ILI Students: (F) 9, (S) 8, (J) 4
ILI Staff: Matt White and Craig Kerr
 
We started today in a circle and Craig welcomed the group and thanked them for coming.  He preceded to hand everyone a card and asked them not to look at it.  He told everyone when he said “go” that they were to put the card on their forehead and get themselves into groups based on the color of their card.  After they successfully accomplished this he had them switch cards with three other people and they had to get into groups based on the suit of their card.  After they completed this he had them switch cards with three or four other people.  He had them get into groups based on the number or face of their card.  During these activities Craig told the students that they could not talk.  The students found other ways to communicate to each other to help each other get into groups.  Craig had the students switch cards with four other students after the students were in groups according to the face value.  The final activity was to treat each other based on the card that they have on their forehead.  It was interesting to see how the students treated each other as they went on with this activity.  Some of the students with lower cards were ignored or treated badly.  All of the “Royalty” cards were bowed down to and treated with dignity.  We had the students circle up at the end of the activity and talked about how they treated one another during the last activity.  We talked about who society says should be respected and who should not be.  Craig asked them if all of the cards were the same shape.  He asked them if some of the people had the same color or suit as others.  He also asked why they treated each other so differently based on the face value of the card.  The students began to think and talked about how we treat people by the way they look.  We ended our conversation with the thought that we are able to choose how we treat people no matter who they are and what society says about them.
 
Next meeting Dec. 12

Bob Kovar, Project Director
Intercultural Leadership Initiative

 
ILI Students: (F) 17, (S) 11
ILI Staff: Craig Kerr and Matt White
 
            We had a great group of students today.  They came in with a lot of energy and excitement.  Craig asked them to get into a circle and welcomed them to ILI, and told them that they had some really fun activities set up for them.  But, they had to show that they were ready to go to the next level or they (Matt and Craig) could not and would not take them because of safety reasons.  They were all up for the challenge.
            Craig had the group break into two.  Matt and Craig each had a group to work with.  They started out with an activity we call “Wind in the Willows.”  In this activity one person stands in the middle of a tight circle of peers.  The person in the middle secures their arms so that they do not flail and their peers are standing in an athletic stance with hands up.  When ready, the person in the middle says “falling” and the peers say “fall on”, and the person in the middle stays stiff and keeps their feet planted and is passed around the circle.  The students really enjoyed this activity.
            When everyone had an opportunity to go, we moved to an activity we call “Bookends”.  This is an activity where one person gets passed back and forth between two people.  Same concept as above except it is with two passers instead of eight to ten.  Everyone had an opportunity to experience this activity and then we moved on.
            The next activity we did was a “Trust Fall.”  This is an activity similar to the above “Bookends”, however there are only two people in the group.  One person leans back and is caught by the other student.  (There is another activity called Trust Fall where people fall into the arm of their peers from an object off of the ground.  We did not do this activity.) 
            When the students had progressed through these activities (each group went at the pace that they were able to manage) we went onto the final activity, “Light as a feather, stiff as a board.”  This is an activity where the whole group lifts one person into the air safely and slowly rocks them from head to foot (like a feather floating to the ground) to the ground where they are softly put down.  The students had to show the focus that this activity takes in order for us to allow them to do it.  They did a very good job and enjoyed the activity.  They did a great job of taking care of each other.
            Finally after a number of students were able to experience this activity (again both groups went at their own speed and one group had more people experience the last activity because they were able to move forward at a quicker pace), we sat down an began a discussion on “Trust and being trustworthy.”  As we were getting into the discussion the bell rang and it was time for them to go.
 
Next meeting is Nov. 28

Bob Kovar, Project Director
Intercultural Leadership Initiative

 
ILI Students: (F) 10, (S) 9
ILI Staff: Matt White and Craig Kerr
 
We started out in a circle as Craig talked about the upcoming sessions with the 6th grade students.  The students were excited to have the opportunity to mentor and one student said they were really looking forward to being with the same group of students as last year.
Matt told the group which students would go on which dates.
 
Craig ran a couple of activities to help the students remember the activities that we will use next week with the 6th grade.
 
We started with “Toe Tag”.  Everyone sits in a circle with their feet in the middle and one person says their name and then the name of someone else in the circle.  The person in the middle of the circle is trying to tag the person before they say their name and then someone else’s name.  The students like this activity and there was quite a bit of laughter and names being learned. 
 
The next activity was “Have You Ever”.  Everyone stand in a circle behind/on a marker.  A person in the middle says, “ Hello, my name is… .” Then, everyone says, “Hello… .”  Then the person in the middle says, “Have you ever…?”  If you have you have to move from your spot.  The students enjoyed this activity as well.  When Craig was explaining the activity he was stopped by the students who said, “We know this activity.”  He responded that he was explaining the activity as an example of how they could introduce the activity to the younger students because we are hoping for them to run these types of activities.  He then went on with the instructions.  At the end, people had to find out one thing they had in common with the person whose shoes they were standing behind.
 
We ended with an activity where the group had to get through the jump rope.  They did it in an amazing fashion.
 
Craig finished by talking with the students about the Oct. 24 meeting being canceled due to the WKCE testing which they were not very happy to hear about.  He also talked about the opportunity to come to ILI after school and the overnight that we are planning.
 
Next meeting is Nov. 14