Oh My! Happy holidays folks.

I do go to an improv class, it is the scariest thing I do. I do it to be reminded of what it is like to be a student. I do it to be as far away from my comfort zone as possible. I do it to remember to be playful.

What I have learned, is that there are a lot of profound life lessons in the simple lessons of improv"

🔼Commit to "yes, and." This is the mantra. Go with what you are given and expand that.

🔼Give your partner a gift. Listen.

🔼Acknowlege that everyone brings something to the table.

🔼Take risks.

🔼Learn from failure.

One game I risked doing in class involves many Nerf balls. All at once. With teenage boys. Whoo.
I am convinced this is a brain activating game. I am convinced it helps with listening and paying attention. It is also silly fun.

Start with 10-12 students in a circle. You need 3 different colored Nerf balls.
The non-participants give a category. We started
with dogs.

Round 1) Toss the ball to a person, and say your dog breed: Beagle, go all around tossing the ball to each person once. The catcher says a different dog breed: German Shepard (you can stop and have everyone who has gone put their hand on their head so everyone goes through once and knows who hasn't spoken yet).

Round 2) In the exact same order, the first person calls and throws to the person they threw to first, German Shepard. The ball gets tossed around with only the tosser saying the name of the next receiver.

Round 3, 4, 5 same as round 2. The pattern should be strongly known now.

Yup, now put ball one away. Ask for another category, in our case it was ice cream flavors.

Go through round 1 and 2 again. You can NOT throw to the person you threw to before. It has to be someone new!

Play round 3, 4, 5 with ball 2.

The rest of the rounds: Re-introduce ball 1 and at the next moment, toss ball 2! Keep going! Zing, Bozang! Fun! Think Fast!

If you dare, stop and try starting with rounds 1-5 with a ball three. Get all three balls going eventually. I have done it! It is crazy good and what a sense of accomplishment!

I see it useful in ESL classes. I will play with types of angles pairs, with new Geometry vocab, types of functions, whatev we can all think of.

I challenged the baseball coach next door to try it with his kids this spring.

I can't wait to do it as a "My Favorite" in Atlanta, if the stars are aligned for me in 2017.

If you play, or think of twist, comment below?