How (not) to lull your students to sleep within the first 10 minutes of class.

I just got off the phone with my friend Maya, who got me thinking about the mind-numbingly boring classes that I've had to sit through (and sleep through) in college. After telling me an all too familiar tale of a teacher, a PowerPoint presentation, and a class full of blank stares, she said:

"Imagine walking into the classroom one day with all the desks cleared out and cups of tea for everyone."

So I did, and I got very excited--first of all because I love tea, and second of all because I started thinking about what influence we, as student leaders, can have inside the classroom. How about we try to influence the professor and not the students for a change and see what happens?

Here are some fairly non-intrusive ideas off the top of my head:

- Do at-your-desk yoga in the middle of class.
- Start a student blog or forum.
- Have students take turns bringing in snacks for the whole class.
- Have people make name tags including a fun fact about each student.
- Play music in the classroom.
- Switch up the seating (moving the desks into a circle is my personal favorite)
- Pick a random day on which everyone has to wear the same color.
- Hold the class off campus (like in a park, a cafe, or an amusement park).
- Have people decorate the classroom (with movable decorations).
- Put tablecloths on each desk.
- Teach from the other end of the classroom (just for the heck of it).
- Bring a beach ball and throw it around during class.
- Have the class shout something every time someone says a particular word.
- Have the class plan a lesson that the professor has to teach.

Okay, so all this won't necessarily make the lecture more interesting, but it will give students something to bond over, talk to their friends about, and remember about college. Plus you can open a professor's eyes to new, unchartered pedagogical grounds.

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