A Few Questions

I got these questions from Chris. Any responses are welcome:
Hi Ben,
I’ve been invited by a methods teacher to her undergrad class about TPRS.  I’m one of the only teachers in the area around here that uses this method so she would like for me to come in and do a little demonstration of it, talk about it a little bit, and just do a little presentation to give students an idea of what it is all about and what it looks like.  I’m thinking about doing the “Circling with Balls” activity for the demonstration if I decide to do the presentation.  What advice and suggestions do you have?
My response: How much time will you have on the demo? This is tricky. You need time to get enough CI to make your point. I don’ t know if Circling with Balls is the best. Better perhaps to teach three structures using the standard format of telling the group what they mean and then gesturing them and then doing some PQA and maybe doing a story from a very simple script. The key is to have excellent structures in an ultra simple story. I actually was able to make the structures in “Afraid of the Package” work well at NTPRS with complete beginnners, but I went super-SLOW and I had three hours to develop it and Laurie was there doing teacher talk with the group while I did the story, which made everything very clear. I will ask the group.
Second, I have a question about bettering my classroom.  I was reading TPRS in a Year! and a “prop box” was mentioned.  Is there a list available anywhere of suggested items to have in a box of props?  I’d like to start getting stocked up on things.  I’m already planning on getting a bunch of stuff when Halloween is over and all that stuff goes on sale.  I’m even curious to see what everybody else on the blog suggests having in the prop box.
My response: Props I used once but realized that for me anyway, they distract actors and students so I don’t use them anymore. It’s a personal preference thing. I feel the same way about props as I do ASL – potentially useful but not in keeping with my theme of simplicity this year.