Team Building: Tower of Power

Being able to work in a group is a skill that will be beneficial throughout someone's life. Through collaborative activities, AVID students are able to learn how to more effectively work with students from a variety of groups.

The challenge this week was called Tower of Power. Students were sorted into groups different from their regular table groups. Each group was given the same set of materials:

stunt doubles were used for this pic

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• paper bag
• 3 index cards
• 2 pieces of paper
• 2 large paper clips
• 3 small paper clips
• a straw
• 1 rubber band
• a small plastic drink lid
• a ruler
• a paintbrush

Groups were given 15 minutes to build the tallest tower possible with only the provided materials. Towers had to be free standing and remain standing during the measuring process. The group in each class that designed and built the tallest tower won one of our fabulous AVID prizes. The tallest structure out of both classes was 40 1/4"  with second place coming in at 33". After the activity, each student was given an opportunity to evaluate the group process and identify areas of frustration. 

This may be my most favorite AVID pic EVER

 The winning tower: 40 1/4"

Updates... A Bit Overdue

Now that school is back in full swing and the 1st six weeks is behind us, it is time to try to slow down and catch my breath. The end of a grading period brings a rush of activity, but perhaps the most important thing to the AVID students is (or at least should be) Content Based Assessments (CBA), or in other terms, end of period exams. CBAs were given in each core subject area and are standardized across the district. While there is still a lot of work to be done before we're all ready for a full slate of high school honors classes, the AVID CBA results were encouraging. In all subjects (Math, English, US History, and Science) the AVID students outscored both the school and district - sometimes by double digit percentages!

At the end of the grading period the AVID students calculate their Grade Point Average (GPA) and we do a ranking, based on GPA, of the AVID 8th graders. The main purpose of this activity is so that students can see how they compare to their peers and so that they can see how daily academic achievement translates into longer-term academic success. And because you get double GPA points, another great point that comes out of class rank is the importance of taking Honors courses. The highest ranked students almost always are our students who are enrolled in the most Honors level classes.