Avid Training

So I went to an AVID pathways training last week (11/27 & 11/28) and our presenter reinforced some ideas: like TV sets the attention span of our students and we should look at doing some break up activity every 10-15 minutes. Some of the ideas he shared are doing a warm-up like a review of volume, then taking a sheet of paper and cutting it exactly in half and forming two different cylinders (by folding the hot dog and hamburger ways) and asking the students to "Vote with their feet" by saying the left side of the room is the short fat cylinder can hold more M&Ms and the right side of the room says the tall skinny cylinder can hold more M&Ms or those who stand in the middle think the both will hold equal amounts of M&Ms. After seeing the distribution toss out the "Brain" (often called the talking stick) and have people from the three groups make statements to persuade someone from the other groups to change their mind (of course the person who convinces another gets a prize). Then after every one's had the opportunity to bring someone over explain the Volume solutions.

Another example he gave was "4 corners." In the west corner is the walking trail, the North corner is one lane dirt road, the East corner is paved street and the South corner is the autobahn. Meaning the west is people who know nothing, the north knows a little, East has played with it but not in depth knowledge, South knows all there is to know. He gave the name "facebook" and we all moved. Then starting with the west we explained what we knew.