When i started teaching everything felt like an uphill climb, for the first 3 months i'd just get home and pass out and have dreams and nightmares about classes
People underestimate how much work goes into helping students learn.
From creating (or borrowing) materials to streamlining it for students who are basically bored by everything.
These days my students have this checked out look as soon as we start the textbook, but their eyes light up and they wake up from hibernation as soon as they hear the word game haha
So im using the sandwich effect in classes. up the energy immediately with a 5 min warm up plug in the textbook, and do a slow reveal of the activity at the end... and then add those cool characters that regenerate as soon as the class reaches a milestone. some milestones like no homework this week, or character upgrades, pick a game .. seem to get them to leave the zombie state they exist in when in class lol
Anyway what are your go to "awakening" activities??