I may find myself ‘hoist with my own petard’ if someone at one of my PD sessions calls out ‘bingo’, but it’s worth a shot!
When I was a school principal I found myself in the company of a bunch of realists who could easily become cynics when faced with yet another departmental briefing meeting. We would remain relatively polite, waiting for it all to end so we could get back to something useful.
One of our group introduced us to Buzzword Bingo. That had the potential to change everything.
Of course, being teachers at heart, we are all softies and never want to hurt anybody – something that bedevils the profession when principals have to deal with non-performing teachers. So we would only ever play this game with the best of intentions.
All you need is for someone to create a bingo sheet containing all the anticipated buzz words – the words you just know you will be hearing, given the topic and the speaker. Distribute them surreptitiously to the audience and wait for the first person to call “Bingo!”
Of course, if this does happen in one of my sessions, I will know that the audience must have been well prepared because I had used some sort of advance organizer to prime them for the content, and I was thoroughly on topic because I used all the words the topic demanded.
Here’s one to get you started.
Buzzword Bingo
|
21st century |
strategies
|
high-order |
value added |
authentic |
|
accountability |
inclusion
|
schema |
rubric |
framework |
|
outcomes |
fluency
|
diversity |
research |
technology |
|
metacognition |
whole child
|
engagement |
Hands on |
differentiation |
|
life-long |
benchmark
|
scaffolding |
choice |
mindset |
