[tomhume89]

Thanks to all for your responses.

eaturcheese- regarding motivation, I had 4 classes of varying ability at various times during the day. Yes it was Monday, but this had never had such a negative impact before. It was very strange.

Also, I always put celebrities in and add a bit of humour as there's nothing worse than a boring teacher! I changed nothing compared to my usual lessons. I think the thing that cheesed me off most was that we did Typhoon at the end of the last semester and it worked a treat- the kids loved it, and I had teachers coming up afterwards asking me if they could steal my Powerpoint slides.

I had 60 students into 4 teams, with one game. I find that this is much easier to control (and remember!) and easier to do practically, as I teach 19 different classes in a week (imagine the paperwork every week!).

Mesmark- as above, I'd rather not use printable games as due to logistical reasons. Also, I've no idea how I'd get 15-20 kids on each team interested x4!

Anyway, I think I realised why the classes weren't so excited (my crankiness due to illness notwithstanding!)- 1) it was too long and 2) there was no suspense with throwing the dice

1) 40 mins of playing the same game would get very boring for anyone. I think I overestimated how fun I thought this would be
2) I made the kids answer the questions, then whoever answered could come up to the front and throw the dice. With students coming to the front, there was much more suspense, and also kids would get bored if they threw the dice first, then answered the question.

Thanks for your help everyone- I find that there's nothing worse than a lesson that falls flat on its face!