In my discussion of chapter one of Impro, I talk about Keith Johnstone's notion that students fear failure and this becomes a blockage to learning. I just read a blog entry by John Moore at Brand Autopsy called "Lessons Learning from Improv" that summarizes some key life lessons he gleaned from an Improv course, one of them being that failure is a (productive) option:

Failure is an Option
In business we’ve been conditioned to believe failure is bad and most be avoided at all costs. Improv believes in the opposite. In Improv, I’m learning failure is good because it means you are challenging yourself to take chances in pursuit of living in the moment. Failure happens. Mistakes happen. Learn from failures. Learn from mistakes. If we don’t take chances and fail, how else will we ever feel the pleasure of learning?

Brand Autopsy also links to a new book by Patricia Ryan Madson, a teacher out of Stanford U, called Improv Wisdom which might be a nice follow-up to Impro...and possibly useful in the classroom. Another possible source for classroom activities is the games collection at the rich treasury at the Improv Encyclopedia.

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