Acquaintance Maps-Using Technology to Get to Know Your Students

Welcome back to the 2018-2019 school year!

For those of you new to the intermediate grades this school year, this blog was created as a collaborative tool for tier 4 in the Wausau School District. I am excited to once again share ideas, projects, and resources as the school year progresses. Please add your ideas, thoughts, projects, and pieces you have found helpful in context with featured topics in the comments below!

Summer comes to an end...

Every summer's end I reflect on how fast it flew by and the highlights that stand out. While I visited many places I've never been this summer and learned lots of interesting historical and cultural things, I always go back to the people in my life that make the best memories. These "Littles"...my grandkiddos... have brought so much joy and so many smiles to my life. (The "big people" in this picture...my son and daughter...are pretty amazing too!)

Signs of new beginnings...

September means new beginnings and with that the smell of brand new waxy crayons, un-chewed sharpened pencils with a clean eraser at the end, untattered and undoodled notebooks and folders, and nametags that still stick to the desk. School must be starting! 

There's nothing quite like brand new school supplies!

That also means a classroom of fresh excited faces and names to learn. Last year, I posted how to get to know your students on a deeper level through a letter to the teacher and I plan to do that writing piece again this year because I found it to be so valuable. You can find more information on that post HERE. 

This year instead of pulling out the standard, "find someone who..." sheets to have students and teacher get to know each other, why not try this activity using Mindnode Mind Map? I call this activity Acquaintance Mapping.

Getting Started

Students added colorful backgrounds 

and experimented with various features.

Students start with four categories. I used Family, School, Hobbies, and Vacation, but you can use whatever topics you'd like. From here, students brainstorm specific ideas related to each of these areas they feel describe them. They can include their likes as well as their dislikes. The cool thing about this app is that students can add as many strands extending from the topic as they choose. However, I did give the expectation of a minimum of 3 ideas per topic. There were a few other guidelines I set such as using a mix of both pictures and words, and to be sure everything fits on one screen. Yep, someone tried to see just how far they could extend the lines off the screen!

If students couldn't find an icon that made sense to their ideas, they went online to find a picture that would work.

Students were immediately engaged in this activity. After the Acquaintance Maps were completed, we uploaded them to SeeSaw where everyone could read each other's Maps and find shared interests and commonalities that they might not have otherwise. Students love to comment on each other's posts. I made sure I turned off the "like" option in order to encourage students to be thoughtful and specific in their comments to each other. 

Someone with family connections to Elvis Presley! 

Who knew?? I sense there's a story here!

As a follow up to this activity, as well as digging into our  district literacy goal of using oracy, I gave students some time to get together to discuss their interests further.  The activity definitely helped me understand student likes, dislikes, and interests. This would be a great activity for staff too!

Please share beginning of the year acquaintance activities you find helpful.

Here's to having a fabulous 2018-2019 school year!