> From: Paul Smith <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> Subject: Re: First day of class
> (Assuming that yours is a lifespan development course, not just a child
> development course)
>
> Have you tried the "Decades of Life" thing? You give the students sheets
> with something like
>
> 0-10
> 11-20
> 21-30
> 31-40
> ...
> ....
> 90-100
>
> You ask the students (individually - they'll share when they've all
> finished) to come up with three words or short phrases describing each
> decade. When they're all done, you look for common answers as well as
> unique ones, and you ask them if certain decades were more difficult than
> others. Then you point out connections to some of the theories they'll be
> learning (Freud, Erikson...).
>
> Paul Smith
> Alverno College
> Milwaukee
Wow. What a cool idea.
I've only used two significant first-day activities, and nothing deep like Paul or
others. But I think it's great to consider what significant impact you can have
on the first day.
At some schools and/or for some profs, I believe the norm is still to show up,
take attendance, pass out the syllabus, and call it a day. To me that shows
the students you're not ready to take your class seriously, and neither
should they. That's just an opinion, mind you.
I have done two things to create a stir on the first day:
One I don't think I can do anymore -- I used to sit in the back of the class
and wait to see how long the students would stir without a teacher. It was
amazing to me that ten minutes would expire and not a single student would
say anything about "Where's the teacher?"
At this point I would stand up and begin passing out the syllabus. The
people near me always freaked out.
This led into a discussion on, among other things, norms and expectations.
I'd try to be cool and say "That demo was to show you that I don't do things
the normal way." Don't know if it worked.
2. The other idea came from Doug Bernstein. He has some great "psychic
tricks" he's used, tricks that were specifically designed to create a shock,
but then have the students investigate how the trick was done.
My favorite was the one with a newspaper column. Doug instructs that you
say something about being a psychic, and that you intend to prove it with an
"experiment."
You hold up a single column article (it has to be a long, single column article
or it won't work) with one hand, then take a pair of scissors with your other
hand. Your hands at this point should be parallel.
Then you instruct the class you're going to take your scissors and move
them downward, until you come to a point where you begin cutting the article
in half.
You pick a student at random and ask them to tell you when to say "Cut."
You move the scissors downward until you hear "cut," and then cut the
article in half at that spot. When your cut is done, the bottom half of the
article will fall to the ground.
Ask a student from the front row to pick that part up and read the top line of
the article to the class (just have them read the first sentence).
Then each student is instructed to reach under their desk tops, and search
for an envelope (I usually tape at least three envelopes). Any student that
has an envelope is instructed to stand up, open it, and read the message
inside. Of course, the sentence in the envelope is the same one they just
heard from the article.
No matter how many times I've done it, I love it when the class reacts to
hearing the same sentences.
Now, ask the students, either individually, or in groups, to develop an
explanation for how the trick was done. You'll get some obvious
explanations, and some very creative ones as well.
What's interesting to me is that only one student over the years has actually
asked to see the rest of the article! To examine ALL the evidence!
When this student did, he figured it out. "Hey," he said, "you cut the column
after the first paragraph (the "read" sentence comes next), turned the rest of
the column upside down, and taped it back together!"
Jim
************************************************************************
Jim Guinee, Ph.D.
Director of Training & Adjunct Professor
President, Arkansas College Counselor Association
University of Central Arkansas Counseling Center
313 Bernard Hall Conway, AR 72035 USA
(501) 450-3138 (office) (501) 450-3248 (fax)
"Almost every sect of Christianity is a perversion of its
essence, to accomodate it to the prejudices of the world."
-- William Hazlitt
**************************************************************************
