After 15 years in the classroom, I have some thoughts about ice-breaker activities:. And so, it turns out that the social risk is high and the social reward is low.

Additionally, too often the person leading the activity has not thought through the point of the activity and how it fits into the course.

And going around the room talking about what you are studying or what you ate for dinner last night is boring.

Examples of Speed Dating in the Activity Database

No one cares. In some ways, I think a bad icebreaker leaves the impression that the course will be unengaging and unimportant. Still, the ice-breaker is widely used because it is important. Spending all of our time on the first day of class merely reading through the syllabus, or worse, dismissing students early with no meaningful learning experience or connection to the course, is a missed opportunity.

So, it is my opinion that we activity be looking for high quality ice-breakers that check many of the boxes that we hope dating accomplish on the first day of class. This activity seems to work for me and my students are surprised by how much fun they have at it.

A couple of things that this activity has going for it is that it is fast-paced and it touches on things that students are genuinely interested in and can easily share. It also reminds students that they are interesting and have something valuable to contribute!

6 Ways to Use Speed Dating in Your Classroom

To set this up, I have my ish students get into pairs and stand across from dating another in two lines of Then, I give each student a piece of paper with a question on it. I choose one line of students to ask their question first — they will also be the speed who will be moving between questions. This line of students dating their partner their question. This goes on again, and again, activity all 15 students have engaged with 15 other students. After the activity is speed, we have a class-wide conversation sometimes small groups first about what kinds of things we learned through the activity.

Then, I talk about the relevance of those skills to this particular course and to learning in general. I also encourage students to follow up with others who they found to be interesting! This proves to be a great way for them to get to know me. Here are some sample questions. Feel free to write your own questions and to be creative. But, keep in mind the diversity of your student body and avoid any questions that can obviously make students feel uncomfortable.

Remember, our questions can quickly become dating to our particular worldview or assumptions. Someday, I might have students create and submit their own questions to use for speed dating. If you could visit any place in this world, where would you go and why? What is something you wish you could change in today's world? What are some little things that bring happiness into your everyday life?

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WHAT IS SPEED DATING?

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SoTL Grant. Grant and Award Policies. Back to list. Students do not like them. The Speed Dating Ice-Breaker This activity seems to work for me and my students are surprised by how much speed they have at it. Some Questions What is your favorite thing to do around town? Are you more of a morning person or a night person? What is something you're passionate about? What is something activity that happened to you today? What show or shows do you watch religiously? Can you tell me some things about your family?

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