In 2010 Flemish author Leo Bormans created “The World Book of Happiness”.
100 experts in various domains were asked to describe their knowledge about happiness.
The main factors to be happy are
Time
Money
Health
Success
Well-being
Future
Warmth
Source: https://www.lannoo.be/nl/geluk-world-book-happiness
Warmth = feeling socially included
This can be a family, a social group, colleagues…
This family is building a sand castle. Have you ever experienced this situation: your children, relatives or friends are building a sand castle and your hands start to itch, because you want to join. Because the sand castle can become bigger and you feel part of the group.
This is exactly what happens if you do projects in class!
Source: Photo by Kampus Production from Pexels
Now these could be projects in action
Anyway, projects in class make students happy, because you can start from scratch and work towards a specific goal or end product. It is clear and meaningful in their eyes and that's a big bonus for the teacher who will have motivated participants in the project.
Now, how to spice up your projects?
Tools might help. They are the colourful beach shovels that invite us to build the sand castle.
We all know that tools are just tools, but in some cases online tools might trigger a new step in the project's process.
The beach shovel will not trigger anything when you are in the town centre, but it does trigger something on the beach.
Think of a tool that leads you to a new way to connect with people, or a tool that helps you elaborate the project and even tools that make students enthusiastic about the evaluation of the project.
If you’re looking for a way for your students to brainstorm or generate ideas, Padlet might be the way to go.
But perhaps your students are fed up with Padlet. Then choose something new, because Padlet won’t be the tool that inspires students or makes them feel enthusiastic.
You might want a tool like SpeakUp where ideas can be shared, problems can be highlighted and questions can be asked.
Will PowerPoint do as your go-to tool for collaborative results?
Will your students be comfortable in using the basic features? Some of them might want to explore this tool further.
Or are the students happy to be challenged? They might want to try out Sutori. Sutori is a collaborative instruction and presentation tool for the classroom.
How will you evaluate the project? Using the well-trusted and easy-to-use Google Form?
Or would you and your students like to try things differently? Then let them discover the power of video in class with Flipgrid.
So how will you spice up your projects?
Find the right tools. It should work for you, your students and the project.
Get started on the project
And make sure everyone feels socially included
Source: Photo by Kampus Production from Pexels
Which will then hopefully lead to happiness.
Source: https://www.lannoo.be/nl/geluk-world-book-happiness
