a new ice breaker

I tried a new ice breaker today on the first day of class. It… didn’t do exactly what I had hoped.

But hey, that’s part of the trail, right? It can’t all be smooth sailing.

I watched a documentary/magic show/performance art thing years ago, so long ago, I can’t remember the name of it or who the guy was. But, in the show, he had the audience all pick out cards that had “I am…” statements on them. The statements were all random and unique and he used them to surprise his audience and guess things about them and how they were related. There were lots of tears as they were doing it.

I imagined doing something like this in my classroom, where I had students pick a “I am…” statement, and use it to introduce themselves.

So, finally, this year, my student teacher and I spent too long writing out the 200 statements I got from ChatGPT, on different colored index cards, hung them up on the whiteboards, attached to a drawing of a tree trunk, so they looked like leaves on a tree. Lots of good metaphors to run with…

The kids took a card when they walked in, a few smiled and laughed, most were confused and panicked and anxious, and when we used them to introduce ourselves, everyone didn’t have good reasons for why they picked them, and I hadn’t totally formulated what I wanted to say about them and the metaphors and stuff, so it didn't totally work… yet.

But it doesn’t mean it won’t.

I will chronicle lots of ideas on here throughout the year. Some will be great right away, most will need more work at it. But that’s the point.

If it was perfect right away, if we go the answers immediately and performed exactly how it should be to get the max results, we’ve never learn.