Emotional Flashcards, Take 1!

Here's a picture of my first batch of emotional flashcards:

The front side lists the emotion; the back lists a short definition, a three-letter summary (e.g., "Grr!" for frustration). The students hold up the appropriate card when they feel its emotion.

The students used them in class on Tuesday. A few observations...

1. I cannot describe how deeply my heart sank when I got my first white card ("BORED")!
2. I cannot describe how high my heart jumped when I got my first purple card ("CURIOUS")!
3. Some students try to hold up three at a time! The use of clickers will alleviate that possibility...

Trying a second round on Thursday...

[Back after a while] An exciting new project!

Wow--what a whirlwind few months I've had. I'm glad to finally have some time to post again, and I'm hoping to post more regularly this semester.

I'm very excited for tomorrow: I'm going to try out a new in-class strategy that came to me last week during the American Association of Physics Teachers meeting. I'll post pictures later, but I've created a set of emotional/affect flashcards (or "emoticards" as I'm calling them for now) that depict the top 6 emotions that students seem to experience while studying physics. The students will be able to hold up these cards during class discussion to indicate to me how they're feeling about the material. (Fans of The Big Bang Theory will find this idea strikingly familiar.)

I'm looking forward to seeing how it goes!