Surprise and Delight

About eight years ago, I attended a conference where I was introduced to scholar and researcher Dr. Amy Sales, professor at Brandeis University. At that conference, she shared with the group her take on “surprise and delight.” I had never heard of this concept before (Google it, there’s a ton from the marketing world), but it really stuck with me. She explained that in her research of Jewish summer camps, one element she found to be the most dynamic was this concept of “surprise and delight.” She writes, 

“Camps run on unbridled creative energy. This energy explains how the camp environment generates fun, risk-taking, and constant invention. Indeed, camp is full of surprises (Sales & Saxe, 2004). The field as a whole needs to embrace this same creative spirit and continue to surprise the community…”

When I present on “High Impact Learning Methods,” I often integrate some basic ideas to bring “surprise and delight” into the learning environment. What do you do to integrate “fun, risk-taking, and constant invention” into your learning environment?