Group learning is as old as education itself. People have been experiencing knowledge better in groups for centuries. Even the earliest structures of education favored group learning. This is because the benefits are just too many to overlook.
Benefits of learning in a team
Learning in groups improves critical thinking, enhances problem solving, encourages learning from peers, reduces anxiety, promotes collaboration and, if we are being honest, it is just more fun!
Group learning seems to have always been The Greek Online School’s priority for years. The team behind this innovative online Greek school has always tried to make online learning a fun and interactive experience with a focus on community and socializing for all little Greeks. And according to them, after 10 years of online classes, the conclusion is that the best way to do so is through group classes for children.
Little Greeks learn better together
After years of testing, The Greek Online School is launching in October 2021 two types of Greek group classes for kids: 1. Μαθαίνω, Παίζω & Μιλώ (Learn, Play and Speak) groups and 2. Μαζί (Together) groups.
According to the educators who designed the group classes, the similarity between the two groups is based on the idea that children learn better together and focuses on the understanding that they better accumulate knowledge when they are having fun, through language games in this case.
1. Μαθαίνω, Παίζω & Μιλώ groups for children will be held twice a week in The Greek Online School virtual classrooms. The group curriculum includes 60 minutes of Greek reading, writing, speaking, and listening on one day and 60 minutes of speaking through language games and projects on the other day.
Children in these groups will use games and projects as a way to help them bond with peers, build an online community of learners, and improve their conversational skills.
The specially designed games and projects are on Greek culture, history, mythology, geography and language and are built to help bring students closer to all these cultural characteristics that shape Hellenism.
2. Μαζί groups for children on the other hand are 90-minute groups. The 90 minutes are divided into 60 minutes of Greek language learning where all skills are practiced and 30 minutes of language games.
These games are designed to help students better absorb the language phenomena they have been studying. Games have been proven to be the best way to motivate children to speak Greek and produce the language they have been learning.
The Greek Online school teachers are always striving to improve the quality of their group classes with in-school teaching seminars and weekly meetings where they take advice and guidance from the School’s directors and academic advisors that are behind the structure of these classes.
This team and their students alike are already looking forward to getting together and building a close-knit community of people after a year and a half where we learned better than ever that community and closeness are two values we just can’t live without.
This fun journey of Greek and making friends starts this October for The Greek Online School with little Greeks who just learn better together!
