Ice-Breaker Tuesday: What Matters to Me

As an educator, I always try to get my students more connected with each other and their community. One way of doing this is through ice-breaker activities. In today's blog post, I'll feature an ice-breaker activity that asks students to think about what matters most in their lives. Check out today's blog post to learn how  how you can run this ice-breaker in your own online course!

In this ice-breaker activity, students select from a list of "common values" to identify their top 3 values. Students are also encouraged to add in their own values that might not be on the list. As an added tip, you can add to this list each semester from the terms that students include. After selecting their top 3 values, student then expand on their selections including examples from life when they demonstrated that attribute.

This can be a difficult activity for some students, and that is ok. It's an opportunity to talk about what they consider important in their lives and why it matters to them. When we share with each other about our beliefs, we get the chance to understand one another better. This is essential in developing a online learning community.

As always, I'd like to hear your thoughts! Do you engage in ice-breaker activities with your students? How do they help build community? What types of values does your online course include? Share your thoughts in The Online Educator Facebook Group!

This ice-breaker activity was developed by Davidson, S., Bates, L., McLean, C. and Lewis, K. is licensed under a Creative Commons License.

Would you like me to spotlight one of your ice-breakers? Share your assignment HERE for an opportunity to be spotlighted in The Online Educator Blog.