Good morning! My name is...

Good morning, my name is _____. One little known fact about me is ________.

Who would have thought that such a simple activity would lead to so many smiles, chuckles, and insight into other people's lives, people with whom I interact every day?

Every morning supervising the ACE elementary students at Practicum, Marisa and I strive to provide usable tools and helpful strategies they can use both now in their summer teaching positions and in the fall at their sites. In doing so, we usually model a short community circle/morning meeting, where we do a greeting or activity. Yesterday's was the one above. I shared that I love to swing dance, to which one of the ACErs replied, "Show us your moves." (I respectfully declined.) Some of their shares involved fun facts about their families, sleeping habits, and things they do for fun. I learned quite a bit, and it seemed to get everyone relaxed before I sent them off to work on that day's task, which involved making a plan for implementing different strategies for engagement in their classes this week.

It's good to have fun, to reduce the stress, to take a break. There was still plenty of time for work, too, and I would like to think that work they did was more productive than they would have done without it...