This weekend I took the 24 hour certification course for Tribes. It was an incredible course where I learned lots of practical information that can be used in the classroom. When I entered the classroom I no idea what tribes was about. I had an incredible instructor who really had a passion for the tribes program and had been using it in her classroom for years with great success. My understanding of tribes is it is a classroom management technique that can help build a community in your classroom. We spent the weekend doing team building activities, energizers, creative applauses and different assessment techniques. There are four different tribes agreements that students are to follow, “no put downs, mutual respect, the right to pass and attentive listening“. The interesting aspect of this course was with each activity there was a discussion on possible curriculum connections. The course ran through the process for starting tribes in a new classroom. It is important to slowly introduce different activities as to not overwhelm a new class. It was a very informative course was lots of different activities that can be used in the classrooms.
There are strategies, energizers, reflections, applauses, literature connections, getting into groups. One example of a strategy is called “Milling to Music”. It is an activity where students walk around the classroom to music and when it stops student’s pair up and talk about a subject. This can be used as re review at the end of a unit. An example of an energizer is called “I like my neighbor”. All of the students sit in a chair minus one person who doesn’t have a chair. That person is it and will make statements like “I like my neighbours, especially those who are wearing running shoes” All of the people wearing running shoes find another seat, one person will be left standing and they are it. The “it” person will come up with a statement and the game will continue for as long as the teacher wants. An example of an applause used is called “Nailed it”. Students pretend they are hammering a nail while saying “Nailed it!”. My favourite way to get students into groups is to get film roll canisters and put objects in them. Students will come and pick a canister and try to find the people that have the same item inside their canister. Once they have found their groups, they open their canisters to make sure they are in the right groups. The reason I liked this activity so much was because it can be random or controlled. The teacher can hand out the canisters to the students so they know what the groups are. All of the tips and tricks that I learned can be applied to the classroom in an academic situation or to build a classroom community. The textbook that comes with the course is full of ideas to make students more than a class, but to make them a community.
Here is the tribes learning community website with lots of great resources for teachers!
Here is the tribes learning community website with lots of great resources for teachers!