The Teamwork Challenge

Posted on Aug 21, 2012 in How We Learn

Today we strengthened our interpersonal intelligence, by working in teams. We brainstormed ways to make a team successful. We thought about skills such as communicating, accepting others’ ideas and resolving conflicts.

Then each team was given a 20-minute challenge: to build the tallest tower possible, using only newspaper and tape. We had a few successes, a few disasters and lots of fun! Here’s one of our efforts.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Little did we know, Ms O’Dwyer was recording our conversations. When we went back to class, she read back to us the things we had said. We reflected on whether each comment showed strong or weak interpersonal intelligence.

Some of the best interpersonal  conversations included:  “How should we do this?” “What do you think of this idea?” “I understand what you’re saying.” “Can I help you by…?” “Let’s give each person a different job.”

Some of the worst interpersonal conversations happened when people were rushing, panicking and yelling. We laughed and groaned when Ms O’Dwyer read these conversations back to us: “Get me the tape!” “You’re doing it wrong!” “That’s not going to work!” “You didn’t … and you didn’t…” “This is hopeless.” “HURRY UP!”

We each reflected on how well our teams communicated, accepted ideas and resolved conflicts. We began to understand that working with other people can help us achieve.

Now let’s do some more thinking:

Which traits of the Learning Profile are linked to interpersonal intelligence? (And why?)

Which PYP skills & attitudes would build interpersonal intelligence?  (And why?)

 

 

3 Comments

Join the conversation and post a comment.

  1. Sarthak

    Dear Ms O’Dwyer

    We like your activities. They are so cool and so exciting. I really enjoyed that paper activity and working with my team. I think we will do more on Activity Week. I can’t wait!

    Sarthak

  2. Hyunseo

    Dear Ms O’Dwyer,
    Most of us were very excited when we were doing this team work, but some were not. When it was finished we went back to the classroom and all laughed. I thing we really enjoyed that. I was very surprised when you said you were recording our conversations. There were a many things we said. And I think Caring and Thinkers are linked to Interpersonal intelligence, because Thinkers will know how to make person happy and Caring people know person’s feeling very well.

    Hyunseo

  3. Dave

    Dear Ms O’Dwyer

    I like the way you teach and how the Grade 4s make learning be fun and how you think of fun activities for us to do. It’s great.

    From Dave