I once had a college professor, in the first week of class, ask us to write down anonymously on a piece of paper whether or not we speak up in class and why. Then, she read the responses out loud. I was shocked to hear that the amount of people that didn't like to speak in class was nearly half of the room. Many of the reasons for this were that they didn't think that they had anything important to say or that they didn't want to speak up and be wrong.
After she was done reading these out loud, our professor gave a very heartfelt speech about how important it is to get our voices heard and that no one's opinions or thoughts are worth less than anyone else's in that class. I was so inspired by this small activity and am thinking about doing something like it when I have a classroom of my own.
I think it would be fun to do a week's worth of teambuilding activities at the beginning of the year because it gets the students closer to one another and can lead to a development of trust and community within classes. And that makes for better learning.
