I just stumbled upon a novel upgrade to the class password…

With students coming back from their holiday break, I welcomed them into the room without waiting for any password. Frankly, I couldn’t even remember what the last one was, so why expect students to do so at all?!

Instead of coming up with a new password on the spot, I asked students to take a minute to suggest one, writing Latin on a piece of paper, fold it, then dropping them into a hat. I then asked a student to draw out a piece of paper, and I worked it into a password (e.g. a suggestion of “I think” became “I think _____” whereas students fill in whatever they’re thinking when they greet me at the door).

Now, I have X new student-centered passwords per class I can use in place of anything I would’ve come up with on my own. For suggestions drawn in the coming weeks, I might even just establish that the word need appear in a phrase/sentence (e.g. a password suggestion of “something” could appear in one student’s “I see something,” but then “something happened in Math class” for another, etc.).