500 Creative Classroom Techniques for Teachers and Trainers
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17.
P
lant red flags.
There’s no guarantee that this next technique will prevent the gaffes from ever being expressed,
but it will definitely help train the brain to avoid continuing in a direction that might have
negative consequences. The exercise forces your brain to find words other than the ones you
would naturally speak. (The very words that will get you in trouble—the ones that you are about
to send rolling off your tongue without much thought.)
Basically, you take a topic from one envelope and then turn the paper over. On the back side
will be a word closely related to the topic—a word that you must avoid saying as you talk about
the topic. Tell your listeners both the topic and the word to be avoided. Then start talking about
the topic. Your audience (whether it’s a helpful friend or an entire class) will let you know if you
slipped up and spoke an “avoid-word.”
Practice topics or words to avoid:
War/President Bush Children/Future
Horse/Race School/Teachers
Food/Restaurant Crime/Criminals
Computers/Internet Movies/Hollywood
18.
A
nticipate objections.
Each person will write (on a sheet of paper) one way to improve the world/school/
organization. Collect the papers and give one to each group. Groups, after receiving a sheet, will
read the improvement idea and will then ask one person from their group to leave the room.
While he is in the corridor, that person is tasked with considering the objections the group is
likely to have regarding the improvement suggestion. He is also tasked with thinking of ways to
counter or overcome their objections.
While the corridor-person is thinking, the group back in the room will also be thinking—
thinking of reasons why the improvement idea won’t work or flaws in the design or problems
with the design, and so on.
After five or ten-minutes, call the corridor-person back in the room and have his group
members explain their opposition while he tries to deflect their criticism of the idea.
Note: Having an observer in each group to record the exchanges between idea-opposers and
the idea-defender will deepen the learning to be derived from this exercise.
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