I was recently sitting down at a conference with several other industry trainers and we were sharing fun activities that we have used in our classrooms to make sure that students are getting our message.  Also at the table was a new educator who asked “how do you come up with all of these activity ideas?”  I thought about the question for a minute.  How do I come up with ideas?

For starters, I attend many educational events, watch the trainer, see what they do, and then think about how I can apply that to my classroom.  I also take games I played as a kid and think about how I can turn those into an activity.  I follow other educators on Facebook and watch them share the fun and exciting things they are doing in their classroom.  I keep an eye out for movie clips that I can utilize to deliver a certain point.  I also pull a lot of ideas from the Milady Standard Cosmetology Course Management Guide and Textbooks.  To answer her question, I get ideas everywhere!

A more recent idea I came up with was the result of spending the last two weeks watching the Summer Olympics.  I love the Olympics and everything about it.  I love the competition, team work, hard work, commitment, and dedication.  All these traits that I love are also traits that I feel creates success in business and in life.

As I was watching the trampoline event (yes it is an event and I think I missed my opportunity to be an Olympian) they showcased Synchronized Trampoline which was not a judged competition but simply spotlighted.  It was quite fun.  Two athletes on two separate trampolines jumped and performed tricks at the exact same time.  It was impressive.

And then it hit me… how fun would it be to have a synchronized event at the school?  It could be hairstyling, up-do’s, haircutting, perm wrapping, nail art, makeup or simply a procedure we want them to learn step by step.  Really any technique we teach could be turned into a synchronized competition. Imagine it, two students standing side by side, working on two different mannequin heads (or models) and doing the same technique in unison.  You could have multiple teams – COMPETITION.  They would need to work together – TEAMWORK.  They would need to practice – HARDWORK, COMMITMENT, DEDICATION.  Not only do they get to practice all of the things that it takes to be successful in business but they get to fine tune their technical skills as well.

See how easy it is?  Take an everyday event and turn it into a lesson, activity, or a message.

Happy creating!