.

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 On a long sheet of paper write at one end the present state and on the other end the desired state. Draw a line across the middle of the paper separating these.  Brainstorm as a group what the main factors are, both those which would facilitate, and those which would frustrate, the immediate implementation of change and write them down on the appropriate side of the line.

Factors should be interpreted widely as referring to people, preconceptions, resources, and so on.  Discuss which are the most significant on either side.

Mark these with arrows of an appropriate size, larger for the most significant.  Direct discussion to the most important factors on either side. Lead the discussion on how the most significant facilitating factors can be employed to overcome the most frustrating factors.

Activity’s results

Students find out main issues of discussed topics and will develop ideas of desired changes. During the discussion they may change their opinion and find a way for group decision.

Total time to complete activity

45 minutes

Activity’s evaluation / Impressions of the participants

This activity is appropriate in any subject or topic where identified problem situations which need solving or development are.

Activity 2 Proposer

Social science teacher

Title

Map the Problem!

Ideal number of participants

4-15

Level of complexity

Easy to medium

Activity’s objective

Exploring challenges or issues in discussed topic/subject.

The specific objectives of the activity

Decision making, team-work

Used materials

Paper, pens, ropes

Description of the activity’s steps

 Take three-four 1 meter or 1,5 meter long cords and put them on the floor crossing each other.  Ask students to take two different sized papers and start to discuss the topic or subject they think is the issue or problem in society/organization/group.  Ask participants to write the main issues on bigger papers and smaller issues which are connected with main problems on smaller papers. After writing the issues on the papers, the participants should put the papers on the

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floor. Bigger papers onto the cords which represent main streets on the map. Smaller papers are put between the cords as smaller streets which might connect main streets.  Students can discuss and write the papers simultaneously. They can change their issues, replace them until they agree on the main problems and the smaller issues related to the main issues.

Activity’s results

This activity helps participants to discuss and make decisions about issues by using a visualizing method.

Discussion, writing and visualization is a powerful method to remember the topic.

Total time to complete activity

20-45 minutes

Activity’s evaluation / Impressions of the participants

The participants started very easily and eagerly to find connections and main issues when they could see what they had written. After group discussions they very often remade the map to reach the final decision about what the main problem was and what the sub-problems in the topic were.

Expectations It is often useful in a course to establish the expectations that group members have brought with them. If we talk about “Happy School”, it is crucial to speak about students and teachers’ expectations to the subject and to each other and to monitor those during the process, of course.

Activity 1 Proposer

Literature teacher

Title

Great expectations

Ideal number of participants

4-30

Level of complexity

easy

Activity’s objective

An exercise to ascertain the expectations of group memebers.

The specific objectives of the activity

Expectations, objective setting

Used materials

Papers, pens, white/black board

Description of the activity’s steps

 Hand out prepared questionnaires (see Attachment) to students and let them answer the questions individually.  Divide students into smaller subgroups to discuss and find common answers to those questions. Note that each student can have his/her own opinion and answer, which should be presented later, too.  Ask each sub-group to present their answer to the questions, mark answers on the board. Make a conclusion

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of the answers and confirm the expectations to the course.  Discuss with the students what their tasks were, what can be changed in the prepared course plan and what plans should remain as in the official curriculum.

Activity’s results

Mutual understanding of each other’s expectations to the course by teacher and students.

Total time to complete activity

20-45 minutes

Activity’s evaluation / Impressions of the participants

Students take this activity very seriously and it is crucial to apply their expectations as much as possible into the course plan.

Attachment

List of questions: 1.What I want from the course?

2. What I can offer the course?

3. My hopes 4. My concerns 5. One thing I hope won’t happen 6. One thing I hope will happen 7. What my parents want me to gain from the course 8. One thing I want to know by the end of the course 9. One skill I want to have by the end of the course 10. How will I know that the course has been successful for me?

11. What my dream is regarding the course topic?

12. Something I may do to jeopardize my success in the course?

Activity 2 Proposer

Tourism teacher

Title

Travel to the future

Ideal number of participants

4-30

Level of complexity

easy

Activity’s objective

Exploring expectations of individual in their different fields of life.

The specific objectives of the activity

Expectations, objective setting

Used materials

Paper, pen, boards

Description of the activity’s steps

This activity might be done in variations, depending how many expectations and on what level you want to know.  Ask students to imagine their life after 5, 10, 20 years

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in following fields: family, career, friends, hobbies, travelling, social status, material belongings,… (you can freely set the fields according your topic) and to shortly write those expectations on paper.  Discuss with students their life in the future and mark on the board the most common expectations for the future.  Continue the discussion about the efforts the students have to make to reach to their imagined future. Is future just luck or depending on their own efforts? Find connections with your own course and subject and explain how they could use the knowledge and skills in building their own future.

Activity’s results

Deeper understanding of own expectations to life and relevance of current school work.

Total time to complete activity

20-45 minutes

Activity’s evaluation / Impressions of the participants

This exercise seems to be bit difficult in the beginning, but with the support and explanations by the teacher, the students will be greatly involved.

Activity 3 Proposer

Tourism teacher

Title

If I could…

Ideal number of participants

6-30

Level of complexity

Easy to medium

Activity’s objective

An exercise to ascertain the expectations of group memebers.

The specific objectives of the activity

Expectations, objective setting

Used materials

Board, pen

Description of the activity’s steps

Ask each participant what he/she would be doing at this moment if he/she were not in this class now. Write their answers on the board and follow the discussion to find out why students would like to be in other places or do other activities. Find out together with students how to make your classroom (rules), and find school subjects that relate to the characteristics they described when mentioning the other pleasant activities.

Activity’s results

Understanding of motivating expectations to the course or subject. Set objectives for the course/topic.

Total time to complete activity

20-30 minutes

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Activity’s evaluation / Impressions of the participants

Fun and involving activity which should be carefully monitored by the teacher. Teachers have to fulfil all the agreements made by the end of this activity.

Listening skill Listening skills and non-verbal sensitivities could be taught via the games and different activities.

These skills are very useful in many study situations but also working in different occupations.

Activity 1 Proposer

Social science teacher

Title

Word link

Ideal number of participants

6-30

Level of complexity

Easy to medium

Activity’s objective

Energizer in which participants link words by their first and last letters.

The specific objectives of the activity

Listening skills, energizer, attention switching

Used materials

none

Description of the activity’s steps

 The participants join in a circle. Ask students to say the name of a historical person, country or another topicrelated word. The FIRST letter of each word should be the LAST letter of the previous word.

The „word“ can be a linked pair of words (such as „Christmas cake“ or if there are names then, Mahatma Gandhi).  If someone is struck, then others can drop hints.

Activity’s results

The activity requires careful listening, quick reaction and good memory to play it bit longer. It makes participants think more deeply about the topic which is chosen for play.

Total time to complete activity

10-20 minutes.

Activity’s evaluation / Impressions of the participants

It is a fun activity which is played with great enthusiasm.

Activity 2 Proposer

Social science teacher

Title

Story in a gossip line

Ideal number of participants

6-15

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Level of complexity

Easy to medium

Activity’s objective

This activity focus to participants listening and narrating skills.

The specific objectives of the activity

Listening skills, narration.

Used materials

none

Description of the activity’s steps

 Ask one student to tell a story to another student but notice that other students cannot hear it. After telling the story the listening student should tell the story to next participant. This activity should continue until the last student who has to narrate the story to all the participants.  Discussion with students: Did story change during the narration process? How did it change? Which parts of the story didn’t change? Are there some key elements which are important to remember to keep the story as it was told initially? If story change does it have impact on people’s actions and reactions?

Activity’s results

Understanding of importance of listening and narration.

Total time to complete activity

20 minutes

Activity’s evaluation / Impressions of the participants

This activity resemble children’s play “Phone” and is played by students very enthusiastically.

Motivation The objective of asking participants to question their own motivation can be important in allowing them to consider alternative courses of action.

Activity nr 1 Proposer

Language teacher

Title

Working with film in English for vocational pupils

Ideal number of participants

8-10

Level of complexity

Easy/intermediate

Activity’s objective

Learn more about a topic through film.

The specific objectives of the activity

Learning content: Learn about a topic through film.

How: Use dramatization methods as an approach to talk about film and internalising learning through movement (dramatization).

Language skills: Practise oral skills.

Used materials

Instructions: On the board (dramatization part) and on paper (topic for discussion).

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Description of the activity’s steps

Preparation: (2 lessons): Watch a film to learn more about a topic. We worked on India as an English-speaking country and watched the film “Outsourced” to look at culture clashes. The film also has a love story; leadership skills are another theme.

Work on the film (2 lessons): This involves both dramatization (no language use) and oral tasks after dramatization to verbalize the stories of the film: 1. Dramatization “warm-up” activities to prepare the pupils for work on the film. You can choose different ones. I used these: (10-15 min.)

A. The triangle game: All walk about in the classroom. When the teachers says stop, everybody must find someone to form a triangle with as quickly as possible (three persons form a triangle).

Repeat a few times.

B. Follow your nose: Use you index finger as an extension of your nose, and “follow it”. The nose will take you in all possible directions and use a lot of body movement. Be creative!

C. The “stop-start walking game”: Everybody walks in a circle. “Listen and observe” as you keep walking. When ONE person in the group stops, you have to stop and freeze until another (or the same) person chooses to start the walking game again. The aim is to stop and start moving as synchronically as possible. This game requires more of the participants than the other two games.

2. Dramatization task based on the film: A. Divide the class into groups of 4-5.

B. Give instructions: Write on the board and explain: 1. In groups – retell the film. 2. Make a “Photo Freeze Frame” story of the film in three parts (three frames): 1. The beginning. 2. The middle. 3. The end. If the film has parallel stories, you should write them up on the board, too, and make the pupils focus on only one of the stories.

C. Split the groups and give them space (other rooms or hallways) to prepare their photo frame story. (20 min.)

D. Presentation: One group at the time. Stop after the presentation of each photo frame, and ask the audience if they recognize the photo frame from the film. All suggestions have to be in English.

Keep up the activity till all groups have presented.

(About 10-15 min. We started the next lesson with presentations.)

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3. Group discussions on the film and sum up in class: A. The groups get one topic each to discuss. (I had two groups and focused on the cultural challenges and the love story.) (20 min.)

B. Sum up in class: Each group has to explain to the others about their topic. (10 min.)

Activity’s results

Varied participation. One group worked efficiently and enthusiastically from the start and even made 4 frames because they finished early and thus were encouraged to make another photo frame. The other group did not get started and had to have help. They presented just one photo frame from the film. Some pupils enjoyed guessing the other group’s photo frames and others just did not care.

The discussion was quite good in the group of pupils who had worked well with their photo frame, but the other group did not discuss much.

Total time to complete activity

4 lessons (2 preparation + 2 dramatizing and discussing) If you have 15 pupils you will probably need another lesson.

Activity’s evaluation / Impressions of the participants

Most of the pupils in this class struggle with personal issues and motivation for school. Therefore I was very happy to see that at least some of them enjoyed the task, especially the dramatization tasks, including the “warm-up” activities. The last one, the one that actually demanded group work and trust, was the one that surprisingly worked best of the “warm-up” activities.

Nobody was allowed to sneak away, and when they got into the game, they focused.

Negotiation Negotiation activities are useful in groups where resources are limited but everyone’s needs should be met. Most leadership courses include negotiation exercises and those are useful in high school classrooms as well. Students need often need to make a joint class decision, or they need to decide on after-class activity options; therefore, negotiation skills are necessary.

Activity 1 Proposer

Social science teacher

Title

Signature of Earth

Ideal number of participants

6-30 (students should be dividend into smaller subgroups)

Level of complexity

easy

Activity’s objective

Activity support participants negotiations skills.

The specific objectives of the activity

Negotiation, creativity, team building

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Used materials Description of the activity’s steps

Paper, pen  Divide participants into smaller subgroups (3-5 participants).  Tell them that life on Earth will end after few days and they can save only 5 items which will remain to tell in future who were humans and how was life in our time.  The group have to discuss and decide what those 5 items are.

After negotiation they draw those items on paper and present it to other participants. Each group has to explain why they chose these items.

Variation: Instead of ending life on Earth you could say that the participants are working in NASA and they are compiling a package to send to cosmos to give information about humans.

Activity’s results

Each group has developed ideas which are most typical for humankind and through negotiation reached a decision.

Total time to complete activity

15-20 minutes

Activity’s evaluation / Impressions of the participants

It is a fun and involving activity which is eagerly played by different age groups.

Activity 2 Proposer

Math teacher

Title

It’s not fair!

Ideal number of participants

6-30

Level of complexity

medium

Activity’s objective

A competitive game in which resources are allocated unequally to groups.

The specific objectives of the activity

Negotiation, team-building

Used materials

Different materials used by teacher and which are needed to fulfil the task.

Description of the activity’s steps

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 Ask students to form 2 or more equal number of teams.  Ask them to sit around each group table and distribute packaged resources and tell them their task.

For example, the task is to make paper aeroplanes and paperboats - at least in three different colours.  Make sure that one team gets more than enough resources to fulfil the task, and another group does not

get enough materials.  Tell the teams that it is competition to fulfil the task.  The teacher will observe how the teams start their task, and whether they will bargain or negotiate with other teams.  Discussion on how the teams managed and what they learned.

Activity’s results

Better understanding of the importance of negotiation.

Total time to complete activity

20-45 minutes

Activity’s evaluation / Impressions of the participants

Students enjoy the activity, and sometimes they start active the bargain process really actively. At the same time the teacher must observe carefully as this activity sometimes lead to small conflicts as the teams feel the situation is unfair.

Non-verbal communication A lot of communication in history and at present time happens with non-verbal communication and it affects people’s relations as much as verbal communication. Therefore, it is important to develop the sensitivity of non-verbal signs and communication options.

Activitiy 1 Proposer

Tourism teacher

Title

Play the role!

Ideal number of participants

6-30

Level of complexity

medium

Activity’s objective

Explaining class topic using non-verbal signs.

The specific objectives of the activity

Non-verbal communication, team-builidng, creativity

Used materials

Students may use different tools, materials, item according to the course and topic they are studying.

Description of the activity’s steps

The participants are divided into smaller groups and each team has to explain about a topic to other groups with non-verbal signs and signals.

Examples of topics: In history some special event, in geograpghy the life style of people, in chemistry the reaction between some chemical elements, etc. The groups may use some extra tools or materials selected by the teacher.

Activity’s results

Improved understanding of importance of non-verbal signs, symbols, actions.

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Total time to complete activity

15-30 minutes

Activity’s evaluation / Impressions of the participants

It is a really fun activity which is enjoyed by all students.

Activity 2 Proposer

Drama teacher

Title

Frames

Ideal number of participants

6-30

Level of complexity

easy

Activity’s objective

Activity will develop participants non-verbal communication, creativity, team work in funny and easy way.

The specific objectives of the activity

Non-verbal communication, creativity, team work

Used materials

none

Description of the activity’s steps

 Ask students to divide into smaller groups of 5 - 7 people.  Give each group a situation, event, or other topicrelated theme which is the basis for the students’ task.  The students start to form a frame (“a picture”) based on the given theme (the event, situation, etc).

All group members must co-operate, and each of them must show something that illustrates the topic.

The other groups have to guess what is in the frame and discuss what signs and non-verbal communication methods helped them guess what was in the frame.

Activity’s results

Deeper understanding of non-verbal signs and the way how people understand different signs.

Total time to complete activity

15-25 minutes

Activity’s evaluation / Impressions of the participants

Easy and fun activity which help to conclude a topic or refresh the classroom environment.

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Problem solving In the classroom students often have to solve problems related to studied topics. Different activities help to refresh the mind and to find new ways of seeing the tasks and problems given in classroom.

Activity 1 Proposer

Communication teacher

Title

Longest tunnel ever!

Ideal number of participants

20-30

Level of complexity

medium

Activity’s objective

Activity will develop team work, cooperation and demand problem solving skills.

The specific objectives of the activity

Problem solving, team building, team work, cooperation, communication.

Used materials

News papers, 2 marbles (small glassball)

Description of the activity’s steps

 Divide students into two groups with a similar number of members.  Give a lot of old newspapers and one marble to both of the groups.  Both groups must make the longest paper tunnel possible from the newspapers and make the marble roll through the newspaper tunnel without stopping or getting stuck in the tunnel.  The group whose marble rolls the fastest through the tunnel is winner.  Follow-up discussion: Was it an easy task? How did they solve the technical problems? How did they solve the team building issues if they had any? What did they learn?

Activity’s results

Cooperation, development of team work, understanding od leadership and problem solving skills.

Total time to complete activity

20-45 minutes

Activity’s evaluation / Impressions of the participants

This involves the participants entirely! There were minor conflicts within the groups as the students had different views on how to build the tunnel and make it strong enough to roll the marble through it. Therefore, the teacher’s careful supervision is needed to support and encourage all students to participate, not only the most active ones.

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Activity 2 Proposer

Social science teacher

Title

Map the problem

Ideal number of participants

6-30

Level of complexity

medium

Activity’s objective

This activity put the participants into situation where they need to deal with the problem by asking help.

The specific objectives

Problem solving, consensus, creativity

Used materials

Papers, pen

Description of the activity’s steps

 Divide pupils into 4 - 8 groups. Half of the groups are living in different highly developed countries (industrialized countries): 1st group of students lives in Norway, 2nd in the UK, etc. The other part of the groups is living countries with major social problems (developing countries). Give each group a country and a serious problem they are facing (for example hunger, criminal cases, etc.).  Students who are living in countries with major social problems have to write a letter where they ask for help.

They need to explain their situation, why others should help them and how could they do it.  After finishing the letter, they post it to all the industrialized countries. Now the other groups from Norway, the UK, etc. will read those letters and will decide to who, why and what kind of help they will give.  Their responses will be presented in front of the class.  Follow-up discussion with both sides of the groups: 1) How was it to ask help? Did they know exactly what kind of help they need? If they got/didn’t get the help, then how did they feel themselves?

2) How did it feel to have power to decide who to help and how? Was it easy to decide to who give support and who not to give help? How did they make their decisions?

Activity’s results

Deeper understanding of different problems people are facing around the world and challenges how to solve those problems.

Total time to complete activity

30-45 minutes

Activity’s evaluation / Impressions of the participants

It is a deeply engaging activity where participants may take their roles sometimes very seriously. It is teacher’s task to lead the follow-up discussion and let the participants express their emotions.

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Self-disclosure These activities help participants to share information about themselves, but it needs to include trust between group members.

Activity 1 Proposer

Social science teacher

Title

Lies lies

Ideal number of participants

6-20

Level of complexity

Easy to medium

Activity’s objective

Activity where participants reveal some facts about their life with some lies.

The specific objectives of the activity

Self-disclosure, listening skills, introductions

Used materials

none

Description of the activity’s steps

 Ask the participants to be in pairs or in small groups.  One of the partners or group members will tell 3 facts about his/her life and the other(s) have to guess what is true and what is a lie.  After guessing, the first partner/group member reveals what the lie is. Then a short discussion follows on what the other partners or group members thought to be the truths and the lie, and why.  Partners or group member change the roles and do the same activity till all have told 3 facts about their life.  Discussion afterwards: Is lying easy? Is it easy to detect lies? How can people modify their life stories?

Activity’s results

Self-disclosure, listening skills, better knowledge about each other.

Total time to complete activity

10-20 minutes

Activity’s evaluation / Impressions of the participants

Very good activity to get to know each other better.

Activity 2 Proposer

History teacher

Title

Who I am and How do I seem

Ideal number of participants

10-30

Level of complexity

Easy to medium

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Activity’s objective

Exploration of how group members see themselves and are seen by others.

The specific objectives of the activity

Self-disclosure, assertiveness, team-building

Used materials

Prepared cards (see attachment), one card with each participant’s name, pens, pins

Description of the activity’s steps

 Pin up the name cards round the room at an equal distance from each other.  Give eact participant a set of prepared cards and explain that each person has the same ones.  Tell students to pin the cards under the name of the person they consider most appropriate. Ask group to move clockwise starting from their own name.  Ask participants to go around and to see the list of their own and others.  Discuss the extent to which people’s perceptions of themselves differed from those of others.

Activity’s results

Increased understanding of self.

Total time to complete activity

15-30 minutes, depending on the size of group

Activity’s evaluation / Impressions of the participants

It is a good way to encourage people to notice the differences in how they seem to others. The teacher should make sure that all students will get cards from the others.

Variation: Students could get one or two empty card where they can write their own characteristics.

Attachment

Sample cards:  Funniest  Kindest  Smartest  Untidiest  Most reliable  Friendliest  Silliest  Most flexible  Laziest  Most critical  Most spiritual  Most sporty  Most accepting  Most active  Most passive  Most fashionable  Person I would most like to be my boss  Most beautiful  Tallest  Shortest  Most aggressive

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 Person who is most often right  Most uncritical  Saddest person  Bravest person  Most trustful  Most untrustworthy …

Self-perception It increases understanding of how one is, and the relationship between that and the way that one is perceived by other people.

Activity 1 Proposer

Social science teacher

Title

Five easy questions

Ideal number of participants

6-30

Level of complexity

easy

Activity’s objective

To demonstrate that (some) behavior is quite predictable.

The specific objectives of the activity

Self-disclosure, assertiveness

Used materials

Paper, pen

Description of the activity’s steps

Each participant is asked to answer to five simple questions, and they should respond very quickly. It is their first reaction that is desired.

Then quickly ask them:  What is your favorite color?  Name a piece of furniture?  Name a flower.  Pick a number from one to four.  Name an animal in a zoo.

Then display the following answers: red, chair, rose, three, lion.

Discuss: How many had each item “correct”? (Ask for a show of hands.) What does this illustrate to you? (Some human behaviour, attitudes, or reactions are predictable.

The key is to be an alert observer.)

Activity’s results

Understanding how human are similar, self-disclosure.

Total time to complete activity

10 minutes

Activity’s evaluation / Impressions of the participants

Fun activity which is a very good way to explain to students how they are predictable in other situations in the classroom and in school also.

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Activity 2 Proposer

Social science teacher

Title

Buy me!

Ideal number of participants

Any number of participants

Level of complexity

Easy to medium

Activity’s objective

Participants write their own commercial („personal statement“) to sell themselves.

The specific objectives of the activity

Self-perception, self-disclosure

Used materials

Paper, pen or computer

Description of the activity’s steps

This activity could be done in different classes and in relation to different subjects and topics. I offer here two variations but users could adapt this according to their needs and wishes.

Variation 1: History class, topic: slavery. Ask each students to write a commercial text about themselves. The aim is to list all qualities of his/her own and ask for as high a price as possible. Teacher should explain the slavery and the prices and evaluated values before the activity and make a possible list of characteristics which adds worth to and which decreases the worth of human being.

Variation 2: Math class. Explain the students that a company is looking for a new employee who knows the math till the level of this class. Each participant has written a commercial text about themselves explaining why the company should hire him/her exactly.

Another option is that the teacher lists all the knowledge and skills (like from simple calculations till trigonometry) what they have learnt till this level of class and categorize all skills in levels: good, ok, bad and give a certain price to each level. It will be students’ task to evaluate their own knowledge and skills according to the pre-given prices.

Later the class could compare who is the most valuable person in the classroom and discuss how they feel if their knowledge and skills are calculated into money.

Activity’s results

Exploring his/her own values.

Total time to complete activity

10-20 minutes

Activity’s evaluation / Impressions of the participants

It is a fun and eye-opening activity to put students to discover their own values.

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Team-building These activities help groups and teams to develop their group work skills, cooperation and communication.

Activity 1 Proposer

Math teacher

Title

Blame game

Ideal number of participants

10-30

Level of complexity

easy

Activity’s objective

To bring the team together in a fun activity that demonstrates the influence that each member has in affecting team behavior.

The specific objectives of the activity

Cooperation in team, team building

Used materials

None

Description of the activity’s steps

Round 1: 1. Arrange the group in a large circle, with everyone standing.

2. Find your “Role Model:” a) As the team leader, you begin by pointing to someone in the circle. Keep pointing. b) That person now points to someone else and keeps pointing. c) Continue until everyone is pointing to someone else, and the last person then points to you. d) Stop pointing (drop your hands) and fix your eyes on the person you were pointing to. This person is your “Role Model.”

3. Explain that the objective is to watch your “Role Model” closely and to copy his/ her every action.

4. Now ask the team to stand perfectly still. No one may move unless his/her “Role Model” does. If his/her “Role Model” moves (twitches, coughs, blinks, etc.), he/she is to mimic that movement exactly and then be still again.

5. Begin the game and play several times.

Debrief Questions to Ask – After Round 1:  We were supposed to stand still – what happened?

(Expect some participants to immediately start blaming their Role Model for moving.)  Who knows who started the movement? (Allow for some accusations; inevitably it will be difficult or impossible to pinpoint who really started each movement.)  How much does it matter who started it, once it got started?

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 How much energy do we expend looking for scapegoats?  How are we responsible for perpetuating certain behaviors that eventually become team norms? What examples of this do we have here at work?  What implications does this have for us back on the job?

Round 2: 1. Play the game as before only this time designate one person as “Where the Buck Stops.” When the movement starts and moves around the group, that participant will NOT repeat it.

Debrief Questions to Ask – After Round 2:  How much influence can one person have in affecting team behavior?  What implications does this have for us back on the job?

Activity’s results

People start to behave more as a team, increased cooperation, relaxed atmosphere in the group.

Total time to complete activity

20-30 minutes

Activity’s evaluation / Impressions of the participants

Tips for Success:  Small movements are bound to happen. When they do, the movement will be duplicated around the group endlessly. Usually it will be exaggerated.  If the movement gets out of hand, just stop the game and refocus everyone, and start again.

Activity 2 Proposer

History teacher

Title

Labels

Ideal number of participants

12-36

Level of complexity

Easy till medium

Activity’s objective

To bring the team together in a fun activity that demonstrates the impact labeling and team behavior has on both people and the work.

The specific objectives of the activity

Understanding how labeling and team work influence the outcome of group aims, how labels have impact on people and to the work. Team building, cooperation, attributions.

Used materials

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 A set of six labels for each group. Labels should be large enough that participants can read them from several feet away, but small enough to fit on a person’s

forehead.  Pre-write on each label either a directive (e.g. disagree with me, ignore me, treat me like the leader, laugh at me, respect my opinions, find fault with me, agree with me, interrupt me, argue with me, etc.) or a descriptor (e.g. arrogant, helpful, self-promoting, brown-noser, cooperative, a pushover, defensive, leader, etc.).

Description of the activity’s steps

Instructions: 1. Divide the team into sub-teams of six.

2. Distribute a set of six labels to each sub-team, face down.

3. Each participant sticks a label on the forehead of the person next to him/her.

4. All participants can read what is on others’ labels but not what is on their own. Do not tell anyone what is on his/her own label.

5. Give the sub-teams a task to plan (e.g. plan a departmental picnic, how they will participate in this year’s community fund raiser, etc.). They will have 7 minutes to do this.

6. As they discuss, they must engage with and react to each person on their team according to the label the person is wearing.

7. After 7 minutes, even if the task is not complete, stop the teams and discuss.

Questions to Ask:  What happened? Did you accomplish your task? Why or why not?  How satisfied are you with the outcome? Why?  How did you feel about treating people according to their assigned label? Did it get easier over time? If yes, why do you think that was?  How did you feel about the way you were being treated? What was your reaction?  What implications does this have for us back on the job?

Variations:  Make the labels represent different stakeholders on a project, different customers, different historical or novel actors, etc.  Have only one group of six to eight participate with labels, while the rest of the group observes.  Instead of “planning a picnic,” have the teams grapple with a real work-related problem or issue.

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Activity’s results

Understanding of labelling, team work analysis

Total time to complete activity

20-30 minutes

Activity’s evaluation / Impressions of the participants

Tips for Success:  Use your judgment in dividing teams. For example, if you have 11 participants, remove one label from one set, and have one team of 6 and one team of 5 participants, so that everyone can have the experience.

If there are 13 participants, have a 7th label ready or use one of six directives or descriptors twice.  Some people may be reluctant to adhere to the labels. Throughout the exercise, encourage participants to take the assigned labels to heart and act accordingly.

Trust Many activities, including classroom work at schools needs trust between pupils and their teachers. These activities help both sides to understand the importance of trust and implementations of trust between relations in classroom.

Activity 1 Proposer

Tourism teacher

Title

Mine Field

Ideal number of participants

6 till 30

Level of complexity

easy

Activity’s objective

It is a good activity to develop trust between participants.

The specific objectives of the activity

Trust, listening skills, cooperation.

Used materials

Needed items are things to put on minefield which make it more difficult to cross.

Description of the activity’s steps

Objects are scattered in an indoor or outdoor place.

In pairs one person verbally guides his/her partner, a blindfolded person, through the minefield.

Another variation is that one or two supporting students guide the blindfolded student but there are one to two so called “enemies”, too, who try to distract the blindfolded student. After crossing the minefield change the students so everyone could cross the field. Change the places of mines.

Discuss with students how was to be blindfolded.

Activity’s results

Trust, cooperation

Total time to complete activity

10-15 minutes

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Activity’s evaluation / Impressions of the participants

Students are eager to play the activity. It is important to set clear rules and discuss the activity afterwards.

Activity 2 Proposer

Social science teacher

Title

Collective powerlessness

Ideal number of participants

15-35

Level of complexity

easy

Activity’s objective

Main objective is to train participants’ observation skills to see people in need around us and to react to need of help.

The specific objectives of the activity

Group work, trust, cooperation

Used materials

chairs by choice

Description of the activity’s steps

 In preparation for this game, create 3-5 subgroups who are assigned the numbers 1-5.  Disperse the groups; all players should now move around the room to music. As soon as the music stops, the game leader/director shouts out one of the numbers between 1 & 5. All the players who were assigned this number then have the task of giving a loud cry or a call of helplessness, making themselves stiff, and as soon as helping hands are approaching, to fall to the ground (remaining as tense as possible). For all the other players, the music stopping is a sign to look to see who needs help with lightning speed, and to catch the powerless ones (or giving them chair).  Discussion after the activity: did other students notice in time those who were in help? Did the students who needed help asked for help? How did students feel themselves in different roles?

Activity’s results

Activity gives better results if there are more participants, at least 20 students. It is good exercise to put students to see and react to need of help.

Total time to complete activity

15-20 minutes

Activity’s evaluation / Impressions of the participants

It is fun and powerful tool to start or finish topic which is related with society, trust and need of help.

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Activity 3 Proposer

Language teacher

Title

Listen to one another

Ideal number of participants

10-30

Level of complexity

easy

Activity’s objective

Main objective is to put participants to trust each other and develop their listening skills.

The specific objectives of the activity

Listening skills, trust, cooperation

Used materials

Chairs to sit in circle

Description of the activity’s steps

The group sits in a circle, closes their eyes and remain quiet. Then one person starts and says the number 1. Then another person says „2” etc. The aim of this game is to count to a high a number as possible without two people saying the same number at the same time. If this happens (guaranteed to happen in the beginning), start again at number 1. Each person can only say one number at a time. Getting up to the number 20 in a larger group is a good achievement as you really have to listen well to one another and not just simply let loose with the counting!

Activity’s results

Improved listening skill, trust to one another.

Total time to complete activity

10-15 minutes

Activity’s evaluation / Impressions of the participants

Students like this activity. It takes some time to get students to focus and start to listen each other but after 2-3 times trial it goes very well.

Validation These activities will assess the learning of some particular skill or knowledge covered elsewhere on a course.

Activity 1 Proposer

Math teacher

Title

Board game for mathematics.

Ideal number of participants

From 2 to 4 participants. 2 participants works best.

Level of complexity

The questions on the play cards ranks from easy to hard.

Activity’s objective

To improve math skills

The specific objectives of the activity

Solve different math tasks.

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Used materials

Foiled game board and foiled cards with questions. Some player buttons.

Description of the activity’s steps

The game is a board game featuring question cards. The objective of the game is to be the first player to reach the finish.

The question cards each have three tasks that ranks from easy to hard. The player chooses which level he/ she wants before he/she is given the task. By answering correctly the student can move 2, 3 or 4 spaces forward, depending on the difficulty of the task.

On the game board there are a few spaces where, if the players land on it, one of the following occurs. Two more spaces forward, read the questions before they choose difficulty or to play rock, paper, scissors against the other student. The winner gets to move two spaces forward.

Activity’s results

To learn by playing give more motivated students.

Total time to complete activity

If there are two participants it takes about 45 minutes.

Activity’s evaluation / Impressions of the participants

The students like the game because it is a funny and different method to learn math.

Verbal/written communication Communication skills in different ways are important in any fields and many activities help to improve those skills. Following activities help to give inspiration and ideas how to do it in your classroom.

Activity nr 1 Proposer

Language teacher

Title

Travelling to the UK

Ideal number of participants

10 - 15

Level of complexity

Easy / intermediate

Activity’s objective

Making a brochure

The specific objectives of the activity

Digital competence Writing skills Learning content: Geography/ tourism in the UK

Used materials

Webpages (students’ choice) Program Publisher in Office

Description of the activity’s steps

1. Choose a destination in the UK (Stonehenge, Tate Modern, Hude Park, Oxford Street etc.).

2. Make a brochure in English in Publisher to promote your chosen travel destination.

3. Include relevant information in your brochure:

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The following should be included in the brochure: Country/region in the UK Area description  geography  special tourist attractions  etc.

Travel theme  general information  theme focus Practical arrangements  travel expenses  accommodation  excursions  transportation  total cost  contact information Activity’s results

Creativity, choosing your own travel destination Creativity, thinking of lay-out, pictures etc. in the brochure Practising written skills

Total time to complete activity

6 lessons

Activity’s evaluation / Impressions of the participants

Oral evaluation: The students found the activity both educational and fun.

Activity nr 2 Proposer

Language teacher

Title

“The Line Game” (+ warming up with drama activity: ZIPZAP-ZOP)

Ideal number of participants

10-15

Level of complexity

Easy

Activity’s objective

Working with a topic/text through physical activity.

The specific objectives of the activity

Practicing listening skills Practising oral skills Learning content: Introduction to a new topic (on multiculturalism) by creating awareness of cultural clashes through a story.

Used materials

Listening text

Description of the activity’s steps

“Warming up” drama activity: ZIP-ZAP-ZOP: (10 min) Stand in a circle. Pretend to throw an imaginary ball to

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each other. The person who starts throwing the “ball” says “zip”; the one who catches the ball says “zap” when he/she throws it to another pupil, and the third pupil who catches the “ball” says “zop” when throwing it to yet another pupil, and so the “ball game” goes on, always zip-zap-zop. When they get the hang of it, you introduce another element: The ball can change into different sizes, shapes and also get new properties (cold, warm, itching, sticky, tacky, etc) and use different sounds when they catch the ball, but keep up zip-zap-zop when throwing it.

“THE LINE GAME” (30-35 min): Preparation: Make questions for “The Line Game”: A mixture of factual questions from the story and ethical questions based on the freedom of choice (how much should parents decide and teenagers/young people AND some reflections on arranged marriages vs love marriages).

TOPIC: Multicultural Britain: Arranged marriages and culture clashes.

1. Listen to a text about a young Asian woman living in Britain, falling in love with an Englishman, but destined to arranged marriage.

2. Small groups: Talk about the story you heard.

3. All pupils out on the floor (you need some space here). Explain the rules of the game: The floor will be divided into three parts, and they are going to move to the right, left or middle (the “maybe” line in between) depending on their response to each question from the teacher:  Left side: Yes  Right side: No  The line between YES and NO: Maybe 1. Start the game: Ask questions and let the pupils answer the yes/no/maybe-questions by moving to the side they agree most with. Sometimes stop to ask a pupil to give a reason for his/her answer. This is useful - especially to get their opinions on ethical questions. You are not going to start a discussion, just listen to the pupil’s views, which might be interesting to the other pupils as well.

2. Sum up: Last to questions on the floor:  Did you find it interesting or fun to work with a text/topic this way?  Would you like to do it again?

(You can, of course, change the last part the way you want to.)

Activity’s results

“ZIP-ZAP-ZOP”: It worked ok with this group, but not optimal, as this activity seemed to bring some of the boys, especially, out of their comfort zone, and eventually they

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opted out, particularly when the next level was introduced (using sounds and movements). Some of the girls broke down and laughed at times, which seemed good! (“Happy school”.)

“THE LINE GAME”: Some of the pupils were laughing at times when they seemed bewildered about which side they should choose, and maybe clinging onto another fellow-pupil. Others focused, listening actively to the questions and moving from one side to the next. A few seemed to think this was a little stupid, and wondered why we had to do it this way. Upon asking the pupils the last two questions, I got a confusing result: They did not seem to find it much interesting or fun, but when I asked if they would do it again, more of them seemed to realize that it was a bit fun after all and moved to the left (yes) side!

Total time to complete activity

1 lesson

Activity’s evaluation / Impressions of the participants

This is a very calm and quiet class, and I believe that being exposed to so many physical drama activities was challenging to some of them – as we have never done anything like this before. However, I believe that we should try more of these games in the future, but maybe leniently and in small “portions”. I think the most important aim will be not to take yourself so seriously and to feel more comfortable in the group when doing silly things (be able not to take yourself so seriously). I guess these activities showed that we need to focus more on building trust in the group.

Feedback These activities help to end the course or topic in playful way.

Activity 1 Proposer

Social science teacher

Title

Crossword

Ideal number of participants

4 till 20

Level of complexity

easy

Activity’s objective

Conclusion and feedback of the topic/subject.

The specific objectives of the activity

Every participant can express freely and in easy way their feedback and main points of studied topic/subject.

Used materials

-

Description of the activity’s steps

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 Teacher will write on blackboard or on paperboard one word and ask students to start to write words

which will be connected with the first written word in manner of crossword (new word can start or end with one letter from 1st word or new word could kross 1st word.  Each word which is written to the board should express students feedback or rememebered fact/ knowledge to the topic or subject.  After writing the word should each students briefly explain why she/he wrote that word.  Teacher should observe that words shouldn’t be repeated.

Activity’s results

Each students has oportunity to think and express exactly their own emotions and feedback in creative way.

Total time to complete activity

10-30 minutes

Activity’s evaluation / Impressions of the participants

Students are eager to think and write their words to the board as crossword but they tend to torget to explain why did they write the word. It is teacher task to keep students in line to come to write we word and to ask brief explanation.

Activity 2 Proposer

Social science teacher

Title

Feedback Schedule to subject

Ideal number of participants

Individual work by each students of classroom

Level of complexity

easy

Activity’s objective

Feedback to the subject via visual schedule

The specific objectives of the activity

According to clearly set rules to give specific feedback to subject during each class.

Used materials

-

Description of the activity’s steps

 In the beginning of new subjekt/course will teacher distribute empty visual Schedule on paper to the students (see attachment).  Schedule includes different evaluation measures or topics which will be evaluated after every class and every topic is measured according to students personal feedback: very interesting, I learned a lot/it was interesting, I learned some new things/This class was good but I didn’t learn much/class was boring but I learned something new/class was boring and I didn’t learn anything new.

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 After the end of subject/course will be evaluation shecdules given to teacher to give her/him opportunity to evaluate and discuss result with students.  Evaluation Schedule should be anonymus.

Activity’s results

Personal feedback to subject/course

Total time to complete activity

1-4 minutes in the end of each class

Activity’s evaluation / Impressions of the participants

Teachers have to remind students to give this evaluation in the end of every classroom but students would be eager to liste the results and discuss conclusion of feedback and to make proposals.

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Learning by doing “When I hear, I forget.

When I see, I remember.

When I do, I understand.”

(Old Chinese proverb) According to different studies, people learn new skills and knowledge more efficiently if they can use more senses than one, for example only listening. Learning is multy-sensory process and the more senses we can include into learning process, the more confident we can be that students remember the topic and activitiy in the classroom. At the same time we should remember that variation of methods keeps students’ attention on higher level than using only one method all the time (it doesn’t matter is it passive or active method).

We rarely experience with one sense alone. Our senses work together to give us a total picture of our experiences. If we can put in different subjects all senses of students to work when their studies are more meaningful and useful. (Shams, Seitz, 2016) There are other senses also which are related with ability to detect other stimuli:  temperature  kinesthetic sense  pain  balance  vibration  various internal stimuli (blood pressure, hunger and etc) In the end we could add more senses like time (not based on specific sensory organ) or non-human senses (vision, gravity and etc.)

The five traditionally recognized senses which people use in their everyday life are:  Sight  Hearing  Taste  Touch  Smell

Learning by doing in classroom work means that students are not passive in study process but are involved in teaching-studing process where they should use their senses but also act in the process.

According to the senses teachers can plan their classroom activities to make their subject or topic more interesting and relevant. For planning it is necessary to ask the following questions: 1. Sight - what can students see regarding this topic? (photos, videos, items, etc) 2. Hearing – is there any specific or somehow related voices, rhythm regarding the topic?

3. Taste - is there any specific or somehow related taste, food, drink regarding the topic?

4. Touch – is there any specific or somehow related item, material regarding the topic?

5. Smell - is there any specific or somehow related smell, perfume regarding the topic?

After those questions the teacher can start planning activities (games, humor, experiments, practical activities and etc) which would involve at least 2-3 senses in the classroom work regarding the topic.

There are some ideas for different subjects:  Math  Sight - what can students see regarding this topic? (photos, videos, items, etc)  Hearing – students could listen different rythms, music and measure how many beats

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are in one cycle and how long is usually one beat. For example measure of 3/4 cycle consist two numbers where in one beat are three quarter keys (quarter key last one secund)  Taste – cooking and calculating the ingredients Suggested reading: Everyday Calculus: Discovering the Hidden Math All around Us by Oscar E. Fernandez.  Chemistry  Sight - photos, videos about different experiments  Hearing – how does it sound when there is chemical weapon explosion?  Taste – what elements cause sour, sweet, bitter taste? Experiments with food and re search of their consistency  Touch – touching different fabrics, items and research of their consistensy  Smell – which elements smell good and what cause bad smells? Making own perfume  History  Sight – videos, documentaries, photos of historical events  Hearing – music and rhythm from different periods of time. Standard pitch of music is 440 Hz but in period of baroque was it 415 Hz and music of baroque is still presented in this pitch.  Taste – cooking typical food of different historical periods  Touch – presenting different items and fabrics used in different time of periods  Smell – stories, memories and experiments of historical periods of time and what kind of smells could have been related. For example living in houses with open fire, or bathing once in a week.  Languages  Sight – letters in different languages, videos how letters in Chinese are written  Hearing – to listen different languages, different accent, games to try to recognize different languages without seeing the letters. Does a different language have impact on music in those specific countries?  Taste – finding connections between language and culture/food  Touch – finding connections between language and culture/clothes, materials, items  Smell - finding connections between language and culture/smells, perfumes Including senses into subjects demand flexibility and innovation by teacher. Therefore are previous suggestions first attempt to give inspiration to readers of this textbook.

Learning by doing include many different activities like games, experiments and practical activities as physical activity, story telling and drama.

Physical activity Physical activities could be any activities which include different senses in the learning process and include some activies after only listening and watching. In the following you can read an example how to connect physical activity with math.

Understaning practical use of math competence in physical activity. It also help students who likes sports or physical acitivity very much to engage in maths and physics.

An example: A student needs to understand why it is important to throw a ball in a specific angle on the court when centering the ball to another teammate to reach him or her. The teacher can explain both the math and physical rule of “angle in equals angle out” and later show the exact

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same thing by throwing the ball to the students (or making the students try themselves).

Different links where math and physics are connected with physical activity. https://prezi.com/ikro27jlibob/sport-og-matematikk-laget-av-hamnah-og-keerthna/ http://www.livet-helse.com/fitness/sports-conditioning/201308/474829.html Same type of connection could be made in history for example: how sport, walking, working has changed during the time and to let students to act according to the period. The importance in this method is to put theoretical studies in connection with physical activity and to let students practice it by themselves.

Storytelling Storytelling is a unique and powerful teaching method which can hold students’ attention and give them lot of new knowledge and values to hold. Therefore is important to be able to tell a story in an interesting way which makes students listen to it.

Stories could be presented in different ways and there are different types of stories. At first will be presented different types of stories:  true-life stories, memories  real life experiences (short memories of events)  told stories  created stories (genre could be fantast, sci-fi, drama, funny etc)  short stories  short stories with limited words  long stories  interviews  poems  songs  dances  paintings  statues  photos.

Stories could be presented in very different ways from oral presentation till different recording and visual options:  Telling a story  Books or other written format  Movies, videos (suggested resources www.topdocumentaryfilm.com, http://www.history.com/, www.youtube.com, different TV archives and etc)  Records of oral story telling  Posters (some suggested mediums are www.canva.com, www.postermywall.com, or traditional paper-pencil method)  Photo essays with short description (suggested medium https://exposure.co/)  Performance using the music (singing, dancing)  Drama and role play  Statue framing.

Some examples in norwegian: http://www.nrk.no/skole, http://www.ntnu.no/ub, https:// ndla.no.

Short novels which have limited number of words. Example of short stories http://brightside.

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me/article/13-of-the-worlds-most-exquisite-short-stories-90205/.

Story cubes and Dixit card game, example by Aimar Silivälja, history teacher in Tõstamaa Secondary School: My favourite games right now are Story Cubes, where you have 9 dices with different picture on every side. Player have to throw them and then tell a story, using pictures on upward side. There are two ways to do it – every one tells story using all dices or one starts story and next ones continue the same story. Also I have used Dixit card game – there you have tell something related with picture on card and others have to guess your card. Both games include speaking, using fantasy and develop social skills. I have used them in unexpected lessons, also at the end of terms or when I see, that students need some boost. Those games aren’t related to my subjects, but they make students think and I find it useful too.

Story telling could be used in every subject at school and it enables to involve students and their families and friends easily also via different mediums like video, photo essays, interviews or asking them to tell stories face-to-face.

Drama and role-play as part of story telling is interesting way to make classes more interactive and exciting for students. Methods in drama could be very different:  role play  dance  statues  writing a script  making video  short performances  performing a play  animation  read us theatre  improvisation  puppet theatre.

Next we give some examples to use in classes: Role play, example by Aimar Silivälja, history teacher in Tõstamaa Secondary School I used it in social studies lesson to deal with social exclusion problem. I gave each student certain role description – like you are a young boy in a wheelchair and you live in one small island or you are rich business man living n your own luxury apartment in New York. After that they had to line up. I read them statements about things they can do or what people think about them. Every time the student thought, this statement is about his or her role, he or she had to take a little step forward.

Roles were revealed only after the last statement. Then we had a discussion, what is social exclusion.

Why is it important to know about it? And so on.

Statues or frames, example by Anne Sophie Hunstad, teacher from Charlottenlund Upper Secondary School: An example from a history lesson: The teacher is writing different happenings from a period of time the students are going to work with in class, on different pieces of paper. The students form groups and the teacher gives each group a piece of paper showing them a happening they are not allowed to tell the other students about, but only allowed to “tell” through forming a statue or frame together. Some examples “1789 - The french revolution”, “Adolf Hitler”, “1814 - The norwegian constitution”, “Madame Curie”, “1939 - World war 2”, “1989 - The berlin wall”, “Jeanne d’Arc”.

Teachers can easily do this kind of game in whatever subject they teach.

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Writing a script Students will get the character or event and they have to write a dialogue or a script for a drama/movie how he/she thinks this situation have been.

Making video For example students will try to explain math via visual way. If usually are calculating done on paper when it could be explained and done via more creative ways. Instead of writing number on paper your sheet will be playground, number will be students and the students need act according to the calculations. This could be recorded and used as video material.

Improvisation Main aim of improvisation is to let students to express their ideas and prompt thoughts about the topic the teacher is talking about and how they understand it, they can also find new ways how to present the topic in class. Another way for improvisation is to make/build/compose items, solutions etc from things which are available and not specifically designed for this item/ solution. Some examples: Math: while explaining something in class regarding with topic students have to do some physical activity. For example explaining math task student has to jump or etc. Teachers have to be always the role models at first.

Physics: after explaining some topic the teacher will divide class into smaller groups where students will discuss what do they remember, how they understood it and when they express their learning outcome of the class in creative way: drama, song, short performance, etc.

All those methods need creativity by teacher how to include it into his/her own subject but it will be worth to do it as our experience guarantee positive feedback from students.

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Positive evaluation for studies Every person has his or her own memories from different classes and from school generally. Those memories are collected during every single day which was/is spent at school and the balance of good vs bad days design the overall feeling about school. Therefore, it is highly important to try and do the best to make a school one happy place.

Previous chapters have given different suggestions on how to make classes more interesting, relevant, and motivating for students. Last but not least it is important to design evaluation process during the studies in classroom. According to research done during the project, there was one important part of motivation - a good feedback from teachers. Students value good feedback in their grades and positive words highly but same time said teachers that they cannot give good marks easily and sometimes it is not easy to give positive feedback too. Therefore are listed some suggestions and tips for giving feedback in classroom.

Giving feedback Feedback helps people learn from their experiences. Feedback is given by marks usually at school but could be done via different other methods too: oral or written comments to students’ home assignments, behaviour in school. Feedback can be given by different sides in classroom as teachers, other students, and participants by themselves or people out of classroom (parents, colleagues, and supervisors from other organizations).

Giving feedback is important part of every classroom and should be done regularly in the end of each topic and subject.

Positive feedback Many students aren’t very good at recognising their own abilities and so it is important to tell them what their strengths are and help them to build them. Giving positive feedback first also helps make students more receptive to being told what could be improved.

Specific feedback is more helpful. It is hard to believe very general positive comment like “its brilliant!” because its not clear what exactly you liked. It is useful to bring out exactly what student did, how it was done and what effect it had. In that case you give clear indicates what was done good and how you evaluate it. So, for example, rather than “You did well”, try “When you solved this task you started with analysing present situation, bringing out all the existing problems and then started to find their relations to each other. This helped you to find clear and useful solutions to the problems”.

If you are giving feedback to group, direct comments at named individuals where appropriate.

Don’t forget to bring out what exactly was done well.

Negative feedback Every teacher has faced the situation where he/she needs to give negative feedback to students.

Even if it is not motivating for students then it is need for their learning process. Before giving negative feedback it is necessary to think carefully how to offer it. First of all work out whether it is really poor work, bad/wrong behaviour or do they just have different idea/opinion from you?

Next should be decided whether it is in the interests of group to point it out or it is matter of individual process. Finally should be decided how to bring it out as it is very different to offer personal impression, a difference of opinion or something teacher is factually sure about. If teacher express his/her impression when it should be said so: “I felt…”. If teacher is sure in something then it should be referenced as in detail as possible: “According to last data from WorldBank website…”. Giving negative feedback is demanding again specific comments and information to

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make it more as part of learning process. Every teacher should limit their comments to criticising what people did and not who they are.

Negative feedback is most useful if teachers can follow it up with ideas and proposals about how things could be redone or done differently. It is important for students and their parents that they could learn the things and pass the classes. Many students need support and extra advice how to improve their learning outcomes. It is teacher who can make learning more productive and encourage students to continue even if the results may be poor in the beginning. (Facilitating…, 2016) Self-reflection Self-reflection is important part of every classroom working process and it gives valuable information to teachers and students equally. Reflection could be done after finishing every topic of course or only in the end of course. Usually it is done formally using exam papers, tests or other methods to evaluate how much students know about the topic. Those tests design students’ personal understanding how good they are in topic according those formal tests. More important is personal evaluation one’s own learning experience. Personal reflection could be done intentionally or without specifically thinking about the class. There will be usually just general emotions like it were a interesting or fun class today or I didn’t like today the class.

Self-reflection in useful way should be directed by teachers to make students to think and relize their own learning outcomes. It depend on teachers how often they do self-reflection sessions in their classes but minimum should be 2-3 times during the course to improve the working methods if it is needed.

Some supportive questions for self-reflection:  What did you learn from the course?  What was the most interesting topic during the class/course?  What was most difficult/boring thing/topic in class/during the course?  How can you use new skills or knowledge in everyday life?  How can you use new skills/knowledge in future in your working life? Do those skills or knowledge help you to plan your career?  What would you change in classroom work studying this specific topic?

During the self-reflection process could be included emotions regarding the subject. This is tool to evaluate the learning process during the course via emotions of students. There can be used visual evaluation like FB emoticons. After finishing class or topic all students evaluate in different catergories their process of learning: was it interesting, was it easy, was topic relevant for them and etc via emoticons or drawing graphics. Teachers can develop their own methods to get feedback via emotions and visual methods.

Another way to encourage students to evaluate students to analyse their learning process is to use student friendship and supportive attitude by classmates. Teachers can ask friends in pairs to discuss what they have learnt and present together what they did together during the course. It could be helping each other with home assignments, giving good advice or just studying together.

Teachers should encourige students to give feedback to eachother as well: „What is the skill or knowledge your friend learnt most during the course?“, „Did you help your friends?“ and etc.

Sharing feedback and evaluation process with best friend in classroom could be very supportive for those students who are not very self-confident or are very shy.

In the end we bring out last and one of the most important partner in students learning process – home and families. Different studies have proved that if schools make good cooperation with parents and students families then students achievements and performance at school is better. Teachers are partners to families to inform them about learning goals and processes at school and they can encourage parents to talk with students about learnt topics at home.

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Here are some suggestions to teachers to support home involvement into school life and classroom work:  Ask parents to share their experiences about the subject, their own school experiences in the classroom  Organize study vistis to parents workplaces which are related with certain topic  Explain to parents what kind of teaching methods are used and how will be students knowledge and skills evaluated  From time to time send notes to parents about student studies  Organize joint parents-students-teachers events (not only formal meetings but informal gatherings, sport or other entertaining events)  Find time to talk with parents from time to time The main aim is show to students that teachers at school and parents at home are interested their good perfomance at school and are ready to support them.

Positive evaluation during the school years are crucial to everyone to build self-confidence and to be self-aware person. Feedback and evaluation are as important part of learning process as giving and studying new skills and knowledge. Therefore should all sides of learning processes take enough attention to feedback and evaluation.

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Conclusion The cooperation project between Tõstamaa Secondary School and Charlottenlund Upper Secondary School lasted for two years, included many mobilities and joint working hours to find the receipt of „happy school“. During the process the teachers received help from students at participating schools as well as from people from local communities who work with educational challenges in Tõstamaa Parish and Trondheim City.

In the following the main pinpoints will be brought to attention which partners got to know during the project and which gave them input to work towards the happy school environment.

Knowledge about each other. Tõstamaa Secondary School is small school in Estonian countryside with approximately 150 pupils. Charlottenlund Upper Secondary School is situated in one of the biggest Norway city Trondheim and has around 1300 pupils. During the project learnt participants a lot about each other educational system and school life, including teachers working conditions.

Same challenges. In spite of differences in size of schools and communities, it was realized that the partners in both schools have same challenges with students and classroom work.

Good reward and same preferences what is good at school was common for both school students. It doesn’t matter if the school is small or big, what are the general living conditions in the country, it is important to get good feedback and to find friends at school, to get good food and to find interesting activities.

The importance of relevance is highly valued by Estonian and Norwegian students. Many students have certain goals for future and therefore they want to have their subjects useful for future career.

The good teacher makes the difference. Students spend most of their days in school and teachers are their everyday partners to work together. It is important to have good teachers close as they are persons to find a subjects and sometimes even goals for future.

The importance of involvement from the students and homes are both valued by teachers. Good collaboration at classroom means that not only teachers are responsible for good learning outcomes but active and motivated students with supportive homes give crucial input too.

Inspired and enthusiastic teacher makes the difference. Students recognize easily if teachers are just doing their work or are really keen on with their topic.

Diversity of teaching methods helps to gain higher participation in classroom work. Youth need diversity as it is normal in modern life and therefore should classroom work offer the same condition as surrounding society with its choices and diversity.

Variation between theoretical and practical teaching is key point in studies. If students know theories but never can practice, then it doesn’t make sense to them. Relevance of the topics should be a priority at schools.

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Another outcome of the project was realizing the youth emotional expectations to school.

Most important feelings are good emotions, possibility to be seen or noticed, good feedback to efforts and activities and good rewards which motivates students to make more efforts. This is something which is from time to time forgotten in everyday classroom work and need more attention.

In conclusion we can say that this project combined participants’ practical experiences with research in educational field and gave important information what to do to achieve in happy school.

This textbook is conclusion of the project work and hopefully helps the readers to analyse and improve their everyday work with students and to find good cooperation with youth.

Project team wishes happy school to everyone!

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References and recommended resources for further reading Games of Trust. 2016. http://www.youthwork-practice.com/ Elias, Maurice, J. Using Humor in the Classroom. 2016. http://www.edutopia.org/blog/using-humor-in-the-classroom-maurice-elias Facilitating Workshops. 2016. http://www.seedsforchange.org.uk/facilwsh.pdf Fun Retrospectives www.funretrospectives.com Index to Group Activities, Games, Exercises & Initiatives. 2016. http://wilderdom.com/games/ Kirby, A. Games for trainers. 2006. PI INDIA PVT LTD. Lepisk, Harald. Teach to inspire. 2015. http://trainings.ee/programmid/teach-to-inspire.pdf Maroney, Kevin. My Entire Waking life. 2001. http://www.thegamesjournal.com/articles/ MyEntireWakingLife.shtml McNeely, Robert. Using Humor in the Classroom. 2012. http://www.nea.org/tools/52165.htm Mihhailova, Gerda. Materials of her lecture in May 5th 2015.

Mitteformaalne.ee. 2016. http://mitteformaalne.ee/ Mängu jõud. 2016. http://www.thegameclub.eu/mangu-volu/ Scannell, Edward; Newstrom, John. The big book of presentation games. 1997.

Shams, L., Seitz, Aaron, R. Benefits of Multysensory Learning. 2016. http://faculty.ucr.edu/ ~aseitz/pubs/Shams_Seitz08.pdf Tamblin, Doni; Weiss, Sharyn. The big book humorous training games. 2000.

Teach Outside the Box. 2016. http://teachoutsidethebox.com/ Team Building Toolkit. KEYS - Keys to Enhance Your Supervisory Success University of California, Berkeley. Developed by Suzy Thorman and Kathy Mendonca. Talent & Organizational Performance Wanzer, M. Use of Humor in Classroom. 2016. https://www.uab.edu/Communicationstudies/ richmond_files/Richmond%20Humor%20in%20Classroom.pdf

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