In Ecuador, it is customary to start every Peace Corps class or session with an icebreaker activity. After about the first week, the purpose of the icebreaker isn’t to get to know people. The objective turns to getting people ready to learn.
Well, I don’t know if this is customary outside of Peace Corps circles, but within PC, this is pretty standard. Kids love them, so it should really help me out when I’m teaching environmental education.
Last week, the co-trainers started a session by getting all of the trainees into a circle. Then they said that you had to play a game of rock, paper, scissors with the person standing next to you (obviously, best out of three).
The person who wins will then play the person next to him/her in the circle, while the loser becomes a fan of whoever beat him/her and cheers them on in the next game. If that person (the winner from the first game) loses, the original loser moves cheering allegiances to the new winner.
If my use of pronouns doesn't make sense, the main takeaway is that each loser—and the chain of losers leading up to that bout—cheers on whoever is winning.
Eventually, it comes down to a final match between two people and the crowd is going nuts. And then we're ready and excited to learn.
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2 comments:
Do the PC folks play, rock, paper, scissor, shoot? Or do you shoot after scissors? It can really mess up your game if you don't know when you are supposed to go...
That was me in the final two! And I would have won, if it weren't for that James...
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