Fifth Grade AIM
Today in AIM
We started our day by calculating our expenses, balancing our checkbook, and writing a check to AIM Management. We then continued our previous discussion about leadership. I explained that great leaders often use different styles or techniques depending on the team and/or situation. Today we tried out two of the styles: structural frame and human resource frame. With structural frame we started off with the ABC Sound-Off Challenge – students had to spread around the room, close their eyes and one at a time say a letter of the alphabet in order. Sounds easy right? Of course I had some rules:
· No talking before we began or during, except to say the letters.
· Each person must say at least one letter.
· A person could not say more than one letter consecutively.
· Anytime two people said a letter at the same time, the group had to start the challenge over.
Just as I had planned, we never made it past the letter D. Then they got into small groups and developed a plan to complete the challenge. All three groups came up with slightly different strategies that worked much better than no plan. Through that activity our class learned that within a structural frame a leader uses effective listening techniques with team members to help develop and execute a plan.
With our second leadership style (human resource frame) the class was put into teams and provided with a stack of index cards. Using the cards, the groups were challenged to build the largest three-dimensional structure possible within 10 minutes. Of course I had some rules:
· No talking or preplanning.
· No drawing or illustrating of ideas.
· Do not use anything to support your building other than the index cards.
· If the structure falls, you must start over.
To complete this challenge it required students to rely on and trust those who took on the leadership role. Often one student would start with an idea and the others would either follow along or try to improve on it. The human resource frame focuses on human needs and abilities to facilitate organizational tasks. This activity helps our students learn to rely on persons who exhibit the particular knowledge and skills to guide the group as needed.
With our remaining hour the class continued to work on our leadership sculpture, filmed a MORE commercial during the intervention block and discussed the new name for our 6th grade web series!