Run your first session
What to do the first time, in order, including the two things people usually get wrong.
The mechanics take about a minute. Most of what decides whether a first session lands happens before anyone scans anything, and it is mostly about expectation setting rather than software.
Before the room arrives
- Pick something shortSignal or Noise at eight questions runs about ten minutes. That is the right size for a first attempt, because if it goes badly you have lost ten minutes rather than a lesson.
- Open the activity page and read the run of playEvery activity has one. It tells you what appears on your board, what appears on their phones, and roughly how long each phase takes. Two minutes here saves you narrating uncertainty later.
- Check the board rendersPut the join screen up on the actual projector before anyone is in the room. Font sizes that look fine on a laptop are not always readable from the back row, and that is worth knowing early.
The two things people get wrong
The first is starting before everyone is in. The lobby shows names arriving. Wait for the count to stop climbing, then wait about ten more seconds, because there is always someone whose phone is being difficult. Starting with four people still joining means four people who spend the first round confused and never fully catch up.
The second is treating the leaderboard as the point. It is not. The leaderboard is what makes people pay attention to the part that is the point, which is the discussion after a reveal. If you move straight from reveal to next question, you have run a game. If you stop on the questions where the room split evenly and ask two people to defend opposite answers, you have run a lesson.
What to say when you put the code up
Say three things, and say them before the code appears rather than over the noise of people typing.
- No account and no app. Scan it, or type six digits at the join page.
- Pick a nickname you would not mind being read out, because it will be.
- Nothing else is collected, and nothing is kept afterwards.
That third line matters more than it looks. It pre-empts the question you would otherwise get from the one person who always asks it, and it is genuinely true, which is why it is worth saying out loud.
Afterwards
The report appears the moment you end the session. Look at the questions ranked as worth revisiting before you close the tab. Those rankings are the most useful thirty seconds of the whole exercise, because they tell you what to open with next time.