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Intercultural
Leadership Initiative
AVW Students: 5 AVW Principal: Steve Holt
LdF Students: 3 LdF Teacher: Katie Black
NLS Students: 4
LUHS Mentor: 1
ILI Volunteers: John and Gretchen Spickerman
Camp Jorn Staff: Emir Butler
ILI Staff: Craig Kerr, Alice McFarlane, and Matt White
Today was very similar to yesterday. When the students arrived they were welcomed and given a piece of paper and pencil to write any question they had about Ireland.
Craig began the day with everyone in the circle and he let them know that we were glad that they had chosen to be there. He also let them know how important that they are to the future of how people treat each other in our community.
Matt explained how to put together their journal and why we were having them make them again this year. Please see yesterday’s write-up
At snack time we again had them make their peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Please see yesterday’s write-up for the reason behind this.
After snack Craig led some activities with the students to help them learn each other’s names and more about each other. There were a number of students that were here today who had never been to ILI before. The first activity we did was “Ball Tag.” The group stands in a circle with one person in the middle. One person in the circle starts with the object and calls some else’s name in the circle and passes them the object. The person in the middle tries to tag the person with the object before they call out someone else’s name and toss the object to them. The next activity we did was “Have You Ever.” During this activity students share things they have done and places they have been. While doing this activity they are actively learning about each other. When we were finished with the activity most of the students were standing behind someone else’s journal. They had to find the person whose journal they were standing behind and give them the journal. When they were giving the journal to the right person they had to find one thing they had in common with that person. However, that one thing had to be something that was not easily recognizable.
Craig asked the group to sit in a circle and introduced Emir Butler to the group. Emir was born and raised in Ireland, and we asked her to talk about Ireland. Like yesterday, Emir answered the questions the students had written. The questions were similar to yesterday’s questions. The students were really interested to hear about Ireland. Emir talked today about how there are many Americans that come over to Ireland to trace their ancestry and get information about their families. It is important that we all understand that everyone has a cultural background, and when you learn about it you learn more about yourself.
When there were no more questions, Craig asked the group to split into two groups of six with each group having each school represented. The group decided to split boys and girls.
Craig stayed in the dining hall with the boys and Mr. Holt. We spend the morning doing activities that led us into conversations about how important it is to be able to communicate well and how not communicating can cause misunderstanding and conflict.
After lunch Craig introduced the activity “Somebody please help me pass me the pig.” This is an activity where one student is “it” and they are trying to tag other students. When a student is tagged they have to sit down and say, ”Someone please help me pass me the pig!” At that point whoever has the “pig” can pass it to them and once they had the “pig” they are free once again. The students enjoyed this activity. At the end Craig explained how all of the activities we do in ILI have a meaning. He asked the students if it was hard to ask for help. Then we had a discussion on why it’s hard to ask for help and how things would change if we took the chance to ask for help more often. Matt added that when we ask others for help it allows them to feel good about something they are good at while helping someone else-and that also makes them feel good.
Craig’s group continued to focus on the idea of good communication after lunch with a couple of different activities. We discussed the importance of being able to ask questions of each other so that we make sure that others are understand what we are trying to communicate. We also discussed how often we are fearful of communicating with those who are different from us and how it is important to overcome those fears. We ended asking William, our high school mentor, questions about what it is like at the high school. The students hung on every word that he said and they were happy to be able to get some insight into the high school from someone they look up to.
Alice and Matt’s group had a great sense of fun and action. So as they went through the activities that Alice and Matt had for them, they played a lot while they listened. There was a willingness to have fun on the group’s part. The group was led through a series of activities that focused on how we all think different and we get our ways of thinking from different sources but that all of them are valid. In one activity the students wrote down statements of opinion or beliefs and then we asked the group to move to different areas of the room to say whether they “Agree”, “Strongly agree”, Didn’t know”, “Disagree”, or “Strongly disagree”. We talked about a variety of issues from underage drinking and whether or not there should be a middle school in the Lakeland area to whether or not chewing gum in class should be allowed. The students had many opinions and thought very carefully through the subjects we presented.
At the end of the day, Craig asked the group to sit in a circle and we closed the day by asking the students to share their thoughts about the day. It was a good way to end a really great week!
Intercultural
Leadership Initiative
AVW Students: 3 AVW Teacher: Jeremy Jorgenson
LdF Students: 4 LdF Teacher: Anne Wewasson
NLS Students: 4
Camp Jorn Staff: Emir Butler
ILI Staff: Alice McFarlane, Matt White, and Craig Kerr
Today was different than the two previous days of sessions. We had a smaller group of students and Uncle Ernie was not able to be with us today.
As the students arrived at Camp Jorn they were welcomed and given a piece of paper to write any question they had about Ireland. Ernie was not able to be here today so we asked Emir Butler who was born and raised in Ireland to come and talk to our students about what Ireland was like.
When all the students had arrived Craig asked them to sit in a circle and he welcomed them and introduced some of the topics that we would be talking about today. These students are so important to our community and to the way our community will grow and change.
After the introduction Matt had the students make their journals and explained that the reason we were having them make a journal was the fact that an experience by itself will be remembered only for a while, but if you write about that experience the memories and lessons that you learn from that experience will stay with you longer.
When everyone was done with decorating their journal it was time for snack and we had them make their own peanut butter and jelly sandwich. The ILI staff used this experience later to talk about why we do the things that we do.
Emir came and joined us and we had a wonderful discussion on what Ireland was like. Some of the questions the students asked were: what is the weather like, what do kids in Ireland do for fun, are there any skyscrapers in Ireland, what is the landscape like, etc. The students were very interested in Ireland and a number of other questions were asked based on some of the answers Emir gave to their questions. She talked about how the “Church” ran the schools in Ireland and how the school system in terms of grade school (primary) and high school (secondary) worked. Also we had a conversation about the difficulties she had when she came to the United States. Even though we speak the same language there was a lot to learn about our culture and the way things work here.
Emir grew up in the southern part of Ireland but talked to the students about the conflicts in Northern Ireland and what she had heard about it when she was growing up. She also talked about how it had changed and that change is possible in any situation, even if it has been the same situation for a long time.
When everyone was out of questions Craig had the group split themselves into two groups.
Craig’s group stayed in the dining hall and all of the students really already knew each other’s names. We talked about how we made our sandwiches and what influenced when we made them. When Craig asked the group if they had any idea why they made their sandwich the way they did, one of the students responded “it was the way we liked it”. Craig continued that conversation and talked about how our families influence what we like and dislike. Some of the students used bread and different kinds of peanut butter because that is what they are used to and others used different ingredients because they had the opportunity to try something new. Then one of the students began to ask questions of the other students about their school and we had a great conversation about how the schools differed and how they were similar. The students really enjoyed learning about the other schools. Then Craig was able to relate what they were talking about to the high school. A couple of the students had older siblings in the high school and talked about what they had heard. It was a great conversation!
We spent the afternoon doing activities that illustrated the need to understand that people have different ways of communicating and processing information; and how that is important to be aware of because that is where many misunderstandings and conflicts are born. We also investigated how we form our opinions and how important it is that we understand issues and take time to evaluate what we believe and why.
Alice and Matt led their group of students through a number of activities that helped the group learn how they think about things, also known as Meta-cognition. The students had fun and took full advantage of the time that was given to them to speak their minds and express opinions. It was encouraging to hear them defend and reason out their ideas about how they think the world is and how they think it should be. Matt and Alice look forward to the possibilities for discussion building on the good foundation developed today.
At the end of the day, Craig asked the students to sit in a circle and share anything that they wanted about the day. It was not mandatory that they share. Some of the students talked about what they learned about Ireland, another talked about how cool it was that they really didn’t hang out by schools but really joined together today. One student talked about how it was cool that he had played basketball with one of the other guys in his group but that he really got to know him better today.
Intercultural
Leadership Initiative
LdF Students: 5 LdF Teacher: Lori Brokopp
NLES Students: 3
AVW Students: 4 AVW Teacher: Linn White
MHLT Students: 5 MHLT Teacher: Josh Calhoun
ILI Volunteers: Dennis Lipp
ILI staff: Alice McFarlane, Craig Kerr, Matt White, Ernie St. Germaine, Stephanie St.Germaine, and Bob Kovar.
We welcomed the students into the Camp Jorn lodge today as we did yesterday. Craig had the students write down questions about the history of this area, as soon as they arrived. He did not “feed” them very much information. He just asked them to write questions. As a result, the questions that came from the students today were in some cases similar to yesterday’s group, but for the most part, most of the questions had to do with Camp Jorn and the Manitowish Waters area. The students wondered when the Camp was built, when it was first opened, what is the name of the lake, what do people do around here. One student wrote, “Nothing, I come here all the time.”
Several students were very interested in what the area was like long ago. They asked questions about the trees. What was this area like before all the trees were logged off? Interestingly, one asked what it felt like when all the trees were being cut down. Some of the students asked about American Indian cultures, how do they blend with other cultures? One student asked how Tribes govern themselves differently from the State.
Again Ernie talked to the students about their questions and why they are important. Today’s activity took a bit of a different approach. As Ernie explained the history of the Ojibwe delegation who traveled to Washington DC in 1849, the ILI facilitators served as resources who were available to the Ojibwe people back then to help them plan their trip. Matt served as the “Maps Expert” since he was a French traveler and had been all over the Great Lakes region. He knew the territory. He would help the people plan a trip. Craig served as the “French Trader” who had food goods. He would help the people plan what food supplies they would need for the trip. Stephanie and Alice served as “the Outfitters.” They would help the people plan the trip itself, what they would use, what they would need to take along. And finally, Linn White and Josh Calhoun served as the elders of the Village. They would help the “travelers” plan what they would say once they had their meeting with the Great White Father in Washington, President Zachary Taylor.
The students then chose which group they wanted to join, to help plan the trip. The groups spent 25 minutes with their planning. After the plans were prepared, each group came back to the village and reported their findings. It was a wonderful experience for them to think and try to imagine what it was like here over 150 years ago.
Ernie finished the morning session with a history of the treaties and again had the students act out the parts of being forced onto a reservation. Two students played the roles of Fred and Mike Tribble who took their ice fishing shack off the reservation line on the Chippewa Flowage at Lac Courte Oreilles. He then explained the Court rulings that followed and how the Voigt Decisions ruled in favor of the Ojibwe Tribes and their treaty rights.
In the after noon we did some similar activities to previous days to stimulate conversation about how we form our opinions and why we do what we do. We challenged the students to think about the way that they think, and to learn how to evaluate how they come to form their opinions. We also discussed the possibility of changing opinions and outlooks if change seemed appropriate once they have learned more about a subject. It was a really good day-they were very challenged and met all of our expectations!
Intercultural Leadership Initiative
2007-2008
LdF/NLES/AVW/MHLT 8th Grade Session #1
December 3, 2007
Camp Jorn 9:00am-2:00pm
LdF Students: 4 LdF Teacher: Lesley Grams
NLES Students: 5
AVW Students: 4 AVW Teacher: Linn White
MHLT Students: 5 MHLT Teacher: Josh Calhoun
ILI Volunteers: John and Gretchen Spickerman
ILI Staff: Alice McFarlane, Craig Kerr, Matt White, Ernie St. Germaine, Bob Kovar.
After the students wrote down a question and while they were creating their own journals, Ernie reviewed their written questions and prepared a presentation to begin to answer some of them the best he could. When the student journals were complete, the students formed a circle and were invited to either sit in a chair or on the floor. Ernie talked about the questions. He explained that many Indian people are not in a hurry to answer questions immediately. They prefer to allow young Indian youth to experience, to find answers by doing rather than just hearing the answer. He told the story of when he was about 10 years old and he and his cousin George Mac, decided they had enough shooting their sling shots at imaginary targets. It was time for them to start “real” hunting. So an uncle had him and George both shoot his 16 gauge single-shot shotgun. George Mac shot it first and fell over backwards. And even though he braced himself carefully, his shot knocked Ernie over too. Thus ended their desire at age 10, to begin “real” hunting. Eventually, Ernie’s uncle took him and George to the woods, placing them on a stand. His uncle pointed with his chin and said, “Go that way a ways.” Then, tilting his head slightly to the left, said, “when you get over there a ways, then go that way for a bit. But don’t make tracks.” Ernie explained how George Mac led the way and he carefully followed George Mac’s tracks, being sure not to make any of his own. After they got up that way a ways, George Mac stopped. At this place, Ernie turned that way (to the left) and George Mac went on a ways. Ernie, carefully, slowly, step by step, not making a noise, began to slowly move forward. He was watching carefully, so as not to step on a stick and crack it. He might have advanced a dozen slow paces, all the while looking at the ground. When he paused to look ahead to find a place to “stand,” there stood his uncle, waiting for him, smiling.
Ernie explained that life was a learning process back in the good old days. Life was slower paced. Eventually, he discovered that at the right time and place, questions were appropriate and encouraged.
Ernie then began to answer the student’s questions. He explained that he would answer them the best he could, some he did not have answers for. Such as the two who asked, “What came first, the chicken or the egg?” Ernie said that several students asked questions about what it was like here before the white man came. They asked who the first white man was to come here. What was the first town in northern Wisconsin? When was this area discovered? What was it like here before all the trees were cut down? How did Indians get around in the deep snow? How were bows and arrows made? And, why did the Europeans put Indian people on reservations? A similar question asked “how did Indians come to live where they are today?” The students asked so many good questions. Ernie explained that many people already have answers to questions when they ask them. The answer may not always be correct, but the people have an idea, based on things they have heard, things they have seen and things they have experienced. Ernie said that Jean Nicolet was one of the first white people, French, to come to this area. He also told of the first French fur trader, Jean Baptiste Corbin, who came to the Lac Courte Oreilles area in the early 1800’s. He feared the Indian people and at first, traded with them through a small sliding window in the trading post. The Indians could only see his eyes. But when he wasn’t paying attention, and forgot to close his sliding porthole, the Indians would peek in at him. They explained that he would spend many hours writing in his journal. So they called him Mazinaa’igan, meaning, “Writing on paper.”
Ernie then explained about the treaty era and how the “Ceded Territory” was created. In that treaty, the Ojibwe people retained the right to hunt, fish and gather in that territory. And even though later treaties were signed, they never gave up that right. It was during that treaty that the U.S. Government promised to pay the Ojibwe Indians a penny an acre for the lands that were ceded. They were also promised education and health care as well as the promise to be given annual annuities.
Then Ernie explained how in the mid-1800’s, Indians were forced to “move” west of the Mississippi River to vacate lands for white settlers. In 1850, President Zachary Taylor ordered the Ojibwe people to move as well. He explained how a delegation of Ojibwe leaders, lead by “Chief” Buffalo of Red Cliff, and including Oshogay and Benjamin Armstrong of Lac du Flambeau, traveled by canoe to Washington to visit the Great White Father, (The U.S. President). They hoped to plead that they not be removed from their lands south of the Great Lakes. Zachary Taylor would not meet with them. However, When President Millard Fillmore was elected later that year, he did entertain them and was so moved by their impassioned speeches, he rescinded the Presidential Removal Order in 1851, allowing the Ojibwe people to remain in Wisconsin. In the Treaty of 1854, reservations were created in Wisconsin that allowed the Indians to remain here.
Ernie then had the students make a plan of a trip to Washington DC, imagining they were the Indian people in 1849. The teachers served as the elders who would listen to their plan. The students then discussed their ideas and wrote ideas in their journals. They also came up with many more questions. Ernie explained how the Ojibwe people began to exercise their treaty rights, telling and acting out the story of Mike and Fred Tribble of Lac Courte Oreilles, who moved their fishing shack off the reservation on the Chippewa Flowage. He also told about the treaty protests that took place in northern Wisconsin.
For lunch today, Craig told the students that they were going to have a two course meal. The first course was “make your own” and the second course was “pick your own”. He let them know that we had provided the materials to make peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and after the sandwiches were made and eaten we would have pizza.
Matt’s group went to the Art Barn and spent a few moments getting each other’s names down for sure. Matt then had them follow a set of directions to fold and tear a piece of paper. Each student’s paper was very different and Matt asked if there was any problem with the fact of how they interpreted the instructions. They said “No” even though no two pieces of paper looked the same. He explained that this is how we think through things. We can have different interpretations of things and that is really ok. Then Matt had the students write down the steps they took to make their P.B.J. sandwiches. The students had many creative ways to communicate their process. From pictures and graphs to words and poems. Then Matt had them think of what their Dream sandwich would be and all the ingredients they would include. After sharing their big ideas, Matt asked about how they each got the idea for their version of the “Super sandwich.” Some said they have tried many things and just keep repeating the things they like. Others said they saw their family make one so they saw how it could be done. Matt then asked how they got their ideas of how to think. He asked “What are the things that have influenced the way you come to conclusions on things?” Some of the answers were Family, School, Church, Friends, the Media, Videos, and advertising just to name a few.
The group then did an activity with a rope on the ground forming a line. Matt then said that if they could answer any of the questions he asked with a “yes” they could cross the line. One of the important parts to the exercise was to not ever to laugh at someone’s honesty if it is a hard question. Matt asked a series of goofy and really hard questions and the students responded with great maturity and grace. Then they sat and Matt explained what the word Meta-cognition meant: The ability to think about HOW you think and why. Matt did an example of “meta-cognizing” with a student trying to give him a pencil. It was a lot of fun. Then they discussed more about why it is important to know why we think what we do and how it can help us make good decisions and positive choices in our lives.
Then Matt had the group stand around 4 circles of rope on the floor. In the center was “strongly agree” and on the outside of all the circles was “I don’t even want to talk about it”. As Matt made statements, the group was to move to the circle that best represented their belief on the statement. Matt asked some hard questions about goofy stuff, laws, what ones they would change, race, school, their beliefs about how to change the world, if they think it’s possible, what they thought about Ernie’s talk on local history, and a number of other things. They were very honest and serious about their answers. It is great to see young people taking things that are hard and giving them serious thought and being kind while doing it. Then Matt turned it over to the students to make the statements for the group to agree or disagree with. They had fun but still asked good questions. Then it was time to go. Matt felt like they could have talked for a couple more hours and been very productive!
Craig’s group headed to the basement of the craft barn. They began by getting reacquainted with each other’s names. This was done with a quick name game. With such a small group it did not take long for everyone to get each other’s name. They began an activity called “Silent Ball.” This is activity where there is no talking and if you make a bad throw or catch you take yourself out of the game. After we finished the activity Craig asked the group if there was anything confusing about the game. Some of the answers were that it was hard to tell where or when others were going to throw the ball. It was confusing to know if you threw the ball badly or was it a bad catch. Craig talked with the students about how we all have different ways of interpreting things from our point of view.
He then had them describe the way they had put together their PB & J sandwiches. The students were really enjoying describing the process. When everyone had finished Craig asked them the reason behind the way that the students made the sandwiches. One of the students said “I made it the way my mom makes it”. Another student said that he used wheat bread because that was “the kind of bread that they had at home”. One student said “I used white bread because it was closest to where I walked up to the table and used the creamy peanut butter because it was right next to the bread.” Then the group had a discussion on where our thoughts and values come from and as we learn new things that sometimes those thoughts and values need to be re-examined.
Finally we closed with writing in our journals about out least favorite habit and what we could do to change that. The groups returned to the dining hall and we sat in a circle. Craig asked that we all go around the circle and tell everyone our names. Then he asked people to share, if they wanted, something about the day. Several students commented on how much they liked the lesson Ernie gave, some of them said that they had a good day, a few said that they enjoyed lunch. All in all a really great day!
Intercultural Leadership Initiative
LdF Students: 5 LdF Teacher: Todd Christianson
NLES Students: 6
AVW Students: 3 AVW Teacher: Dan Lathrop
ILI Volunteers: Joe Straus and Carol Pfister
ILI Staff: Alice McFarlane, Craig Kerr, Matt White, Ernie St. Germaine, Bob Kovar.
Since the students all arrive at different times we have had puzzles out for them to figure work on when they walk in. When all the students were there and everyone had finished the puzzles Craig asked them to get on “the bus”. The staff had arranged pairs of chairs in a row. Please see the how activity works in the previous write-ups.
After Craig’s introduction today, Ernie told a Winnaboozhoo story about how Winaboozhoo battled the monster, Zagime. When he saw Zagime in the swamp, Winaboozhoo feared him because he had never seen anything like Zagime, ever before. Winaboozhoo decided he needed to kill Zagime. Zagime was so huge, she could hardly move so it was very easy for Winaboozhoo to kill her. When he sliced open her stomach, instead of blood coming out, a kazillion tiny zagimewag, her babies came out and chased after Winaboozhoo, seeking revenge on him. Winaboozhoo ran and hid behind the Anishinaabe and the other animals for protection. So the tiny zagimewag chased them too, seeking their revenge on them. To this day, the tiny zagimewag, mosquitos, are still seeking their revenge because Winaboozhoo had killed their mother. He killed her out of his own ignorance.
The students who had formed a circle of chairs, participated in he story, playing the role of the zagimewag.
Ernie then also had the students play the roles of the people when he told the story of the history of conflict in northern Wisconsin about the treaties, and the Ojibwe rights of hunting, fishing and gathering. He explained why people were upset and why they protested that Indian people got to spear fish. He asked the students why they thought people didn’t think it was fair for Indians to be able to spear fish. The students offered many reasons why it was not fair. Then Ernie asked them if non-Indian people get to spear fish. One student said yes, but was not sure. Ernie then explained that everyone can spear sturgeon during a special spearing season. Every year it is done on Lake Winnebago. Ernie explained that many people feared that the Indians would destroy all the walleye and the deer and there would be none left in the lakes and lands up north. That would leave none for the sport fishermen and hunters. However, he then explained that the Lac du Flambeau Tribe has had a tribal fish hatchery that opened in 1935 and has stocked area lakes with over 30 million walleye fingerlings every year. And now the Great Lakes Indian Fish and Wildlife Commission monitors and enforces Natural Resource laws in the Ceded Territories and conducts research to ensure healthy renewable resources for everyone.
As the students were invited back to the main circle, Ernie again discussed differences and how we all want to simply belong to something. That is why we stay in our own groups when we come to ILI at first. And this is perfectly ok. However, in ILI, we work to get to know each other to break down stereotypes, to eliminate the unknown. This is what Winaboozhoo should have done before he killed Zagime.
Ernie then had all the students form four lines and he took them through the “classroom divided” experience he had experienced in the 4th grade when the schools in Hayward were first desegregated. Today we used chairs to serve as the rows in the schoolroom.
With today’s group we decided to keep them all together instead of breaking them down into smaller groups. We began by doing an activity called “Ball Tag.” One person is in the middle and one person in the circle has the ball. The person with the ball calls out someone’s name and tosses it to them. The person in the middle tries to tag the person before they call out someone else’s name and tosses the ball. It is a very active way to get to know each other’s names. We did one more activity to help them to remember each others names. In this activity they grouped according to their favorite…(color, sport, etc.) When they were grouped they introduced themselves or asked the people whom they did not know what their names were.
Before lunch we had the students write in their journals about how ILI had changed and what they thought about it. We also had them write about what they learned from Uncle Ernie’s stories. We finished out the morning with an attitude of gratitude.
Unlike the rest of the week, we switched the privilege around at lunch. It was interesting to watch the students interacting and trying to figure out what we were doing. There was complaining, but again no action taken.
After lunch we began the card game we had done all week. (Please see earlier write-ups.) After the second game we switched as we have all week and noticed some of the students sitting down and looking very frustrated. We asked the students to circle up and they did not move. We asked if they wanted to do it one more time and they said yes and the two who were sitting down were now standing and anticipating the start of the activity. Matt called out go and the whole underprivileged team ran to the cards and began picking them up. Then the other team did the same. Afterwards, we had them sit in a circle and talk about the activity. There was a lot of good discussion on cheating, being privileged, and taking advantage of the opportunities given to you. We also talked about how it feels to be disadvantaged and how frustrating that can be and how we can help others who are in that situation.
Matt took the group through the activity he did yesterday with the students listing advantages for one person and disadvantages for another who he drawn on the white board. It was interesting to see how the students characterized each person. We talked about how our society values people and who our society says should be valued and challenged that type of thinking. We had had some great discussions!
Craig told the students that they could choose how they treat each other and that you never know how your actions could influence another persons life. Matt added that they may not feel like they have a lot of power now but the way they learn to make choices now will determine how things will work when they have the power and control to make change.
We ended the day with the students reflecting on the day by writing in their journals.
Intercultural Leadership Initiative
LdF Students: 5 LdF Teacher: Jennifer Austin
NLES Students: 6
AVW Students: 4 AVW Teacher: Lynn Currie
ILI Volunteers: Joe Strauss and Carol Pfister
ILI staff: Alice McFarlane, Craig Kerr, Matt White, Ernie St. Germaine, Bob Kovar.
As mentioned in a previous writing, each and every day brings us new and unique challenges delivered to us by exceptional students from our schools. Today the temperatures were quite chilly outdoors and together with the wind, the “wind chill” was well below zero f. Whether we realize it or not, this also affects how we perform what otherwise would be ordinary tasks. We might talk differently today, think differently, and, if we are outdoors, perform tasks differently. Today was no different.
After Craig’s introduction, Ernie gave an encapsulated history of the immediate vicinity of Camp Jorn and Manitowish Waters. He asked the students how many years they thought had gone by until this area of Camp Jorn was a complete wilderness. No houses, no roads, nothing but pristine trees and clear water, a river where today lies a flowage. One student said, “Two Fifty?” Ernie said, “Very probably.” Then he went on to tell how it was even a bit longer than 250 years when the Ojibwe people began to migrate into this region south of Lake Superior. He told how “we came from back east, the place of our origin.” He challenged the students to begin to challenge any teacher or otherwise who will tell them that Indian people migrated across an imaginary land bridge from Asia. “We Indian people originated here. Our origins place us here. Not Asia.” Ernie then explained how Indian people began having contacts with first the French who wanted one thing. He asked the students what that was and they said, Beaver. Correct. He asked why and they knew the French wanted them for hats, derbies to be exact. They wanted beaver pelts because beaver fur helped to make the derbies more water repellant. After that, people wanted other things from the land. Eventually, they wanted the trees, especially the white pine trees that were so plentiful here. Then they wanted land. During the course of all this, the U.S. Government entered into treaties with Indian people who were forced to give up the land in exchange for the right to retain their hunting, fishing and gathering way of life. And eventually, Indians were forced onto reservations. Ernie placed chairs in the corner of the room and had all the students from Lac du Flambeau, come and sit inside the makeshift ILI “reservation.” He then went on to describe that in one treaty, the Indian people ceded, or gave up their lands in an area that stretched from Green Bay to Eau Claire, north across Minnesota almost all the way to North Dakota. From Green Bay, their land extended to the Canadian border including upper Michigan. That treaty stated that the Ojibwe people retained, kept, their right to hunt, fish and gather in the ceded territory. Later, when they were forced onto reservations, the States prohibited them from exercising these rights off of their reservations. This is where Ernie described how two Indian brothers from the Lac Courte Oreilles reservation near Hayward, Wisconsin, decided to “test” their treaty rights by moving their ice fishing shack off the reservation, onto non-reservation waters. He had two Lac du Flambeau students play the role. Then he had Matt play the role of a State Conservation Warden, order them to move their fishing shack back onto the reservation. They refused so the Warden gave them citations and ordered them into Court to answer the charges. This is where Ernie shortened the story very much but told the students that the Ojibwe people eventually won those Court decisions called the Voigt Decisions. The Higher Court determined that the Ojibwe people never gave up their right to hunt, fish and gather in the Ceded Territory. It was after this that the State of Wisconsin negotiated hunting and fishing seasons with the Ojibwe Tribes of Wisconsin. But then he explained that once the Indian people began to rightfully exercise their “treaty rights” off of their reservations but within the ceded territory, this angered many people in northern Wisconsin. He selected a handful of students to represent treaty protestors. He said they made signs and protested the Indians rights to hunt, fish and gather and this caused much anger and turmoil, and conflict in all of northern Wisconsin. Ernie then selected one Lac du Flambeau student and one student from the other circle, to come together and face each other. He explained that when students from each of the schools came together for events such as basketball games, they looked at each other with anger. Many didn’t really know why they didn’t like each other but they just knew they were not supposed to like each other. Then when those same students got to high school, the anger in some cases began to get violent and in some cases, physical altercations, fights, took place.
Ernie then explained the story of Bob Kovar. Bob decided that when his own son, Sam, was in the 7th grade at North Lakeland elementary school, something had to be done. Students from both North Lakeland and Lac du Flambeau were brought together to begin breaking down these barriers, to learn about treaty rights, about anger and about conflict, but most importantly, how to resolve the conflict and begin working together in a spirit of cooperation and understanding.
As the students were invited back to the main circle, Ernie noted how the students formed their circle at the beginning of the session today. All of the students from North Lakeland were sitting together, all of the students from AV-W were sitting together and all of the students from LdF were sitting together. He asked them to think of why they do this. One student said, “Friends.” Ernie said, “Yes, of course.” He then went on to explain that it is ok to be yourself, to retain your identity, to be unique, to remember, never forget who you are. But just as important, we need to understand that we all have that right to be here together, to get along and to be friends and to appreciate each other’s differences. Ernie then had all the students form four lines and he took them through the “classroom divided” experience he had experienced in the 4th grade when the schools in Hayward were first desegregated. It was so very interesting to note that today, for the first time, the lines the students formed in their imaginary school setting, were much more “desegregated.”
We had the students line up for their snack. Once again students were separated, but today the students with black, white, and/or gray shirts on were the students that had the advantage. There was some complaining but none of the students challenged the “rules.” After the students were finished with snack, Matt directed them to make their journals for the day. Once again, the students with the advantage were able to use the markers and had the stapler. This was frustrating to the other students and they were complaining about it, but took no action to change it. Towards the end of the journal activity Matt talked with the students with the advantage and told them that they had to divide the whole group into two that included students from all of the schools. They split the group and we continued in small groups.
Alice and Matt took their group to another building. Matt then explained what we would be using the journals for throughout the year. Then the group refreshed each other’s names. Then Matt introduced a game where everyone chooses an animal and creates a motion for that animal. Then the “top animal” (always the Elephant) makes their motion and then someone else’s. This “passes” it to the next player, who then makes his or her symbol followed by someone else’s, who in turn, passes it again. This continues until someone messes up a symbol or pauses too long. That player is then shuffled to the bottom of the animal kingdom and everyone else moves up one animal. The hope is to stay at the top the animal kingdom the longest. After a while of playing the students started to take over the redefining and enforcing of the rules. They decided what was “legal’ and what constituted a “mess up”. After a while Alice asked the students to each grab a piece of paper and then to do an activity where they follow directions of folding and ripping. When it was finished everyone’s papers looked very different. This was an example of how we each can be told to think about the same things and hear the same instructions but we don’t always process these feelings and thoughts in the same way. The students talked about how having these differences are okay. Alice then had them define Conflict in their books with pictures or words. We then shared and discussed what Conflict can look like. Some of their ideas included: differing ideas; how conflict can grow to include people that weren’t involved at the start; there are different levels of conflict (emotional, physical, etc), and a number of others.
At lunch the students with the advantage were able to get as many pieces of pizza as they wanted and other students could get one at a time.
After lunch we did the same activity as on Tuesday (Please see Tuesdays write-up.) After the activity we all made a circle. We debriefed the activity. The students talked about how it was unfair and that the other team cheated. Craig asked the students if they remember what Uncle Ernie had said was going to happen earlier in the day. One student remembered that we were going to be separated. Craig asked if anyone had figured out how they had been separated. Finally the students figured it out. Ernie talked about how you can be at a disadvantage and not know why. It becomes frustrating and you begin to blame yourself and tell yourself that others don’t like you. All of the students were listening to all that he had to say, and they understood that it is not fair to be disadvantaged.
Craig’s group did an activity called “Cross the Line.” Craig asked some questions and if they had done that they had to cross the line. Craig started with basic questions, but asked some really hared questions toward the end. One of the questions towards the end was have you ever been teased because of your ethnic background. At the end of the activity we got into a circle and talked about how we treat each other and what we could do to change that.
After we broke into our groups again, Matt did some drawings of one person who had many privileges and on who had very few. Then he had them brainstorm how we could make the one as well off as we possibly could while we made the situation for others as bleak as we could think of. Then the group discussed how those lists of attributes are what set up the “Playing Field” that we see around us in our society. Matt then had the students make a list of the things that they see in themselves that they think are skills, attitudes, values, or situations that are a benefit to them. How can they use them for the benefit of themselves AND others?
Then the group played another round of the Animal Game. After a bit Matt asked them to look at who was now running the game. They then noticed that, in fact, they were. Matt had started it but they were now in charge of how the rules changed and who was sent to the bottom. Matt said that this is soon to be true for them in the world at large and challenges them to think about what they can do to change the world around them? The group got into a circle and Craig closed the session asking the students how they could influence those around them with their power to help others.
Intercultural Leadership Initiative
2007-2008
8th Grade Day #4
AVW/LdF/NLS
12-7-07
Camp Jorn 9am-2pm
8th Grade Day #4
AVW/LdF/NLS
12-7-07
Camp Jorn 9am-2pm
AVW Students: 5 AVW Principal: Steve Holt
LdF Students: 3 LdF Teacher: Katie Black
NLS Students: 4
LUHS Mentor: 1
ILI Volunteers: John and Gretchen Spickerman
Camp Jorn Staff: Emir Butler
ILI Staff: Craig Kerr, Alice McFarlane, and Matt White
Today was very similar to yesterday. When the students arrived they were welcomed and given a piece of paper and pencil to write any question they had about Ireland.
Craig began the day with everyone in the circle and he let them know that we were glad that they had chosen to be there. He also let them know how important that they are to the future of how people treat each other in our community.
Matt explained how to put together their journal and why we were having them make them again this year. Please see yesterday’s write-up
At snack time we again had them make their peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Please see yesterday’s write-up for the reason behind this.
After snack Craig led some activities with the students to help them learn each other’s names and more about each other. There were a number of students that were here today who had never been to ILI before. The first activity we did was “Ball Tag.” The group stands in a circle with one person in the middle. One person in the circle starts with the object and calls some else’s name in the circle and passes them the object. The person in the middle tries to tag the person with the object before they call out someone else’s name and toss the object to them. The next activity we did was “Have You Ever.” During this activity students share things they have done and places they have been. While doing this activity they are actively learning about each other. When we were finished with the activity most of the students were standing behind someone else’s journal. They had to find the person whose journal they were standing behind and give them the journal. When they were giving the journal to the right person they had to find one thing they had in common with that person. However, that one thing had to be something that was not easily recognizable.
Craig asked the group to sit in a circle and introduced Emir Butler to the group. Emir was born and raised in Ireland, and we asked her to talk about Ireland. Like yesterday, Emir answered the questions the students had written. The questions were similar to yesterday’s questions. The students were really interested to hear about Ireland. Emir talked today about how there are many Americans that come over to Ireland to trace their ancestry and get information about their families. It is important that we all understand that everyone has a cultural background, and when you learn about it you learn more about yourself.
When there were no more questions, Craig asked the group to split into two groups of six with each group having each school represented. The group decided to split boys and girls.
Craig stayed in the dining hall with the boys and Mr. Holt. We spend the morning doing activities that led us into conversations about how important it is to be able to communicate well and how not communicating can cause misunderstanding and conflict.
After lunch Craig introduced the activity “Somebody please help me pass me the pig.” This is an activity where one student is “it” and they are trying to tag other students. When a student is tagged they have to sit down and say, ”Someone please help me pass me the pig!” At that point whoever has the “pig” can pass it to them and once they had the “pig” they are free once again. The students enjoyed this activity. At the end Craig explained how all of the activities we do in ILI have a meaning. He asked the students if it was hard to ask for help. Then we had a discussion on why it’s hard to ask for help and how things would change if we took the chance to ask for help more often. Matt added that when we ask others for help it allows them to feel good about something they are good at while helping someone else-and that also makes them feel good.
Craig’s group continued to focus on the idea of good communication after lunch with a couple of different activities. We discussed the importance of being able to ask questions of each other so that we make sure that others are understand what we are trying to communicate. We also discussed how often we are fearful of communicating with those who are different from us and how it is important to overcome those fears. We ended asking William, our high school mentor, questions about what it is like at the high school. The students hung on every word that he said and they were happy to be able to get some insight into the high school from someone they look up to.
Alice and Matt’s group had a great sense of fun and action. So as they went through the activities that Alice and Matt had for them, they played a lot while they listened. There was a willingness to have fun on the group’s part. The group was led through a series of activities that focused on how we all think different and we get our ways of thinking from different sources but that all of them are valid. In one activity the students wrote down statements of opinion or beliefs and then we asked the group to move to different areas of the room to say whether they “Agree”, “Strongly agree”, Didn’t know”, “Disagree”, or “Strongly disagree”. We talked about a variety of issues from underage drinking and whether or not there should be a middle school in the Lakeland area to whether or not chewing gum in class should be allowed. The students had many opinions and thought very carefully through the subjects we presented.
At the end of the day, Craig asked the group to sit in a circle and we closed the day by asking the students to share their thoughts about the day. It was a good way to end a really great week!
2007-2008
8th Grade Day 3
AVW/LdF/NLS
12-6-07
Camp Jorn 9am-2pm.
8th Grade Day 3
AVW/LdF/NLS
12-6-07
Camp Jorn 9am-2pm.
AVW Students: 3 AVW Teacher: Jeremy Jorgenson
LdF Students: 4 LdF Teacher: Anne Wewasson
NLS Students: 4
Camp Jorn Staff: Emir Butler
ILI Staff: Alice McFarlane, Matt White, and Craig Kerr
Today was different than the two previous days of sessions. We had a smaller group of students and Uncle Ernie was not able to be with us today.
As the students arrived at Camp Jorn they were welcomed and given a piece of paper to write any question they had about Ireland. Ernie was not able to be here today so we asked Emir Butler who was born and raised in Ireland to come and talk to our students about what Ireland was like.
When all the students had arrived Craig asked them to sit in a circle and he welcomed them and introduced some of the topics that we would be talking about today. These students are so important to our community and to the way our community will grow and change.
After the introduction Matt had the students make their journals and explained that the reason we were having them make a journal was the fact that an experience by itself will be remembered only for a while, but if you write about that experience the memories and lessons that you learn from that experience will stay with you longer.
When everyone was done with decorating their journal it was time for snack and we had them make their own peanut butter and jelly sandwich. The ILI staff used this experience later to talk about why we do the things that we do.
Emir came and joined us and we had a wonderful discussion on what Ireland was like. Some of the questions the students asked were: what is the weather like, what do kids in Ireland do for fun, are there any skyscrapers in Ireland, what is the landscape like, etc. The students were very interested in Ireland and a number of other questions were asked based on some of the answers Emir gave to their questions. She talked about how the “Church” ran the schools in Ireland and how the school system in terms of grade school (primary) and high school (secondary) worked. Also we had a conversation about the difficulties she had when she came to the United States. Even though we speak the same language there was a lot to learn about our culture and the way things work here.
Emir grew up in the southern part of Ireland but talked to the students about the conflicts in Northern Ireland and what she had heard about it when she was growing up. She also talked about how it had changed and that change is possible in any situation, even if it has been the same situation for a long time.
When everyone was out of questions Craig had the group split themselves into two groups.
Craig’s group stayed in the dining hall and all of the students really already knew each other’s names. We talked about how we made our sandwiches and what influenced when we made them. When Craig asked the group if they had any idea why they made their sandwich the way they did, one of the students responded “it was the way we liked it”. Craig continued that conversation and talked about how our families influence what we like and dislike. Some of the students used bread and different kinds of peanut butter because that is what they are used to and others used different ingredients because they had the opportunity to try something new. Then one of the students began to ask questions of the other students about their school and we had a great conversation about how the schools differed and how they were similar. The students really enjoyed learning about the other schools. Then Craig was able to relate what they were talking about to the high school. A couple of the students had older siblings in the high school and talked about what they had heard. It was a great conversation!
We spent the afternoon doing activities that illustrated the need to understand that people have different ways of communicating and processing information; and how that is important to be aware of because that is where many misunderstandings and conflicts are born. We also investigated how we form our opinions and how important it is that we understand issues and take time to evaluate what we believe and why.
Alice and Matt led their group of students through a number of activities that helped the group learn how they think about things, also known as Meta-cognition. The students had fun and took full advantage of the time that was given to them to speak their minds and express opinions. It was encouraging to hear them defend and reason out their ideas about how they think the world is and how they think it should be. Matt and Alice look forward to the possibilities for discussion building on the good foundation developed today.
At the end of the day, Craig asked the students to sit in a circle and share anything that they wanted about the day. It was not mandatory that they share. Some of the students talked about what they learned about Ireland, another talked about how cool it was that they really didn’t hang out by schools but really joined together today. One student talked about how it was cool that he had played basketball with one of the other guys in his group but that he really got to know him better today.
2007-2008
LdF/NLES/AVW/MHLT 8th Grade Session #1
December 4, 2007
Camp Jorn 9:00am-2:00pm
LdF/NLES/AVW/MHLT 8th Grade Session #1
December 4, 2007
Camp Jorn 9:00am-2:00pm
LdF Students: 5 LdF Teacher: Lori Brokopp
NLES Students: 3
AVW Students: 4 AVW Teacher: Linn White
MHLT Students: 5 MHLT Teacher: Josh Calhoun
ILI Volunteers: Dennis Lipp
ILI staff: Alice McFarlane, Craig Kerr, Matt White, Ernie St. Germaine, Stephanie St.Germaine, and Bob Kovar.
We welcomed the students into the Camp Jorn lodge today as we did yesterday. Craig had the students write down questions about the history of this area, as soon as they arrived. He did not “feed” them very much information. He just asked them to write questions. As a result, the questions that came from the students today were in some cases similar to yesterday’s group, but for the most part, most of the questions had to do with Camp Jorn and the Manitowish Waters area. The students wondered when the Camp was built, when it was first opened, what is the name of the lake, what do people do around here. One student wrote, “Nothing, I come here all the time.”
Several students were very interested in what the area was like long ago. They asked questions about the trees. What was this area like before all the trees were logged off? Interestingly, one asked what it felt like when all the trees were being cut down. Some of the students asked about American Indian cultures, how do they blend with other cultures? One student asked how Tribes govern themselves differently from the State.
Again Ernie talked to the students about their questions and why they are important. Today’s activity took a bit of a different approach. As Ernie explained the history of the Ojibwe delegation who traveled to Washington DC in 1849, the ILI facilitators served as resources who were available to the Ojibwe people back then to help them plan their trip. Matt served as the “Maps Expert” since he was a French traveler and had been all over the Great Lakes region. He knew the territory. He would help the people plan a trip. Craig served as the “French Trader” who had food goods. He would help the people plan what food supplies they would need for the trip. Stephanie and Alice served as “the Outfitters.” They would help the people plan the trip itself, what they would use, what they would need to take along. And finally, Linn White and Josh Calhoun served as the elders of the Village. They would help the “travelers” plan what they would say once they had their meeting with the Great White Father in Washington, President Zachary Taylor.
The students then chose which group they wanted to join, to help plan the trip. The groups spent 25 minutes with their planning. After the plans were prepared, each group came back to the village and reported their findings. It was a wonderful experience for them to think and try to imagine what it was like here over 150 years ago.
Ernie finished the morning session with a history of the treaties and again had the students act out the parts of being forced onto a reservation. Two students played the roles of Fred and Mike Tribble who took their ice fishing shack off the reservation line on the Chippewa Flowage at Lac Courte Oreilles. He then explained the Court rulings that followed and how the Voigt Decisions ruled in favor of the Ojibwe Tribes and their treaty rights.
In the after noon we did some similar activities to previous days to stimulate conversation about how we form our opinions and why we do what we do. We challenged the students to think about the way that they think, and to learn how to evaluate how they come to form their opinions. We also discussed the possibility of changing opinions and outlooks if change seemed appropriate once they have learned more about a subject. It was a really good day-they were very challenged and met all of our expectations!
Bob Kovar,
Project Director
Intercultural
Leadership
Initiative
Intercultural Leadership Initiative
2007-2008
LdF/NLES/AVW/MHLT 8th Grade Session #1
December 3, 2007
Camp Jorn 9:00am-2:00pm
LdF Students: 4 LdF Teacher: Lesley Grams
NLES Students: 5
AVW Students: 4 AVW Teacher: Linn White
MHLT Students: 5 MHLT Teacher: Josh Calhoun
ILI Volunteers: John and Gretchen Spickerman
ILI Staff: Alice McFarlane, Craig Kerr, Matt White, Ernie St. Germaine, Bob Kovar.
After the students wrote down a question and while they were creating their own journals, Ernie reviewed their written questions and prepared a presentation to begin to answer some of them the best he could. When the student journals were complete, the students formed a circle and were invited to either sit in a chair or on the floor. Ernie talked about the questions. He explained that many Indian people are not in a hurry to answer questions immediately. They prefer to allow young Indian youth to experience, to find answers by doing rather than just hearing the answer. He told the story of when he was about 10 years old and he and his cousin George Mac, decided they had enough shooting their sling shots at imaginary targets. It was time for them to start “real” hunting. So an uncle had him and George both shoot his 16 gauge single-shot shotgun. George Mac shot it first and fell over backwards. And even though he braced himself carefully, his shot knocked Ernie over too. Thus ended their desire at age 10, to begin “real” hunting. Eventually, Ernie’s uncle took him and George to the woods, placing them on a stand. His uncle pointed with his chin and said, “Go that way a ways.” Then, tilting his head slightly to the left, said, “when you get over there a ways, then go that way for a bit. But don’t make tracks.” Ernie explained how George Mac led the way and he carefully followed George Mac’s tracks, being sure not to make any of his own. After they got up that way a ways, George Mac stopped. At this place, Ernie turned that way (to the left) and George Mac went on a ways. Ernie, carefully, slowly, step by step, not making a noise, began to slowly move forward. He was watching carefully, so as not to step on a stick and crack it. He might have advanced a dozen slow paces, all the while looking at the ground. When he paused to look ahead to find a place to “stand,” there stood his uncle, waiting for him, smiling.
Ernie explained that life was a learning process back in the good old days. Life was slower paced. Eventually, he discovered that at the right time and place, questions were appropriate and encouraged.
Ernie then began to answer the student’s questions. He explained that he would answer them the best he could, some he did not have answers for. Such as the two who asked, “What came first, the chicken or the egg?” Ernie said that several students asked questions about what it was like here before the white man came. They asked who the first white man was to come here. What was the first town in northern Wisconsin? When was this area discovered? What was it like here before all the trees were cut down? How did Indians get around in the deep snow? How were bows and arrows made? And, why did the Europeans put Indian people on reservations? A similar question asked “how did Indians come to live where they are today?” The students asked so many good questions. Ernie explained that many people already have answers to questions when they ask them. The answer may not always be correct, but the people have an idea, based on things they have heard, things they have seen and things they have experienced. Ernie said that Jean Nicolet was one of the first white people, French, to come to this area. He also told of the first French fur trader, Jean Baptiste Corbin, who came to the Lac Courte Oreilles area in the early 1800’s. He feared the Indian people and at first, traded with them through a small sliding window in the trading post. The Indians could only see his eyes. But when he wasn’t paying attention, and forgot to close his sliding porthole, the Indians would peek in at him. They explained that he would spend many hours writing in his journal. So they called him Mazinaa’igan, meaning, “Writing on paper.”
Ernie then explained about the treaty era and how the “Ceded Territory” was created. In that treaty, the Ojibwe people retained the right to hunt, fish and gather in that territory. And even though later treaties were signed, they never gave up that right. It was during that treaty that the U.S. Government promised to pay the Ojibwe Indians a penny an acre for the lands that were ceded. They were also promised education and health care as well as the promise to be given annual annuities.
Then Ernie explained how in the mid-1800’s, Indians were forced to “move” west of the Mississippi River to vacate lands for white settlers. In 1850, President Zachary Taylor ordered the Ojibwe people to move as well. He explained how a delegation of Ojibwe leaders, lead by “Chief” Buffalo of Red Cliff, and including Oshogay and Benjamin Armstrong of Lac du Flambeau, traveled by canoe to Washington to visit the Great White Father, (The U.S. President). They hoped to plead that they not be removed from their lands south of the Great Lakes. Zachary Taylor would not meet with them. However, When President Millard Fillmore was elected later that year, he did entertain them and was so moved by their impassioned speeches, he rescinded the Presidential Removal Order in 1851, allowing the Ojibwe people to remain in Wisconsin. In the Treaty of 1854, reservations were created in Wisconsin that allowed the Indians to remain here.
Ernie then had the students make a plan of a trip to Washington DC, imagining they were the Indian people in 1849. The teachers served as the elders who would listen to their plan. The students then discussed their ideas and wrote ideas in their journals. They also came up with many more questions. Ernie explained how the Ojibwe people began to exercise their treaty rights, telling and acting out the story of Mike and Fred Tribble of Lac Courte Oreilles, who moved their fishing shack off the reservation on the Chippewa Flowage. He also told about the treaty protests that took place in northern Wisconsin.
For lunch today, Craig told the students that they were going to have a two course meal. The first course was “make your own” and the second course was “pick your own”. He let them know that we had provided the materials to make peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and after the sandwiches were made and eaten we would have pizza.
Matt’s group went to the Art Barn and spent a few moments getting each other’s names down for sure. Matt then had them follow a set of directions to fold and tear a piece of paper. Each student’s paper was very different and Matt asked if there was any problem with the fact of how they interpreted the instructions. They said “No” even though no two pieces of paper looked the same. He explained that this is how we think through things. We can have different interpretations of things and that is really ok. Then Matt had the students write down the steps they took to make their P.B.J. sandwiches. The students had many creative ways to communicate their process. From pictures and graphs to words and poems. Then Matt had them think of what their Dream sandwich would be and all the ingredients they would include. After sharing their big ideas, Matt asked about how they each got the idea for their version of the “Super sandwich.” Some said they have tried many things and just keep repeating the things they like. Others said they saw their family make one so they saw how it could be done. Matt then asked how they got their ideas of how to think. He asked “What are the things that have influenced the way you come to conclusions on things?” Some of the answers were Family, School, Church, Friends, the Media, Videos, and advertising just to name a few.
The group then did an activity with a rope on the ground forming a line. Matt then said that if they could answer any of the questions he asked with a “yes” they could cross the line. One of the important parts to the exercise was to not ever to laugh at someone’s honesty if it is a hard question. Matt asked a series of goofy and really hard questions and the students responded with great maturity and grace. Then they sat and Matt explained what the word Meta-cognition meant: The ability to think about HOW you think and why. Matt did an example of “meta-cognizing” with a student trying to give him a pencil. It was a lot of fun. Then they discussed more about why it is important to know why we think what we do and how it can help us make good decisions and positive choices in our lives.
Then Matt had the group stand around 4 circles of rope on the floor. In the center was “strongly agree” and on the outside of all the circles was “I don’t even want to talk about it”. As Matt made statements, the group was to move to the circle that best represented their belief on the statement. Matt asked some hard questions about goofy stuff, laws, what ones they would change, race, school, their beliefs about how to change the world, if they think it’s possible, what they thought about Ernie’s talk on local history, and a number of other things. They were very honest and serious about their answers. It is great to see young people taking things that are hard and giving them serious thought and being kind while doing it. Then Matt turned it over to the students to make the statements for the group to agree or disagree with. They had fun but still asked good questions. Then it was time to go. Matt felt like they could have talked for a couple more hours and been very productive!
Craig’s group headed to the basement of the craft barn. They began by getting reacquainted with each other’s names. This was done with a quick name game. With such a small group it did not take long for everyone to get each other’s name. They began an activity called “Silent Ball.” This is activity where there is no talking and if you make a bad throw or catch you take yourself out of the game. After we finished the activity Craig asked the group if there was anything confusing about the game. Some of the answers were that it was hard to tell where or when others were going to throw the ball. It was confusing to know if you threw the ball badly or was it a bad catch. Craig talked with the students about how we all have different ways of interpreting things from our point of view.
He then had them describe the way they had put together their PB & J sandwiches. The students were really enjoying describing the process. When everyone had finished Craig asked them the reason behind the way that the students made the sandwiches. One of the students said “I made it the way my mom makes it”. Another student said that he used wheat bread because that was “the kind of bread that they had at home”. One student said “I used white bread because it was closest to where I walked up to the table and used the creamy peanut butter because it was right next to the bread.” Then the group had a discussion on where our thoughts and values come from and as we learn new things that sometimes those thoughts and values need to be re-examined.
Finally we closed with writing in our journals about out least favorite habit and what we could do to change that. The groups returned to the dining hall and we sat in a circle. Craig asked that we all go around the circle and tell everyone our names. Then he asked people to share, if they wanted, something about the day. Several students commented on how much they liked the lesson Ernie gave, some of them said that they had a good day, a few said that they enjoyed lunch. All in all a really great day!
Bob Kovar,
Project Director
Intercultural
Leadership
Initiative
Intercultural Leadership Initiative
2007-2008
LdF/NLES/AVW 7th Grade Session #2
November 30, 2007
Camp Jorn 9:00am-2:00pm
LdF/NLES/AVW 7th Grade Session #2
November 30, 2007
Camp Jorn 9:00am-2:00pm
LdF Students: 5 LdF Teacher: Todd Christianson
NLES Students: 6
AVW Students: 3 AVW Teacher: Dan Lathrop
ILI Volunteers: Joe Straus and Carol Pfister
ILI Staff: Alice McFarlane, Craig Kerr, Matt White, Ernie St. Germaine, Bob Kovar.
Since the students all arrive at different times we have had puzzles out for them to figure work on when they walk in. When all the students were there and everyone had finished the puzzles Craig asked them to get on “the bus”. The staff had arranged pairs of chairs in a row. Please see the how activity works in the previous write-ups.
After Craig’s introduction today, Ernie told a Winnaboozhoo story about how Winaboozhoo battled the monster, Zagime. When he saw Zagime in the swamp, Winaboozhoo feared him because he had never seen anything like Zagime, ever before. Winaboozhoo decided he needed to kill Zagime. Zagime was so huge, she could hardly move so it was very easy for Winaboozhoo to kill her. When he sliced open her stomach, instead of blood coming out, a kazillion tiny zagimewag, her babies came out and chased after Winaboozhoo, seeking revenge on him. Winaboozhoo ran and hid behind the Anishinaabe and the other animals for protection. So the tiny zagimewag chased them too, seeking their revenge on them. To this day, the tiny zagimewag, mosquitos, are still seeking their revenge because Winaboozhoo had killed their mother. He killed her out of his own ignorance.
The students who had formed a circle of chairs, participated in he story, playing the role of the zagimewag.
Ernie then also had the students play the roles of the people when he told the story of the history of conflict in northern Wisconsin about the treaties, and the Ojibwe rights of hunting, fishing and gathering. He explained why people were upset and why they protested that Indian people got to spear fish. He asked the students why they thought people didn’t think it was fair for Indians to be able to spear fish. The students offered many reasons why it was not fair. Then Ernie asked them if non-Indian people get to spear fish. One student said yes, but was not sure. Ernie then explained that everyone can spear sturgeon during a special spearing season. Every year it is done on Lake Winnebago. Ernie explained that many people feared that the Indians would destroy all the walleye and the deer and there would be none left in the lakes and lands up north. That would leave none for the sport fishermen and hunters. However, he then explained that the Lac du Flambeau Tribe has had a tribal fish hatchery that opened in 1935 and has stocked area lakes with over 30 million walleye fingerlings every year. And now the Great Lakes Indian Fish and Wildlife Commission monitors and enforces Natural Resource laws in the Ceded Territories and conducts research to ensure healthy renewable resources for everyone.
As the students were invited back to the main circle, Ernie again discussed differences and how we all want to simply belong to something. That is why we stay in our own groups when we come to ILI at first. And this is perfectly ok. However, in ILI, we work to get to know each other to break down stereotypes, to eliminate the unknown. This is what Winaboozhoo should have done before he killed Zagime.
Ernie then had all the students form four lines and he took them through the “classroom divided” experience he had experienced in the 4th grade when the schools in Hayward were first desegregated. Today we used chairs to serve as the rows in the schoolroom.
With today’s group we decided to keep them all together instead of breaking them down into smaller groups. We began by doing an activity called “Ball Tag.” One person is in the middle and one person in the circle has the ball. The person with the ball calls out someone’s name and tosses it to them. The person in the middle tries to tag the person before they call out someone else’s name and tosses the ball. It is a very active way to get to know each other’s names. We did one more activity to help them to remember each others names. In this activity they grouped according to their favorite…(color, sport, etc.) When they were grouped they introduced themselves or asked the people whom they did not know what their names were.
Before lunch we had the students write in their journals about how ILI had changed and what they thought about it. We also had them write about what they learned from Uncle Ernie’s stories. We finished out the morning with an attitude of gratitude.
Unlike the rest of the week, we switched the privilege around at lunch. It was interesting to watch the students interacting and trying to figure out what we were doing. There was complaining, but again no action taken.
After lunch we began the card game we had done all week. (Please see earlier write-ups.) After the second game we switched as we have all week and noticed some of the students sitting down and looking very frustrated. We asked the students to circle up and they did not move. We asked if they wanted to do it one more time and they said yes and the two who were sitting down were now standing and anticipating the start of the activity. Matt called out go and the whole underprivileged team ran to the cards and began picking them up. Then the other team did the same. Afterwards, we had them sit in a circle and talk about the activity. There was a lot of good discussion on cheating, being privileged, and taking advantage of the opportunities given to you. We also talked about how it feels to be disadvantaged and how frustrating that can be and how we can help others who are in that situation.
Matt took the group through the activity he did yesterday with the students listing advantages for one person and disadvantages for another who he drawn on the white board. It was interesting to see how the students characterized each person. We talked about how our society values people and who our society says should be valued and challenged that type of thinking. We had had some great discussions!
Craig told the students that they could choose how they treat each other and that you never know how your actions could influence another persons life. Matt added that they may not feel like they have a lot of power now but the way they learn to make choices now will determine how things will work when they have the power and control to make change.
We ended the day with the students reflecting on the day by writing in their journals.
Bob Kovar,
Project Director
Intercultural
Leadership
Initiative
Intercultural Leadership Initiative
2007-2008
LdF/NLES/AVW 7th Grade Session #2
November 28, 2007
Camp Jorn 9:00am-2:00pm
LdF/NLES/AVW 7th Grade Session #2
November 28, 2007
Camp Jorn 9:00am-2:00pm
LdF Students: 5 LdF Teacher: Jennifer Austin
NLES Students: 6
AVW Students: 4 AVW Teacher: Lynn Currie
ILI Volunteers: Joe Strauss and Carol Pfister
ILI staff: Alice McFarlane, Craig Kerr, Matt White, Ernie St. Germaine, Bob Kovar.
As mentioned in a previous writing, each and every day brings us new and unique challenges delivered to us by exceptional students from our schools. Today the temperatures were quite chilly outdoors and together with the wind, the “wind chill” was well below zero f. Whether we realize it or not, this also affects how we perform what otherwise would be ordinary tasks. We might talk differently today, think differently, and, if we are outdoors, perform tasks differently. Today was no different.
After Craig’s introduction, Ernie gave an encapsulated history of the immediate vicinity of Camp Jorn and Manitowish Waters. He asked the students how many years they thought had gone by until this area of Camp Jorn was a complete wilderness. No houses, no roads, nothing but pristine trees and clear water, a river where today lies a flowage. One student said, “Two Fifty?” Ernie said, “Very probably.” Then he went on to tell how it was even a bit longer than 250 years when the Ojibwe people began to migrate into this region south of Lake Superior. He told how “we came from back east, the place of our origin.” He challenged the students to begin to challenge any teacher or otherwise who will tell them that Indian people migrated across an imaginary land bridge from Asia. “We Indian people originated here. Our origins place us here. Not Asia.” Ernie then explained how Indian people began having contacts with first the French who wanted one thing. He asked the students what that was and they said, Beaver. Correct. He asked why and they knew the French wanted them for hats, derbies to be exact. They wanted beaver pelts because beaver fur helped to make the derbies more water repellant. After that, people wanted other things from the land. Eventually, they wanted the trees, especially the white pine trees that were so plentiful here. Then they wanted land. During the course of all this, the U.S. Government entered into treaties with Indian people who were forced to give up the land in exchange for the right to retain their hunting, fishing and gathering way of life. And eventually, Indians were forced onto reservations. Ernie placed chairs in the corner of the room and had all the students from Lac du Flambeau, come and sit inside the makeshift ILI “reservation.” He then went on to describe that in one treaty, the Indian people ceded, or gave up their lands in an area that stretched from Green Bay to Eau Claire, north across Minnesota almost all the way to North Dakota. From Green Bay, their land extended to the Canadian border including upper Michigan. That treaty stated that the Ojibwe people retained, kept, their right to hunt, fish and gather in the ceded territory. Later, when they were forced onto reservations, the States prohibited them from exercising these rights off of their reservations. This is where Ernie described how two Indian brothers from the Lac Courte Oreilles reservation near Hayward, Wisconsin, decided to “test” their treaty rights by moving their ice fishing shack off the reservation, onto non-reservation waters. He had two Lac du Flambeau students play the role. Then he had Matt play the role of a State Conservation Warden, order them to move their fishing shack back onto the reservation. They refused so the Warden gave them citations and ordered them into Court to answer the charges. This is where Ernie shortened the story very much but told the students that the Ojibwe people eventually won those Court decisions called the Voigt Decisions. The Higher Court determined that the Ojibwe people never gave up their right to hunt, fish and gather in the Ceded Territory. It was after this that the State of Wisconsin negotiated hunting and fishing seasons with the Ojibwe Tribes of Wisconsin. But then he explained that once the Indian people began to rightfully exercise their “treaty rights” off of their reservations but within the ceded territory, this angered many people in northern Wisconsin. He selected a handful of students to represent treaty protestors. He said they made signs and protested the Indians rights to hunt, fish and gather and this caused much anger and turmoil, and conflict in all of northern Wisconsin. Ernie then selected one Lac du Flambeau student and one student from the other circle, to come together and face each other. He explained that when students from each of the schools came together for events such as basketball games, they looked at each other with anger. Many didn’t really know why they didn’t like each other but they just knew they were not supposed to like each other. Then when those same students got to high school, the anger in some cases began to get violent and in some cases, physical altercations, fights, took place.
Ernie then explained the story of Bob Kovar. Bob decided that when his own son, Sam, was in the 7th grade at North Lakeland elementary school, something had to be done. Students from both North Lakeland and Lac du Flambeau were brought together to begin breaking down these barriers, to learn about treaty rights, about anger and about conflict, but most importantly, how to resolve the conflict and begin working together in a spirit of cooperation and understanding.
As the students were invited back to the main circle, Ernie noted how the students formed their circle at the beginning of the session today. All of the students from North Lakeland were sitting together, all of the students from AV-W were sitting together and all of the students from LdF were sitting together. He asked them to think of why they do this. One student said, “Friends.” Ernie said, “Yes, of course.” He then went on to explain that it is ok to be yourself, to retain your identity, to be unique, to remember, never forget who you are. But just as important, we need to understand that we all have that right to be here together, to get along and to be friends and to appreciate each other’s differences. Ernie then had all the students form four lines and he took them through the “classroom divided” experience he had experienced in the 4th grade when the schools in Hayward were first desegregated. It was so very interesting to note that today, for the first time, the lines the students formed in their imaginary school setting, were much more “desegregated.”
We had the students line up for their snack. Once again students were separated, but today the students with black, white, and/or gray shirts on were the students that had the advantage. There was some complaining but none of the students challenged the “rules.” After the students were finished with snack, Matt directed them to make their journals for the day. Once again, the students with the advantage were able to use the markers and had the stapler. This was frustrating to the other students and they were complaining about it, but took no action to change it. Towards the end of the journal activity Matt talked with the students with the advantage and told them that they had to divide the whole group into two that included students from all of the schools. They split the group and we continued in small groups.
Alice and Matt took their group to another building. Matt then explained what we would be using the journals for throughout the year. Then the group refreshed each other’s names. Then Matt introduced a game where everyone chooses an animal and creates a motion for that animal. Then the “top animal” (always the Elephant) makes their motion and then someone else’s. This “passes” it to the next player, who then makes his or her symbol followed by someone else’s, who in turn, passes it again. This continues until someone messes up a symbol or pauses too long. That player is then shuffled to the bottom of the animal kingdom and everyone else moves up one animal. The hope is to stay at the top the animal kingdom the longest. After a while of playing the students started to take over the redefining and enforcing of the rules. They decided what was “legal’ and what constituted a “mess up”. After a while Alice asked the students to each grab a piece of paper and then to do an activity where they follow directions of folding and ripping. When it was finished everyone’s papers looked very different. This was an example of how we each can be told to think about the same things and hear the same instructions but we don’t always process these feelings and thoughts in the same way. The students talked about how having these differences are okay. Alice then had them define Conflict in their books with pictures or words. We then shared and discussed what Conflict can look like. Some of their ideas included: differing ideas; how conflict can grow to include people that weren’t involved at the start; there are different levels of conflict (emotional, physical, etc), and a number of others.
At lunch the students with the advantage were able to get as many pieces of pizza as they wanted and other students could get one at a time.
After lunch we did the same activity as on Tuesday (Please see Tuesdays write-up.) After the activity we all made a circle. We debriefed the activity. The students talked about how it was unfair and that the other team cheated. Craig asked the students if they remember what Uncle Ernie had said was going to happen earlier in the day. One student remembered that we were going to be separated. Craig asked if anyone had figured out how they had been separated. Finally the students figured it out. Ernie talked about how you can be at a disadvantage and not know why. It becomes frustrating and you begin to blame yourself and tell yourself that others don’t like you. All of the students were listening to all that he had to say, and they understood that it is not fair to be disadvantaged.
Craig’s group did an activity called “Cross the Line.” Craig asked some questions and if they had done that they had to cross the line. Craig started with basic questions, but asked some really hared questions toward the end. One of the questions towards the end was have you ever been teased because of your ethnic background. At the end of the activity we got into a circle and talked about how we treat each other and what we could do to change that.
After we broke into our groups again, Matt did some drawings of one person who had many privileges and on who had very few. Then he had them brainstorm how we could make the one as well off as we possibly could while we made the situation for others as bleak as we could think of. Then the group discussed how those lists of attributes are what set up the “Playing Field” that we see around us in our society. Matt then had the students make a list of the things that they see in themselves that they think are skills, attitudes, values, or situations that are a benefit to them. How can they use them for the benefit of themselves AND others?
Then the group played another round of the Animal Game. After a bit Matt asked them to look at who was now running the game. They then noticed that, in fact, they were. Matt had started it but they were now in charge of how the rules changed and who was sent to the bottom. Matt said that this is soon to be true for them in the world at large and challenges them to think about what they can do to change the world around them? The group got into a circle and Craig closed the session asking the students how they could influence those around them with their power to help others.
Bob Kovar,
Project Director
Intercultural
Leadership
Initiative
Intercultural Leadership Initiative
2007-2008
LdF/NLES/AVW 7th Grade Session #2
November 27, 2007
Camp Jorn 9:00am-2:00pm
LdF/NLES/AVW 7th Grade Session #2
November 27, 2007
Camp Jorn 9:00am-2:00pm
LdF Students: 5 LdF Teacher: Leslie Grams
NLES Students: 7
AVW Students: 4 AVW Teacher: Jan Brewer
ILI Volunteers: Dick and Joan Fahning
ILI staff: Alice McFarlane, Craig Kerr, Matt White, Ernie St. Germaine, Bob Kovar.
This was the second day in our small groups for 7th grade. We started the day out quietly as the students came in the door. Our focus today was on conflict, privilege and advantage. The students formed their own small groups and worked on “arrow puzzles and “block towers.”
One of the unique and wonderful things about working with our ILI students is that each of them brings into the session, their own differences and at the same time, similarities. Each is unique, yet they are special 7th graders. As such, each group presents a different challenge to the ILI staff each day. No two groups are ever the same. The results are similar, but never exactly alike. The group today, without the MHLT students, was smaller, and different.
Craig welcomed the group and explained how today would be different than any other ILI session they had attended so far because we were going to begin our discussions of the real issues and the reason why ILI is here in our community. Ernie then discussed his history lesson to highlight the concepts for the day. He led a discussion with the students about uneven playing fields and the unfairness of them. He talked about his grandfather who, even though he was a decorated veteran from World War I, he still was not a citizen of the United States. He told the students that his mother did not become a citizen until she was 10 years old. He explained that he also was 10 years old when the school district in Hayward was finally desegregated. He also said that it was not until 1974 that Indian people were able to legally practice their traditional spiritual beliefs. Before that, to do so was against the law.
Like day 1, Ernie had the students to form 4 rows facing him like students in a typical classroom. He took them through the experience of being in a classroom where the teacher treated some of them with favor while others were ignored. He explained that when he was in the 4th grade, even though the Hayward school was supposedly desegregated, the teachers continued to treat Indian students like second-class citizens. This was a great introduction of the concepts of privilege and advantage.
After the snack break, the students who were wearing “hoodies,” shirts or sweatshirts with hoods, were allowed to select who would be in the two groups. The students without hoods, had no choice. They were our disadvantaged group for the day.
We then broke the students into two groups. Craig had his group sit in a circle. He asked if everyone could name everyone in the circle. They couldn’t so it was necessary to review the names of the students in our group. We started by tossing a ball around the circle calling out the name of the person we were passing it to and asking them a question after they had caught the ball. The students began by asking basic questions, but as the activity progressed the questions became more investigative.
After that Craig had the students list privileges people have. (Boys, girls, birth order, money, etc,) We spend the rest of the morning talking about the idea of privilege and power and how that plays out in our everyday lives and how we can use our power and privilege to help others.
During lunch, students with hoodies were allowed to have two sodas if they wanted. Those without hoods could only have one soda. After lunch, Matt organized the two groups into teams. He placed pairs of cards at one end of the room and the teams formed lines on the other end of the room. He placed tubes as starting lines. The hoodie team’s line was placed well ahead of the non-hoodie team. Craig sat by the cards of the hoodie team and then as they ran forward and turned two cards over, if they matched, they placed the matched cards aside. If the cards did not match, they placed them back in order in the pile. The person then ran back to their line and the next person came forward to select two cards. The team who paired up all their cards first won the game. As the hoodie players came and selected two cards, Craig gave them hints, pointing to the right card that matched the card they had selected. The hoodie team easily won the game. The non-hoodie team protested that it was not fair. Some of the non-hoodie players were getting discouraged. Then Matt asked the two teams if they wanted to switch sides. All agreed. When they switched sides, Matt them moved the tube marker of the hoodie team forward. It is very interesting to note here, that the players on the hoodie team, even though they were offered a clear advantage again, they did not take the advantage at first. They decided to start from the other side of the room, behind the non-hoodie team starting line. The game began and even though Craig was again helping the hoodie team, the game was very close. As the hoodie team realized the game was very close, they decided to move back to their advantage starting point and then after that, the hoodie team easily took the lead and again won the game.
All of the ILI staff decided that the students in attendance today had begun to clearly understand the issue of advantage and privilege. The point was clearly sinking in. The staff sat the students in a circle and we began to process what was happening, why some students were being favored, why others were not. The students had known that the students with hoods, were being favored. Some of the students without hoods were beginning to get frustrated and discouraged to the point of giving up. Ernie asked them why they decided to wear shirts with hoods today. Many had not thought about it, some had done so because it was cold today, others had just lucked out today. And those who decided not to wear hoods today, also did not know why. They just did. So Ernie said, in most cases of privilege, we have no control over the circumstances. We are born poor, we are born as a person of “color,” we are born female, we had no choice. It really sunk in with the students.
Uncle Ernie praised the students for being such good sports and he noted that the volunteer cooks today, Dick and Joan Fahning, had praised the students and wanted them to know how well behaved and mannerly they were, thanking them for the pizza. He explained how long ago, the best thing a young Indian child could possibly do was to gain the praise of an elder. He told them they all had accomplished that feat today.
Bob Kovar,
Project Director
Intercultural
Leadership
Initiative
Intercultural Leadership Initiative
2007-2008
LdF/NLES/MHLT/AVW 7th Grade Session #1
November 26, 2007
Camp Jorn 9:00am-2:00pm
LdF Students: 5 LdF Teacher: Doreen Wawronowicz
NLES Students: 6
AVW Students: 4
MHLT Students: 8 MHLT Teacher: Mary Tyler
ILI Volunteers: Dick and Joan Fahning
ILI staff: Alice McFarlane, Craig Kerr, Matt White, Ernie St. Germaine, Bob Kovar.
This was the first day in our small groups for 7th grade. Over the next two weeks we will be doing this for both 7th and 8th grade ILI students. We started the day out quietly as the students came in the door. Our focus today was on conflict, privilege and advantage.
Bob welcomed the group and explained how today would be different than any other ILI session they had attended so far because we were going to begin our discussions of the real issues and the reason why ILI is here in our community. Ernie then brought the group together for a history lesson to highlight the concepts for today. He asked students to give him their ideas about what an “uneven playing field” means. Students had some good ideas about what they thought was “uneven”, like 8th graders being bigger or faster than they were and using their larger size as an advantage. Ernie asked “when you are on the disadvantaged side what do you do?” One student said you have to use what you have, be smarter or quicker. Ernie then told a story about prohibition and how trickery can be used as well to overcome disadvantages. He talked about his grandfather who, even though he was a decorated veteran from World War I, he was not allowed to be a citizen of the United States. Indian people did not become citizens until 1924. Ernie talked about how he went to a segregated school in Hayward. Ernie was 10 years old when the Hayward schools became desegregated in 1958. In a sense our grade schools here are still somewhat segregated, something the students seemed to really understand.
Ernie asked the students to form 4 rows facing him like students in a classroom. The students placed themselves in their rows pretty much by their school. Ernie then moved a few of the students around showing how his teacher moved the Indian students in his class to the back of the room. He asked the group if they understood why his teacher would do something like this. He deliberately then moved a student with darker skin to the back of the room. He asked the group why he did this. Students seemed uncomfortable with that question-because no one really wanted to say the real reason why even though they knew why-including the student he moved there. Finally, one of the students said “because of their skin color?” “Yes!” Reality sunk in but it was very cool how it happened. No one was harmed and the experience allowed students to hear and see what we are here at ILI to try and understand and change. It all felt very safe and the students now understood what, and how, we were going to be talking about things today. This was a great introduction of the concepts of privilege and advantage.
We then broke for snack, but with a twist today: students who were wearing blue jeans were given a snack bar but were told they could not have juice. They were given a cup and had to go get water from the drinking fountain. Unknown to the students today we chose students who were not wearing blue jeans to be disadvantaged today.
We then broke the students into three groups. The students self selected into groups today. We had them write down the stereotypes that they thought the other schools might think about them and their school. After that we had them list the privileges that boys have over girls. Then we had them list the privileges girls have over boys. We had a good discussion on what privilege is and who has it and who doesn’t. We also talked about the power that is associated with those who have the privilege. Then we talked about the ability to use your power when you are privileged to help those who are not in a privileged position. We talked about privilege that relates to skin color, socioeconomic class, popular vs. not popular, etc.
During lunch, students with blue jeans were given only 1 piece of pizza to start with, others could have as many pieces as they wanted. After lunch we began with an activity called the bus. It is an activity where people can see their similarities and differences as they get off the bus at opposite bus stops. For example Packers exit on the left Bears exit on the right. Then everyone gets back on the bus for the next instruction. This was followed by an activity where students had to cross over a line if they participated in an activity spoken by the facilitator. “Cross the line if you have ever told a lie.” These questions became gradually harder and harder and more and more pointed. One of the final questions was, ” Has anyone ever been made fun of because of their ethnic background.” A few students moved and we discussed the previous activities and why we did them. While we were talking LdF teacher Doreen Wawronowicz talked about her life growing up and going to school. She shared deeply about what it was like to grow up in the Lakeland area as an American Indian woman. She also expressed the different conflicts and growth experiences she had as she went to college and returned to try and get a job. The students listened closely to everything that she had to say. Then they began to ask her questions about her culture. The students felt safe to ask these questions that they have had on their minds and now had the opportunity to ask and get answers.
Finally, as we wrapped up in the big group, students who wore blue jeans were able to share about how they felt being discriminated against today. There was a lot of frustration and not understanding why we did it. One student said, “It wasn’t fair and ILI is about being fair and treating everyone equally.” There we a few students who expressed similar thoughts. We talked about the importance of being able to understand what an unequal playing field looks and feels like. We wanted them to experience this first hand since that is the best way to understand and now as we meet more we can delve deeper into these issues.
Ernie ended with a story about Jim Thorpe and Dwight Eisenhower. They met on the football field where Dwight had all of his misconceptions of American Indians erased by this incredible athlete. Because of this experience, as President he visited the Lakeland area and spent time on the reservations and building positive relationships with many of the “Head Men” and/or Tribal Presidents. Many of the schools in the local area desegregated before other schools in the country as a result of his visits to Wisconsin. The students were fascinated by this story. We were incredibly proud of how open and engaged the students were today!
Bob Kovar,
Project Director
Intercultural
Leadership
Initiative
Intercultural
Leadership
Initiative
2007-2008
LdF/NLES 6th Grade Session #1
October 16, 2007
Camp Jorn 9:00am-2:00pm
LdF/NLES 6th Grade Session #1
October 16, 2007
Camp Jorn 9:00am-2:00pm
LdF Students: 17 Teacher: Nancy Saykally, Lisa Phillips
NLES Students: 14 Teacher: Terry Theisen
LUHS Student Interns: 3
ILI Volunteers: Joe Strauss, Joyce Barnes
ILI staff: Alice McFarlane, Craig Kerr, Matt White, Ernie St. Germaine, Bob Kovar.
Due to the weather we were inside at Camp Jorn once again today. We had a much smaller group but still plenty of good positive energy. Camp Jorn is such an accommodating place and they have plenty of good inside space for us to facilitate our sessions without skipping a beat. We started the day in the Lodge in a big group. We split this group into 6 smaller ones and each group had the task of developing a “human postcard” or “skit” that represents one of the words ILI starts all our sessions with: pride, communicate, respect, cooperate, safety and fun. The high school mentors each led one of the groups as did some of the teachers. It was fun to see the creativity in these skits! Plus, the words really get driven home through active participation and discovery. The rest of the morning was broken down between some brief name activities to make sure everyone knew each other and some more challenging initiatives that created new opportunities for the students to learn how to work together.
One of the groups today was really flying through the initiatives-because they worked so well together- and we had to keep ramping up the challenges. They were up for it and it was amazing at not only at what they were able to accomplish, but how good they all felt about themselves and each other. As the initiatives got harder they seemed to get closer and closer with each other. The hard work brought them together as much as the sense of accomplishment. A great lesson and it was really fun to watch! One of the groups even built a human pyramid on their own towards the end of the day as a challenge to themselves!
The highlight of the day came in a different group. There were some students being disrespectful (not listening) and one of the high school mentors, Kassie, asked the whole group to stop what they were doing and come sit in a circle so they could have a discussion about respect. She talked for a few minutes about the importance of being a respectful person when these students get into high school. She talked about respecting yourself and respecting others and how they all needed to know that being disrespectful was only going to get them in trouble and would make their high school years at LUHS miserable. The students were completely glued to her every word and it really sank in. Some of the students then spoke up about how disrespect has hurt them or confused them in their lives. Matt and Kassie led this discussion in a really healthy way and everyone agreed that they understood the importance being respectful-to themselves and to others. Another example of LUHS mentors being excellent positive role models for younger students. At the end of the day as we were processing with the LUHS students, we pointed out how they changed their “community” today-and if they ever want to know how to change community, all they have to do is be themselves and it will change because of their good hearts and positive attitudes.
Bob Kovar,
Project Director
Intercultural
Leadership
Initiative
Intercultural Leadership Initiative
2007-2008
LdF/MHLT/AVW 6th Grade Session #1
October 15, 2007
Camp Jorn 9:00am-2:00pm
LdF Students: 19 Teacher: Katie Black, Todd Christensen
MHLT Students: 15 MHLT Teacher: Jaime Weigel
AVW Students: 20 AVW Teacher: Blaine Waters
LUHS Student Interns: 2
ILI Volunteers: John and Gretchen Spickerman.
ILI staff: Alice McFarlane, Craig Kerr, Matt White, Ernie St. Germaine, Bob Kovar.
We had another BIG group today-54 students! Unfortunately the weather did not allow us to host the session in the LUHS school forest as planned but we had made prior arrangements with Camp Jorn as a back-up last week. We started the day out in the large group where we went over the ILI words. We then split the groups into three and spread out across Camp to work in smaller, more manageable groups. The morning was spent getting reacquainted through name activities and other activities like “Have You Ever..” “What Do We Have in Common..” that allowed students to remember each others names and remember things about each other from last year. Before lunch, we began to challenge the groups with some higher initiatives. One group tried to work on getting their whole group on a tarp and then turn the tarp over without removing their feet. It started out very positive and then slowly students began to feel frustrated and finally Craig stopped the group and processed the activity. The students all really participated well in sharing why they thought it wasn’t working-one person summed it up well, that the group was “out of balance”. Craig then helped the group work through what it takes to bring balance in a group and inside ourselves. It was an excellent conversation-very respectful and understanding- and the students were as focused as they had been all morning. They talked about communication and how important it is in our everyday relationships. Craig asked the group to look at what parts of our bodies communicate how we are feeling-is it just our voices? Is it our faces? Our body language? The students really worked well together through this dialogue. The next challenge was “The Cube” a cube made up of hula-hoops taped together. The object is to get your whole group through the cube without touching the floor in the middle of the cube.
Another challenge had the group trying to fit pieces of a big puzzle together. Each person in the group had a piece and they had to hold onto it until they could find where it went. This was difficult as well as they had to be patient-and it was made harder with certain students being blindfolded and others could not speak. Some in the group felt that they did not accomplish the challenge thru to the end while others felt the accomplishment was in the trying and working together.
At the end of the session, we once again processed the whole day with Randi Jo and Mason, the LUHS student mentors. They were really excited about the opportunity to mentor today and they did an amazing job! They both commented on how it was cool that the students seemed to listen and respond to them as well as look up to them. Once again, we were extremely proud of these two fine students and the terrific role models they were for all of the younger ones today.
Bob Kovar,
Project Director
Intercultural
Leadership
Initiative
Intercultural Leadership Initiative
2007-2008
LdF/NLES 5th Grade Session #1
October 9, 2007
Camp Jorn 9:00am-2:00pm
LdF Students: 21 LdF Teachers: Kevin Smith, Jeff Fieck.
NLES Students: 16 NLES Teacher: Sharon Schmidt
LUHS Student Interns: 2
ILI Volunteers: Dick and Joan Fahning
ILI staff: Alice McFarlane, Craig Kerr, Matt White, Ernie St. Germaine, Bob Kovar.
Our group was a little bit smaller today but the energy level was plenty high! We started the day out much like yesterday with introductions and then once again had small groups work on building an acrostic of the 6 words we stress at the beginning of each session. Each group then went up in front of everyone and shared the words that described their word-some of them were pretty creative like the “a” in “communicate” stood for Alltel. The majority of the words the groups came up with were excellent representations of what these words mean in our ILI sessions. This sets the stage for the remainder of the day and we spend about ½ hour making sure that students understand and are willing to live by these concepts: safety, respect, communicate, cooperate, pride and fun. After this we then did a number of activities with the students to help them with their high level of energy. After snack, we moved outdoors to give the students more room to move around and get rid of some of their energy. We had some great renditions of Captain Says, The Inviting game, Blob Tag and Mosquito Tag. The Inviting Game is a new activity where the students are split into 6 groups and the facilitator asks everyone “who in your group has….” And fills in the blank with one of a number of things like most sisters, woke up the earliest today etc. The person in the group who has “the most” in the group then circulates around and other groups invite them to join their group. It’s a great way for students to get to know more about each other and then to be invited into a different group and honored for their accomplishment or things in their lives or families.
The three groups rotated during the day between three main sessions. One session was to become reacquainted by revisiting name activities from 4th grade. Another session was ILI Jeopardy where students get to play the Jeopardy game-we have built a board and each of two groups get a lightswitch that turns a light on the Jeopardy board if they have the question to the answer first. Everyone really seems to like this activity and the categories help draw the students into their cultural experience for the day. The categories are really fun and interesting: How to speak Flambodian (some really great slang sayings from LdF like “skoden” which means “let’s go then”); Harry Potter, Lac du Flambeau History, Weather; Wisconsin History; Famous People. The third session was ILI Multi Lingo-Bingo. Students are split into a number of small groups (4-5 students) and are given giant cards with pictures of 9 animals on them. The facilitator calls out the name of the animal in one of the languages chosen for today (Ojibwe, French, Spanish) and the students then cover those animals on their card until they have “bingo”. Once again today the students were very respectful and asked students to be in their groups who they thought understood these languages. This is a great activity for both learning and sharing languages. After lunch Craig told a story to the group, with Matt drawing accompanying illustrations to try and quiet everyone’s minds after lunch and before the afternoon sessions.
The LUHS ILI mentors once again did an excellent job helping to facilitate many of today’s activities-the younger students followed them everywhere and stuck to them like glue. At the end of our sessions we process the day with the LUHS mentors and the main thing we hear over and over from the high school students is how good their being here made them feel. What makes them feel good? The way the younger students look up to them; helping make a difference in the community; having the chance to be mentors after having been mentored when they were younger in ILI; the positive impact they have on the younger students; their ability to connect to the younger students; facilitating activities and more! Mentoring is a much underutilized protective factor for our teens and we are looking for more ways to incorporate this in our ILI project. We ended the day with evals and thanked everyone for being here and making it another excellent day!
Bob Kovar,
Project Director
Intercultural
Leadership
Initiative
Intercultural Leadership Initiative
2007-2008
LdF/MHLT/AVW 5th Grade Session #1
October 8, 2007
Camp Jorn 9:00am-2:00pm
LdF Students: 20 LdF Teachers: Lori St. Germaine, Greg Ziebart.
MHLT Students: 15 MHLT Teacher: Nancy Peterson.
AVW Students: 19 AVW Teacher: Roberta Johnson
LUHS Student Interns: 3
ILI Volunteers: John and Gretchen Spickerman.
ILI Staff: Alice McFarlane, Craig Kerr, Matt White, Ernie St. Germaine, Bob Kovar.
We had quite a large group today-54 5th graders! The theme for 5th grade this week is “Ask/Invite” and we will be facilitating activities that help students learn about asking others questions to get to know them better as well as inviting others into their lives. We started the day in a large circle with introductions of the “adults” in the circle. We then broke the group into 6 smaller circles. We tried something new with the 6 concepts words we discuss at the beginning of every ILI session that worked really well. Each group had one of the “ILI words” and worked on building an acrostic of their group word (safety, respect, pride, communication, cooperate and fun). We then reconvened the large group and each of the smaller groups “taught” the big group about their word by using words they made up from the letters of their words! There were really some great ideas and it reinforced the importance of the words and their meanings to the whole group. Plus-it was fun being in a smaller group to work on it! After snack, we moved outdoors to give the students more room to move around and get rid of some of their energy. We had some great renditions of Captain Says, The Inviting game, Blob Tag and Mosquito Tag).
The three groups rotated during the day between three main sessions. One session was to become reacquainted by revisiting name activities from 4th grade. Another session was ILI Jeopardy where students have to ask questions in response to a series of answers in various categories on a big board. Everyone really seems to like this activity and the categories help draw the students into their cultural experience for the day. The third session was ILI Multi Lingo-Bingo. Students are split into a number of small groups (4-5 students) and are given giant cards with pictures of 9 animals on them. The facilitator calls out the mane of the animal in one of the languages chosen for today (Ojibwe, French, Spanish) and the students then cover those animals on their card until they have “bingo”. It was interesting to watch the groups make sure they had representatives in their group who they thought would understand the various languages. This is a great activity for both learning and sharing languages, and it really honors the students who know another language besides English.
The LUHS ILI mentors once again did an excellent job helping to facilitate many of today’s activities-their impact on the younger ones is always inspiring. We ended the day with evals and thanked everyone for being here and making it an excellent day!
Bob Kovar,
Project Director
Intercultural
Leadership
Initiative
Intercultural Leadership Initiative
2007-2008
LdF/AVW 4th Grade Session #1
October 4, 2007
Camp Jorn and Vilas Cranberry Marsh 9:00am-2:00pm
LdF/AVW 4th Grade Session #1
October 4, 2007
Camp Jorn and Vilas Cranberry Marsh 9:00am-2:00pm
LdF Students: 12 LdF Teacher: Rhonda Maulson
AVW Students: 14 MHLT Teacher: Lori Berryman
LUHS ILI Student Mentors: 5
ILI Staff: Craig Kerr, Matt White, Alice McFarlane, Ernie St. Germaine, Bob Kovar.
Today was another beautiful fall day at Camp Jorn! We structured the day much as we had the previous two 4th grade sessions this week. We started the day out with introductions and going over the ILI words: safety, cooperation, pride, respect and FUN! ILI staff acts some of the words out and we ask for student volunteers who also act one of the words out. Finally, Matt uses his amazing stick-people art to illustrate cooperation. His artwork is contagious-in many of our session evals this week students are drawing similar stick figures in the drawing portion of the eval. Role models come in all forms! LOTS of ants-in-the-pants this morning so we did some very active versions of Captain says and Mosquito Tag. The students seemed really excited to be here this morning and by snacktime the schools were mixing pretty well. Something about having fun that just brings kids together in short order. After snack we went outside-just a gorgeous day-and broke into 3 smaller groups to work on learning each other’s names. After lunch, Ernie talked to the group about the five ways you can receive a name in Ojibwe culture-the students were all really engaged. Some of the students shared the origin stories of their names and even nicknames. Ernie stressed the importance of names and left the students with the notion that every time someone calls you by your name-it makes you stronger.
This group of students was really quick to get to know each other and become friends. At lunch, two girls came up arm in arm and said “this is my NEW friends-we are BEST friends and we will be together every time we come together!” The look in their eyes was just inspiring. We loaded up the group onto a bus and headed out to Vilas Cra