I had two live classes yesterday: Philosophy of Love and Sex and Small Group Communication. I didn't have much energy for either of them. One meets twice a week in the morning and the other is a night class that meets 5:45 - 8:15. I cut each a bit short.
Usually I like to play some kind of fun game the first day of class but I couldn't get my energy up to do that in the morning class. I also found out that it was overbooked -- my forty person class was put in a room for 36. Fortunately the building's administrative assistant found me a room right next door that would definitely seat all the folks in my class.
In the Small Group Communication class I relied on the text book ancillary item -- the first chapter Powerpoint -- that had a test game embedded in it. Back when I first started teaching Small Groups, I would start the class with a game in which I put the students into groups and gave them 20 minutes to answer questions about me. Some of these questions had factual answers (where was she educated, how old is she) and some had non-factual answers (what's her favorite television show). I didn't give the game many rules and sometimes students realized that and would immediately leave the classroom and ask administrative assistants and other school workers what they knew about me.
The game lead to discussions about fact vs. opinion, how to find information, how to think about rules, etc. I enjoyed it, of course, because it was all about me! And it was useful in humanizing me for them.
But entered the era of the pocket computer and cell phone and instant knowledge and the game was no longer as fun. I'd thought about resurrecting it one last time but being still so weak yesterday dissuaded me.
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