You know those lists that people use to try and sum up something as big and unmanageable as an entire year? Yup! This is one of those. For us, we think of this as a playful exercise in reflection. After another year diving deeper into playful pedagogy, we reflected on what we learned, what surprised us, and what inspired us. Here’s our list, we’d love it if you would share yours too:
- There are more professors playing than we ever expected.
Every week new professors join our listserv. Right now we have 856 members on that list and have seen 7400 downloads of the Playbook! We regularly hear about new creative and playful approaches to teaching. We meet new professors in our home institutions and receive emails from teachers from all over the world reaching out to connect about play. Each time we hear from someone using playful pedagogy, it lights us up and encourages us to continue to support the far flung (dare we say rebellious) network of playful professors and to recruit even more. - Students will surprise you.
Last summer, I was teaching a synchronous online course and I started each session with a playful connection-former activity. It was hard to tell for sure, but the students seemed to enjoy them enough. At least no one ever complained. So, I kept doing them. Then, in the middle of the term, I jumped right into the content and forgot to include play at the start of the class. One student interrupted me to ask: “Where is our ice breaker?” Even though I was sure they were just playing along, the truth was: They wanted their play! - Students will surprise you, part II.
Lisa told me a story about one of her classes where the students decided to bring their own play to the classroom. One group of students took it upon themselves to sign up to lead a playful icebreaker each week. Another class decided to have a hippie-style ritual on the last night of class where all the students and Lisa sat on the floor on a hippie blanket (that a student brought) and played a card game that had each person reflect on their experience in the class and experience of each other. It brought many students to tears. And Lisa had nothing to do with those playful, unexpected moments. Those were all student inspired and created. - Playing is hard work.
Teaching playfully takes a lot of effort but the creative time spent making teaching more fun is rich and rewarding. But the level of effort it takes to be a playful professor also reminds us that teaching is much more rewarding when we put our heart into it. Every time I decide to rewrite a class to make it more playful, I have that moment where I realize, “I don’t have to do this.” Yet, every semester I teach my more playful class verison, I feel deep satisfaction and connection with my students because I did. - The “play world” is vast.
Planning the 2024 Playposium has reminded us how big the play world is. While we worked hard to recruit Stuart Brown and Gary Ware to speak at the event, we have been overwhelmed by the unsolicited emails from folks outside the bounds of higher education who are interested in also participating in the event. We simply don’t have enough room to include them all. Guess that means we have already started planning the 2025 Playposium! In our planning, we have met experts of adult play, of play at work, play in K-12, and beyond. While we continue to work towards our mission to induce a playful transformation of the academy, it’s nice to know the movement is bigger and more inclusive than our colleges and universities. - People love stickers.
Ok. Maybe this shouldn’t surprise us but we’ve given out a lot of stickers this year and people get really excited. From students to fellow professors and senior administrators, at workshops and in book talks – people are diggin’ our sticker game. Who would have thought so many people share our love of stickers? - Change is hard.
Play is awesome and the benefits are clear but sadly, sharing that aspect is not enough to get people to become more playful. Call us naïve, but when we started sharing our experience with play, we thought the hard cold facts and excitement alone would be enough to get people playing. This year was a bit of a wake up call as we realized that change is hard and there are some deeper, systemic barriers. It takes awareness and deliberate effort. We find ourselves more likely to focus on how to help people change to become more playful than on why they should. - Our students need play now more than ever.
You’ve probably seen it in your classrooms, we know we’ve seen it in ours. Students are generally not well. It’s notable enough that it makes the news. Our students are struggling. Covid took its toll. The divisive political environment creates scarcity and hopelessness. A gloomy economic outlook saps the enthusiasm for life so learning can’t be a priority. With the external pressures on students’ well-being increasing, the need to light that inner fire–that love of learning and the optimism about changing the world–brings play to the forefront. Play can’t fix the world but it can inspire a new generation of students to trust the people around them, to develop a flexibility of mind and behavior, and inspire optimism that the world needs. - We need play more than ever.
It’s not just our students who are struggling either. We are tired, burned out and stressed. We can’t lead a class of future change makers if we have to drag ourselves into our classrooms each day. We need to reignite our love of teaching. Play is a pathway to recovering joy and wholeness. Playing with our curriculum, our courses and our assignments brings a spark back to lesson planning. Playing alongside our students rekindles the connection that makes teaching the job we originally fell in love with. - Play is elusive.
Even though play remains this elemental form of life, it also remains as slippery as a fish. We get reminded all the time that you use it or lose it. You keep track of play or it slips out of sight. Play requires us to stay mindful, intentional, and practice it like a religion or workout program. When it comes to teaching, play is naturally intriguing but also foreign. It’s up to us to invoke, feed, and stay in the dance with play. Otherwise, the spirit of play will dart off to those willing to tumble with it and experience its joy.
Being playful and inspiring others to play starts with ourselves. Whether you are a professor, play advocate or just believe in the value of play start now. Go for a playful walk and write down how you will make play a priority everyday. As I lead the nonprofit I co-founded I strive to put play on the front burner. At the same time I asked others to pitch in their ideas, to be open to playing in new ways and to have a sense of humor. Because laughing at ourselves, not taking life too seriously are all part of play. Let’s do it, invite others to play in 2024. Pat Rumbaugh, The Play Lady