Thank You Students

It is always fun to have a student make a suggestion and be able to successfully implement it right away. Soon the informative speeches will begin. A session or two before that, I have the students engage in a game of Whose Line is it Anyway. They all seem to enjoy it.

There are a number of ideas behind having them play this game. First, they see that improvisation is not that easy. Second, it gives them a little fun before the seriousness of graded speeches starts and finally, it usually embarrasses most people a little bit. I explain that the reason many people feel apprehensive before giving a speech is they are afraid they will embarrass themselves in front of others. Then I tell them they just did so simply relax and enjoy giving the speech.

One thing which I do when playing the game is I tell the students they can put me in any skit(s) they want. I would not ask a student to do something I would not do myself and usually they enjoy seeing me play the games as well.

It was suggested by one of my students that we do a game called “Green Screen”. This is where you have a reporter in the field and two anchors at a desk. The reporter only sees a green screen, no images on it, even if s/he is looking at it, much like a weatherman. The anchors, who can see the images, give clues by asking the reporter certain questions about the event and the reporter has to guess where s/he is.

I do not have a green screen but I can put images up on the board. So, I went to youtube and put an image on the board. The only difference was the person playing the part of the reporter was not allowed to look at the screen. It went so well we actually played two of these games and I now have another game to add to my arsenal. Thank you, my students!