Popular education tools: Openings and introductory exercises

Opening and introductory exercises

Overview: These tools are great for the beginning of workshops and can really help break the ice.

Deejay Name Introductions

Time: 5 minutes, depending on group size.
Goal: To introduce workshop participants and to create space for expression and fun.
Give the instructions: "We will go around in a circle, introducing ourselves. We will say our name (where we are from?, our organization?, etc...) and tell us, if you could pick any Deejay name, what would it be."

Deejay Game

Time: 10 minutes
Goal: To create a relaxed, fun environment. (Helps to loosen people up!)
Instructions: Break the room into 2-3 groups. After they have formed into groups, give the following instructions: “Each group will have 5 minutes to come up with a list of short songs that everyone knows the words to. The list should have at least 10 songs on it.”
The facilitator will be the DJ, but instead of spinning records, the facilitator will point to a group who must sing a song from their list, then point to the next group. Each group will make their way down the list, as the facilitator DJs.
When there is one group left who has not run out of songs, the game is over.

If I Had a Hammer...

Time: 5-20 minutes, depending on the size of the group
Goal: To create a space for all participants to speak and to introduce the theme of radio as a tool.

Instructions:
Show a picture of a hammer or hold up an actual hammer.
Ask the question: “What is this?”
Keep drawing from the group, until people say both “hammer” and “tool.”
Ask the question: “And what do you do with a hammer?”  Gather several responses.
Give the instruction: “We are going to pass the hammer around, when it gets to you, please say your name, and complete the sentence, 'if I had a hammer...'”
Pass the hammer to the first person and continue until every person has spoken.

Introduce the concept of radio as a tool.  How can radio be used to build?  How can radio be used to pry spaces open?  How can radio be used to break down?

Ask participants to reflect on what they wanted to do or create with the hammer and think about how radio could be a tool, give good examples from the first go-around. Take some comments/reflections.

Close by saying that as we talk about radio throughout the workshop, we are referring to radio as a tool, as in what it could be used to create/to make.