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Session Summaries: LUHS Junior/Senior, Fall '07 |
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Intercultural Leadership Initiative
Junior/Senior Activity Period # 6
12/19/07
LUHS
Junior/Senior Activity Period # 6
12/19/07
LUHS
ILI Students: (J) 7, (S) 6
ILI Staff: Matt White and Craig Kerr
We had a good group of students. The students were reminded of the days that they will be working with the younger students. Craig and Matt talked with the students about how important it is for them to be there as role models for the younger students and how much the younger students look up to them. Then Craig and Matt talked with them about the issues of privilege and race we have been teaching the younger students. One student suggested asking the elementary ILI students what each group thinks about each other because we had that discussion with the Junior/Senior group when no white students showed up.
Once again today it just happened that only American Indian students showed up for our session. Craig asked the students that were there “what would you like the white students of this school to understand about you?” Some students talked about having the students understanding that they are not mean and that they should not be afraid to talk to them just because they are from Flambeau.
He also asked them about what they would like the teachers to know about them. While we were having this conversation the idea came up that maybe they could help teachers understand their perspectives as Indian students.
The session was great!
Next meeting is Jan. 14
Bob Kovar,
Project Director
Intercultural Leadership Initiative
Intercultural Leadership Initiative
Homeroom Activity Period 9:45-10:15am
LUHS Junior/Senior Session #5
12-05-07
LUHS ILI Students: Sophomores: 3 Juniors: 10
ILI Staff: Matt White, Craig Kerr
Matt started by calling everyone into a circle and explaining the meaning of the word Solace: A safe place known for its comfort and relief. The students were then each given the name of an item of food to keep secret until all had their own. Then Matt had the students try to get into groups that they thought would make some good dish or combined item (Peanut and Butter get together and then find Grape and Jelly who then go find White and Bread who have gotten together on their own). In the end, maybe you build a PBJ sandwich or maybe you have fry bread with cranberry sauce. The students were very creative and it was a great activity to help explain perspective and let students see how different we may think with the same issues at hand.
After a short time to see what they thought about the activity, Matt gave them a choice of physical game or a thinker. They chose active. Matt had 3 groups of 3 and one of 4 get on the four corners of the bouncy gymnastics mat. Then he gave them instructions of how many limbs they could use to move their group around. Each group had to stay connected at all times. When they had figured out how to move themselves about, Matt told them that they were going to play tag using those rules of group movement. It was a lot of fun as they saw each other move about in very goofy ways.
Then Matt had them sit in a close circle with their feet in the middle and had them pass a ball around the circle using only their legs and feet. After the first test run the group tried to improve their time. Starting at 14 seconds and getting it down to 9ish.
Matt then played a song for the group called “The Solace of You”. After it played Matt explained that the songs point was that if you are really comfortable with who you are you have the power to overcome any thing life or people can throw at you. Whatever happens you would have yourself and the strength inside. He left them with the fact that he and Craig were very proud of the things they see inside all of the students in the group.
Bob Kovar,
Project Director
Intercultural Leadership Initiative
Intercultural Leadership Initiative
2007-2008
Junior/Senior Activity Period #4
LUHS 9:45-10:15am
11/7/07
ILI Students: (J) 10, (S) 4
ILI Staff: Craig Kerr and Matt White
Craig asked all of the students to sit in a circle. He began by saying “Where are all of the white kids?” As we discussed the fact that there were no students in attendance other than students from Lac du Flambeau one student asked, ”Did you ask them not to come?” The student was thinking that maybe he had set it up. Craig replied “No.” It was just how it worked out today. The students and staff then began a conversation on what it is like to be an American Indian in the school. Some students shared freely about the barriers that they face when they are in the school. Other students commented that they did not feel like they face any barriers in the school. Another student commented that it was not as bad as a previous school that student had attended where some terrible things were scrawled on their locker their first day there. A whole range of issues were discussed, from how being involved in sports seem to improve “acceptance” to questions about why LUHS adults stand by the LdF school bus at the end of the day and not the other buses. Lots of interesting comments and it was a positive discussion that gave the students a rare opportunity to explore some of these issues and have their feelings, perceptions, questions and concerns validated. These are not easy issues and a short period of time to discuss them in makes it more difficult. The ILI staff has talked about the importance of having students of similar backgrounds have a forum where they could be free to share how they feel without the worry of offending others different than themselves. We had that opportunity today with our students and it was a powerful, very positive experience.
Bob Kovar,
Project Director
Intercultural Leadership Initiative
Intercultural Leadership Initiative
Soph/Junior/Senior Homeroom #1
LUHS
10/31/07
ILI Students: (So) 6, (J) 9, (S) 5
ILI Staff: Matt White and Craig Kerr
Since we have had a couple of our Freshman/Sophomore Homeroom sessions canceled due to different circumstances we decided to invite our sophomores to this session. All of the freshman homerooms were in the commons having an ice cream social today so no freshman at today’s session.
Craig began with having everyone grab a domino. After everyone had a domino Craig explained that they needed to find someone that they could match their domino with and find out one thing that they had in common. Once they had achieved that, then they had to try and get themselves into a circle with all of the dominos connecting. It was interesting to see how some of the students jumped in and others hung back. Craig then interrupted and told everyone that they were the only ones that could handle their own domino. This caused those who were disconnecting to need to be involved. Finally Craig stopped that activity and processed the activity with the students. He asked the students why they thought that he had had them do the activity. Some of the words the students talked about were teamwork, communication, and problem solving. Craig let them know that this was a new activity that we wanted to try. Matt then led a discussion on how we could have set up the activity better. The students had good insights into how to improve the activity.
Matt lead an activity called Monarch Tag. The students were ready to move around and be active and enjoyed that activity. The activity starts with one person being it with a flying object…we used a sponge Bob soft Frisbee. The person has to tag others to get them on their team. The person who is “it” cannot move while they have the Frisbee in their hand but can move when they do not. The idea is to get everyone on your team. This activity went on until the bell rang.
Next meet on Nov. 7 is Junior/Seniors
Bob Kovar,
Project Director
Intercultural Leadership Initiative
Intercultural Leadership Initiative
2007-2008
Junior/Senior Session #3
10/17/07
LUHS 9:45am-10:15am
LUHS ILI Students: 6
ILI Staff: Matt White, Alice McFarlane
As the session started, Matt called for the group to sit down. He asked the group what they thought of the ILI “Pillar” words. Respect, Pride, Safety, Communication, Cooperate and Fun. We go over these words every session and Matt wondered if they thought there were any ways to communicate these ideas more clearly or make them take on more life for the grade school students. One of the ideas offered was for the staff to act out in detail what the differences would be between each word and it’s opposite. For example: Choosing Cooperation over Chaos will equal Success. The group kicked around ideas for a little while and then Matt suggested the group participate in a few common ILI activities and see if we could see any examples of the words that would make themselves apparent. The group had fun testing these out for the rest of the period.
Bob Kovar,
Project Director
Intercultural Leadership Initiative
Intercultural Leadership Inititative
Junior/Senior Homeroom #2
10/3/07
LUHS
ILI Students: 16
ILI Staff: Matt White, Craig Kerr
Today we let the students know which days they were scheduled to mentor. Then we led the students through some of the activities that we will do with the younger students to get them prepared to lead them.
The first activity we did with them was the duck-duck-goose activity. This activity is based on duck-duck-goose except that instead of saying duck-duck-goose you use the name of each person. If you pause or forget the name of the person you are behind you take off running and they have to try to catch you.
The second activity we did was the ball toss name game. All of the students were in a circle and Craig was in the middle. The person who starts with the ball says their name and then the name of the person they are going to throw the abject to. The person in the middle is trying to tag the person with the object.
The next activity we did was a variation on toe tag. The students once again stood in a circle and stuck out one of their hands and Craig was in the middle. A student started by saying their name and then a name of someone in the circle and Craig had to try to tag that person’s hand before they said their own name and passed it to another student by saying their name. This activity is very similar to the activity above but just enough of a twist to be different.
We ended with the activity elbow tag. Matt had everyone partner up and explained the activity. Everyone has a partner and they link one of their arms together. There is one “it” and a “not it”. The activity starts and the “not it” connects with the free arm of a pair and the other person in the pair now is the “not it”. You “it when you are tagged.
Craig ended by talking about the expectations that we have of the mentors. And as usual the time with the students was up fast!
Next meeting is Oct. 17
Bob Kovar,
Project Director
Intercultural Leadership Initiative
Intercultural Leadership Initiative
Junior/Senior
Homeroom #1
LUHS
9-19-07
LUHS
9-19-07
LUHS ILI Students: 13 ILI Staff: Matt White, Craig Kerr
Today we had a small crowd due to the Wisconsin Education Fair. Schools from the surrounding areas also bring their students to LUHS to talk with school representatives from all over the Midwest.
Craig started the session talking with the students about their opportunities to mentor the younger ILI students. A few more of the students volunteered to help with this. Others mentioned that they would like to stay with their younger students because they had made a real positive connection with one of the grade school students. That was really exciting to hear!
Matt then introduced “Mushroom”, a favorite activity of this group. After a couple of rounds, one played by individual and one played in pairs, he let the students know about the opportunities to come after school and participate in ILI. Then, Matt introduced another favorite “Samurai Tag”. The students really enjoyed these activities and were excited about ILI beginning again.
The next meeting is October 4.
Bob Kovar,
Project Director
Intercultural Leadership Initiative