“It completely annoys me when my high school students begin packing up early at the end of class and, in some cases, coagulating around the door. To avoid this, and depending on the class, I set up two types of activities at the beginning of the semester:

1. Rare birds: On day 1, students fill out a notecard with their name and 3-4 details about themselves. I collect them, and during the last 2-3 minutes of class, I pull a few cards. As I read the details, the class has 3 total guesses as to who the student is. I give a piece of candy to whoever guesses it. If no one guesses within the 3 class attempts, the person whose name is on the card gets the prize.

2. Write out: On day 1 of my creative writing classes, students fill out a notecard with their name and a writing prompt. I show them examples of what I'm looking for. I collect them, and during the last 3ish minutes, I ask students to get out their writer's notebooks. I share one of the prompts, giving credit to the student who write it. Students spend the rest of the time writing. Note: We do write INS every class, based on prompts I give them, where there's more time to share, so if they do want to share anything from their write OUTS, they can do that during the next class.

In both cases, if I run out of cards, I have students do another round of cards. For rare birds, I give 3 new questions. For write-outs, they write new prompts we haven't heard yet. It's helped students bond, and they often look forward to these small activities.” 

From:

The Moving Writers Community