This is part of an ongoing series of "What's Working" posts that
highlight something good in education at any level (policy,
school, classroom). As many schools do, my school has an
advisory class, in which teachers work with a group of about 12
students to build relationships, study habits, and social-
emotional skills. I always want my advisory to be this cohesive
"family-like" group, but I often find the regular social
divisions that exist among early adolescents to be a barrier to
this cohesion. This year, I've committed to starting the
advisory period with good ice breaker activities that would help
build a positive group dynamic among the members of the advisory
--whether or not they identify with one another or are part of
the same friend groups. One of the best ice-breakers has been
"speed socializing," something I imagined pretty randomly around
the start of school. I tried it out and found that it worked. I
shared it with the other advisors on my grade team. Several
tried it out with their groups and