 |
Session Summaries: LUHS Junior/Senior, Fall '06 |
|
|
|
Back to Session Summary Page
|
|
|
|
|
|
Intercultural
Leadership Initiative
2006-2007
Junior
& Seniors LUHS Activity Period
December
20, 2006 Session #7
Bob Kovar, Project Director
Intercultural Leadership Initiative
Intercultural Leadership Initiative
2006-2007
Junior & Seniors LUHS Activity Period
December 6, 2006 Session #6
ILI Staff: Alice McFarlane, Craig
Kerr, and Matt White Junior & Seniors LUHS Activity Period
December 6, 2006 Session #6
The students came into the session today with amazing energy oozing out! They sure do like the bouncy floor in the multipurpose room. There were some brainteasers on the floor for them to figure out while everyone made their way into the room. Once all the students were in attendance Craig had them form a circle for the welcome and introduction. Craig told all the students that he was glad they had chosen to come to ILI he was glad to see them. Craig also talked to the students about a surprise that the staff are planning for them on the 20th of December. He told them to watch the board for the details.
Because of the high energy level of the students the staff decided to play a quick round of samurai tag with the students. This activity, with so many students, created a large amount of laughing, running, and challenging. After the quick round of the activity Craig asked the group to split into 3 groups of about 10 or 11. The staff then engaged the students in a discussion on conflict. Matt’s group discussed the causes of a fight, Alice’s group talked about the physical aspects of fighting, and Craig’s group talked about root cause of fighting being anger.
The next meeting is December 20, 2006
Bob Kovar, Project Director
Intercultural Leadership Initiative
Intercultural Leadership Initiative
Intercultural Leadership Initiative
2006-2007
Junior & Seniors LUHS Activity Period
November 15, 2006 Session #5
Today’s draw-in activity was to create 5 arrowheads out of 7 geometric shapes. It is easy to make four. Finding the fifth arrowhead is a challenge because it isn’t made with the shapes. Instead, it is created by making an outline of the shape.
We moved into a large circle and Craig handed out a card to each student with instructions to not look at it and to place it on their forehead. The only guideline for the activity was to treat one another based on the card on their forehead. After the students had milled about, Craig asked them to split into groups based on how they felt during the activity. The groups named themselves: confused, cool kids, loners, royal highnesses, and the hated ones. The students discussed in their small group how they felt during the activity and what made them feel that way.
We gathered back into a large group to share what assumptions they had made: a low card meant you were treated poorly; the ace card was confusing because you could assume it was high or low; it was hard to know how to treat people who had a middle number card. One student said that Craig had given instructions to treat people based on the number of their card. Craig only told students to treat one another based on their card. In reality, they could have treated everyone equal, because the cards are all the same size, made of the same material, and have the same design on the back. The student replied, “It’s a metaphor. At school we walk around and treat people based on what we see on the outside, when we are all really the same on the inside.” Another student listed the outside characteristics that we treat each other: money, family history, race and appearances. “We treat people based on the outside characteristics because we don’t know them. Once we get to know them, those things don’t matter anymore.” A student asked the closing question, “So why don’t we get to know people?”
Bob Kovar, Project Director
Intercultural Leadership Initiative
Intercultural Leadership Initiative
2006-2007
Junior & Seniors LUHS Activity Period 9:40-10:10 LUHS School
November 1, 2006 Session #4
ILI Facilitators: Matt White, Alice McFarlane, Craig Kerr, and Ernie St. Germaine
As the students walked in today, they could join in with a large jump rope activity. Several obstacles had been placed in the way, so it was interesting to watch the students make it work. We continued today with activities that we did last time with this group. Craig asked the group to split into two even groups. Then, in their small groups, they had to complete one round of ‘String of Pearls’. This involves everyone in the group stepping into line when they have a phrase to add to the story. Once the group had completed their string, they picked up a bull ring, a small ball, and headed out to the hallway to start from where they left off last time. It was a quicker start with the bullring this time because some of the students had already been a part of the activity last time. The groups used the same methods as before. One group held the ball in the air with the bull ring. The other group set the bull ring on the floor, with the ball resting in it, and then pulled it along the floor. Each time the ball fell out of the bull ring, someone in the group was either blindfolded or lost their voice. Several students volunteered to be blindfolded or muted. Both groups made it back to the multi-purpose room. We came together in a circle, and the students were asked questions about the activity. They commented on other students stopping in the hallway to see what was happening. This led to a discussion about the congestion in the hallways. Craig encouraged the students to be examples in the hallway and that their actions will have a ripple effect.
Bob Kovar, Project Director
Intercultural Leadership Initiative
Intercultural Leadership Initiative
2006-2007
Junior & Seniors LUHS Activity Period 9:40-10:10
October 19, 2006 Session #3
ILI Facilitators: Alice McFarlane, Craig Kerr, and Ernie St. Germaine
Wow! What a fun morning we had! We had a smaller group than normal today due to winter sports meetings and field trips. We had our meeting on Thursday due to PSAT testing yesterday. Today we started out with an activity called “string of pearls.” This is an activity where the whole group makes a story one person at a time. The story goes from left to right. To get the group started, Craig began with the first line of the story. Then the students can jump in anywhere along the line with their part of the story. (In other words, you do not have to get into the story line in order.) The students were having a really good time with this activity and did it a couple of times. They wanted to do it one more time, but we had to move onto our next activity. Craig had them get into two equal groups, and they figured out pretty quickly that there were not an equal amount of students. Just then, one more student came in and joined to make two equal groups. The two groups had to untangle their bullring (this is a piece of equipment with a small PVC ring with 8 stings attached to it). One group did it faster than the other and began making up their own games. First they were jumping rope, and then they were doing their own version of the maypole dance. It was very fun to see their spontaneity and creativity! When both groups had their bullring untangled they were given their challenge. They had to maneuver their group with the bullring around a course. If they dropped their object off of the bullring someone in their group would lose use of a part of their body (i.e. loss of sight, speech, use of an arm, etc.). The groups were very creative in the way they worked together and there was a lot of laughing and communicating that was going on. It was fun to see them working together so well. We had to stop the activity before they had “finished” their challenge due to a lack of time. We will pick up with them in a similar spot next time we meet on Wednesday November 1, 2006.
Bob Kovar, Project Director
Intercultural Leadership Initiative
Intercultural Leadership Initiative
2006-2007
Junior & Seniors LUHS Activity Period 9:40-10:10
October 4, 2006 Session #2
ILI Staff: Ernie St. Germaine, Craig Kerr, Matt White, Alice McFarlane
As students walked in today, they were handed a playing card and then joined in with several games of Jenga spread out on the floor. Craig opened the time by thanking the students for being here, and letting them know of the opportunity to mentor at the upcoming 7th and 8th grade ILI sessions. Everyone then broke into 3 groups based on the playing card they had. Queens went with Alice, Kings with Matt, and Aces with Craig. Each small group went through a progression of challenges with a tarp. The first challenge was to get everyone under the tarp. Each group tried it in different ways. They could choose to be under the tarp with their whole body, or just one foot, as long as they were working together and agreed on the method. Some groups accomplished this quickly, and others took a little longer to get everyone on the same page. The next challenge was Magic Carpet. The whole group stood on the tarp, and then had to flip the tarp over, without stepping off the tarp. Each of the groups accomplished this pretty quickly. They were working together well, listening to one another and staying on task. One group completed the challenge by having everyone jump at the same time, while one student pulled the folded side out. It may sound easy to get 10 people to jump at the same time, but it is harder than it sounds. If the group was able to master the Magic Carpet, they then had to try it again, but they were not able to use their hands. The final challenge was to see how many times the tarp could be folded in half. After completing the challenges, each small group processed the experience on their own. One group talked about the folding of the tarp, and the difference between doing it quickly or with quality. By taking more time and making sure the folds are done well, you can fold the tarp more times. This was related to making connections with others, and that they do not happen quickly, but that it takes time to invest in one another. We wrapped up our time as a large group, and reminding them of our next time together.
Bob Kovar, Project Director
Intercultural Leadership Initiative
Intercultural Leadership
Initiative
2006-2007
LUHS Junior/Senior Summary Meeting #1
September 6, 2006
LUHS Junior/Senior Summary Meeting #1
September 6, 2006
ILI Staff: Craig Kerr, Matt White, Alice McFarlane, Ernie St. Germaine.
Today was our first day of meeting with the juniors and seniors and the first time for this group of students to be together. We are trying out a new format to keep us focused so that we can fit in as much as possible into a half hour. Our theme for today was ‘Connect’. The first way we illustrated this was through several intro games. As students walked in, Craig had a human size tic-tac-toe board on the floor, where students had to make either an X or an O with their body. Once there were too many students for the board, they transitioned to Multi-language Animal Bingo. Several students gathered around a large card with pictures of animals. Craig called out the names of animals in German, Spanish, Ojibwe and French, but no English. A group would win once they had 3 in a row. It was fun to watch as the students listened to figure out if anyone in their group knew the animal names. Craig opened up the session by introducing our new structure, revisiting the words of ILI (safety, communication, cooperation, pride, fun, self, empathy and respect) and talking about our theme of connecting. Matt led the group in Name Bingo. Each student had a paper with 25 boxes that had the sentence, ‘Find someone who…’ The goal was to get the signatures of others who had done the specific activity. Once they had 5 boxes signed in a row they would have bingo. The students started out in their spots around the circle, but they quickly moved around to gather as many signatures as possible. Matt called out for the students to move back into the circle, but the students were too into the activity, so it took a little longer to come back together. Matt asked the students questions about new people who they had met, how many bingos they had and what they had learned about people. He brought out the point that it takes time to connect with people, and lots of interactions to find out the specifics about one another. Craig closed our session by talking about other opportunities the students have to be involved with ILI by mentoring during grade school sessions, and being involved with ILI After School Leadership.
Bob Kovar, Project Director
Intercultural Leadership Initiative