Are you having a ball in class?
Do you teach a class or lab where student get a break? I have found that very few students interacted with each other during break. Instead I observed most were checking their phones or texting. I wanted to encourage more interaction between classmates and less phone and computer time. So I decided to bring in 3 cloth “soft” footballs for the students to toss to each other. I announced to students that they could toss balls to each other only during break and only in my classroom. After a week, most students were tossing the balls to each other and even some students were coming to class early just to “play catch”. I have recently added an indoor corn toss game which is also very popular. As a result I have seen increased interaction between students and they seem more motivated to come to class and participate.
I love it! I can definitely see the benefit in a program classroom. I’d be curious to see if I would see the same results in a general studies classroom, where they may never have to interact again. I suspect I would. Everyone loves to “play”. Great idea Wendy!