Activities=Student Enagement Try something new!

This week in lecture I challenged myself to try something different in my classes. I feel my classes are fairly interactive but since I have only taught this class once before I was looking to expand on my activities at the end to tie in the learning. I ended up making a game like rock, paper, scissors but instead of the original symbols the students had to pick out the x-ray positions they had just learned and relate them to the traditional rock(fist = PA wrist projection), paper (PA hand projection) and scissors (fan lateral hand). They played the game the same way but in order to get the point at the end for the win they had to state one thing about that projection. All and all I found the energy of the room increased, and the students were looking at the material in a different way and using what they had just learned in class. I also at the end had groups of 4  come up to the board and make a top 5 list for each of the body parts they had just learned projections for (like David Letterman's' top 10 list). I wanted to give them an opportunity to discuss with their classmates what they felt the most important parts were in the lecture for them and to see if they came up with the same answers as me. Did they mention the points that I emphasized in lecture or did they pick something else up? This gave me feedback on what I thought I emphasized in lecture and what the lecture outcomes were. All and all a great class! I'm glad I tried something different.