MS Teams recently rolled out an update that allows the meeting organizer, aka the teacher, to open breakout rooms and automatically send participants to work there. It's kind of a nifty feature, you can quickly organize and supervise group work, almost like being in a classroom. There is also a general broadcast that posts messages to all the chats, which is also very handy.
Of course, I immediately integrated the new feature into my lesson-- I feel certain that many kids really miss the self-direction and interaction that cooperative work offers. Popping in and out of the breakout groups validated my sense, most groups quickly overcame their initial shyness and got to work on the task at hand.
Perhaps the coolest thing about the breakout room, though, is the ability to close all the rooms with a single tap, bringing your participants right back to the main meeting in an instant. Today as all the little glowing circles rematerialized on my screen, there was almost a collective gasp as several kids unmuted at once. "Wow!" one student said. "That was so weird! I felt like I actually went some place else!"
"I know! Cool right?" I answered.
"It was like the Avengers," another student added. "You have the Thanos snap!"
"But I brought you back!" I said. "I am Iron Teacher!"
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