The First Day

During our first day at Darlington College our tutor had on the Inboard a picture of junk piled up and asked us to spot the cat. We later learned that this was technique is called bell work and can be used to grab focus from the students in the class. We then started by introducing each other to the class by playing a memory game. The first student had to introduce themselves and the next person would introduce themselves and the person before. Each person would have a different number of students to introduce depending on what order they were sat in It was a good way to get to know each person but did get harder for the people sat further away. Another activity we played was called “Human Bingo”. We were given sheets of paper that included possible facts about people in separate boxes. For example who has been to the beach at the weekend? It was our job to go around the class and write down a student’s name in each box. We then discussed if these games worked as an icebreaker to get to know the class and if anybody would use them. It seemed that the first game was more popular than the second. We then had a group discussion about what the year will include and what assignments we will be given. All students were handed files with the module handbook. First arriving to the college I was nervous but the ice breaker games did put myself and other students at ease. Out of both games I would include them for my specialism but tweak them. I would keep the name game the same if I was to introduce students to each other but for human bingo I would link the facts to performing arts. When going through our modules and information for the observations I felt unsure as I need to fit in home and work life in with education.