On this page I just wanted to mention specific icebreakers and name games that I found to work very well with my students
I'm going to college and I'm bringing...
This particular icebreaker was mentioned in my awesome CSV class so I figured I would give it a shot for my first URI 101 class. The game is fairly self-explanatory (and common) so I won't go into tremendous detail, but basically every person in the room stands in a circle and has to come up with something they would bring to college that begins with the same letter as their first name. For my class, I tried to get them to come up with the most absurd ideas just to make it more fun. Some memorable responses was Raul who brought a Rhino, and Jon F. who brought Jessica...and Friends. Witty, right? David and I tend to remember faces and not names, but after this we knew the entire class by first name (as did everyone else), so it worked really well!
Toilet Paper game
I used this icebreaker during our second week of class. We all knew everyone's names, but I felt that we needed to dig a little deeper to find out likes/dislikes. I decided to use an icebreaker that worked really well when I was in my URI 101 (WAY back in the day!). For this you hand around a roll of toilet paper and tell the students that this is the only roll that the entire class can use for the next 24-hours, so take as much as you think you need. Then the students each take a turn and must say a detail about themselves for each sheet of toilet paper taken. Naturally upon hearing this, some students regretted taking 40 or so sheets of toilet paper, but it turned out to be a positive experience for everyone.
Name Game/Diversity week discussion
I first experienced this game during RA training this year, and I immediately knew it would make a great game for diversity week. Essentially you sit in a circle and each person takes a turn to discuss the origin of their name/any interesting facts about their family history. This can range from why their parents chose their first name, to the family history behind their last name to religious background. It was a beautiful day when we had this class and it can get stuffy in Washburn, so David and I decided to take the class out on the quad which definitely went over well with our students. I also modified the activity to make it shorter so we would have time to discuss what everyone thought of diversity week and their opinions on the event that they went to. Even though the university is not too diverse as a whole, 80% of our class is made up of minorities, so our discussion was very interesting. One student, Esteban, made a great point in that he believed that our campus is ethnically/religiously diverse, but not socially diverse, which spawned a great discussion. We all definitely had our eyes opened that day and learned even more about one another.
