Physics teacher Mr. Kyle Voge started his iconic classroom trivia before his arrival at La Salle. It all began when he asked his students if they wanted to answer questions for candy whenever his classes ended early with five or ten minutes to spare.
When La Salle first introduced Flex Time a year before the COVID-19 pandemic, it officially became his signature flex option.
The idea of trivia wasn’t a surprise, as it came from his long love for it and his dream to be on “Jeopardy!” one day.
When La Salle started Flex Time, the teachers were told that they had the freedom to offer something fun and less school -oriented as opposed to the usual academic options. Mr. Voge took the opportunity to run a game of trivia in his classroom.
Trivia is a game where cards are drawn with different questions, though in Mr. Voge’s case, the cards are replaced by a number on his slideshow. The team must do their best to answer, but if they fail to answer correctly, the opportunity for points will be passed to the next group until one of the six gets it right.
“It’s one of the highlights of my week,” he said. “I absolutely love playing this. It’s so much fun for me to see how excited kids get on it.”
Mr. Voge has themes for categories that will appear repeatedly, such as music, TV characters, and facts related to La Salle, such as naming the La Salle staff members based on their smile or ordering them by age.
His ideas and inspirations are all saved in a special Google Doc that he made specifically for his trivia. He writes new ideas down every time he thinks it has potential to be fun in a game with students.
His trivia questions are all about things he is familiar with, and he enjoys making it impossible for a student to correct him or challenge his answer because he is confident in what he chose.
He settled on candy being the prize because it is widely loved as well as affordable, which keeps the reward consistent.
One student who enjoys trivia is sophomore Daniel Garbitelli. He claims that he usually attends whenever it’s offered as a flex option.
Garbitelli attended this flex option for the first time his freshman year and became fond of it leading him to attend many more. He shared that, in his opinion, he had become pretty good at trivia, with world capitals being his favorite category.
He explained that his reason for participating is split between a desire for victory and to just have fun, sharing that the only challenge with trivia is managing to sign up before all the spots are taken.
“For more popular flexes like Mr. Voge’s trivia, you have to sign up almost the second submissions are out,” he said.
Garbitelli described the atmosphere during trivia to be a bit hectic, as “Mr. Voge has to frequently tell people to quiet down,” he said. He loves being in that classroom, though, and the fun environment is part of the reason he goes to trivia.
He recommends this flex option to people that haven’t attended Mr. Voge’s trivia because the variety of the categories can appeal to a lot of people, and “it’s a fun way to see how much you know,” he said.
The next date to participate in trivia is Friday, Jan. 31.
