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Click here to take a brief on-line survey about your Facilitation Training Session.Share your great lessons and ideas with other 180 facilitators around the globe! Please add lessons, ideas, links, etc. by chapter so that others may share. Also see the Resource Material for books, videos, surveys, and web-sites organized by topic. Introduction Introductory Materials and Highlights See attachments below for a sample course outline and some opening day activities. A handout that can be used to introduce students to this website is also available below as an attachment. An activity for helping students decide on an assessment system is attached. A leadership survey with open ended responses for the facilitator to get to know each team member. These same surveys were used a few days later to create a people non-bingo. as an alternative to team games as a warm up activity, another class starter activity called "Leadership Spotlight" is attached Partner appointments, also called Clock Buddies: a giant clock that students listed one person for each hour of their clock to partner with at different points of the quarter. About once or twice a week, I'll list one of the times (Ex: 2:00) on the board so students have to find that person to sit with and partner for the day's activities. It helps avoid using the same person for all discussions. 18 sample icebreakers and warm up games are in an attachment below. Chapter 1 Take a Good Look at Yourself A handout that can be made into an overhead for showing the what/ so what method is attached below We began by reflecting about our proudest moment and then introduced the 3 step process of reflecting mentioned above. I had recruited parents to write letters to their sons or daughters about their proudest moments that were distributed and read at this time. While it was a moving moment, it was also good fuel for discussion- what motivates us, extrinsic vs. intrinsic motivation, the expectations of our parents, etc. Students then returned to their first reflections and took them one step deeper. Similiar to the activity listed above, we reflected on our proudest moments. I had secretly requested letters from each students' parent about how proud they are of their son or daughter. Students had delivered this in sealed envelopes with strict directions not to open it. Some parents e-mailed it to me. The anticipation of what was in the letter added to the excitement. I gave them to students and gave them a few moments to find a private place to read the letter alone. Then, we were able to really use the 3 step process considering the feelings of others and how our actions impact those around us. Chapter 2 Know Thyself: Reflecting on Values, Behaviors, and Attitudes Use the lego activity from training to have students build something they value, OR use Play-Doh An assignment built around Martin Luther King Day is attached below. A way to organize the different activities and discussions on values following a model of "stations" where small teams rotate to different activities is attached as a handout below. Graffiti Wall- We modified Many Different Sides on page 12 in the handbook as a collaborative collection of impressions by other students in the room. The student leaders did a new seating arrangment just for this activity to encourage getting to know new students. They wrote their name in the center and passed it around to each person within their group. At the end, each student reflected on other students' impressions of them and then added and/or deleted more characteristics. Chapter 3 It's All a Matter of Perspective Gender Bender- An activity from Leadership Lessons. Slang Bang- Ms. Stover (SRMHS Dean of Students) gave us this idea but it actually may have come from one of her ice-breaker books. The students separated into ethnic groups and came up with all the terms their own group calls themselves "whitey, white trash, etc." We shared all terms at the end and came up with a pyramid of who had the most names from that ethnic group. It spurred some awesome discussion about how the results of this activity might had been different had the demographics been different, use of acceptable language amongst one's own group, assumptions, etc. Musical Chairs Debate- After practicing a debate from different perspectives (about searching bookbags), we had a musical chair debate. We pushed tables aside and put chairs in a circle. On 24 pieces of paper, we wrote 24 labels from the activity on p. 29. I turned on silly dance music and the students danced around until I stopped it. They had to find a chair immediately and look on the back for the label. We chose one debate topic each round and had those 4 students stand up and debate on the 'fly.' It was a silly yet good exercise in arguing the point quickly without considering your own perspective. Follow up: I had kids then come up with their own topics and brainstorm 4 different perspectives for an updated version of the "Where you stand depends on where you sit" activity. Perspective Shift: we started by having kids list out their top five complaints this morning-- what (or who!) were their biggest problems/ frustrations/irritations/ obstacles. Then after some time reflecting/discussing, I showed them the video "Tell Me Why," and of course, they were immediately struck by the change in the perspective. We talked a bit about why this kind of shift in perspective might prove valuable in a leader. I want to get them out of the "urgent but unimportant" quadrant Have parents write a card/letter to their students saying what they remember about them as a child and what potential they see for their future. This perspective shift, where kids got to see the support of their parents vs the usual criticism/advice, was a HIGHLY emotional day in class-- in a good way! Follow up with the Robert Burns' quote about "seeing ourselves as others see us" for a powerful lesson involving both perspective and reflection. Chapter 4 Thinking Critically About Critical Thinking Use Snopes.com.com to have kids de-bunk popular myths, internet rumors, urban legends, etc. An excerpt from the book Critical Thinking: Tools for Taking Charge of Your Learning and Your Life, by Richard Paul and Linda Elder is attached below We used a classic icebreaker called Two Truths and a Lie to discuss why we make certain assumptions and believe or not believe certain statements. Each student comes up with two true statements and one lie- all three can be fairly believable or very unbelievable so that students have to guess which one is the lie. Chapter 5 Choices and Decisions For our pros/ cons, we brainstormed some of the issues our team had been debating over the last several weeks (tee shirts, Smart lunch, leadership week, and other school focused issues). Each student was given one of these issues and the poster-sized post it notes. It was insightful and we referred to those pros/ cons for weeks as we discussed each issue. Team members passed around sheets in a round-robin style with a different category at the top of each page, such as "Movies," "TV Shows," "Songs," and "Book Titles." As quickly as possible, they wrote down titles where a character's needing to make a choice or decision was a central part of the plot/story/lyrics, and then passed the page like a hot potato. Later we looked at all the titles we had generated and talked about how making choices/decisions is such a central part of life and so many of the stories in our culture. Chapter 6 Organize Yourself For Sucess After students did the right/left brain survey, they were split into 4 groups based on our results. Because we had more right brain leaders, we did two right brain teams, one left brain team, and one whole brain. The teams competed against each other in a silly activity called Telephone Pole Shuffle but any activity would work. Discussion followed about how different teams approach solving a problem based on how they process information. Time logs- we began a timelog on Monday and discussed it on Wednesday. Rather than just adding hours for each kind of activity, I introduced Covey's time matrix/ quadrants. It was important to see how they are using their time. From now on, when we have free time to work on portfolios or in committees, I say we are having a Q II day. Before we discussed procrastination, we did an activity called Pass it On. Students were in a circle passing a ball quickly around their balls. If someone dropped it, they had to start from the beginning again. Afterwards, we discussed how it felt to be the one to drop the ball. We also discussed what tasks they have been the ones to drop the ball and began the next activity. Students listed on post it notes what they procrastinate the most. One student listed everyone's top things they procrastinate on one piece of posterboard. Students were given one sticker to place on the poster for the one thing they procrastinate the most. We basically had a group tally and realized we procrastinate big projects and anything that promises conflict/ confrontation. We invited a local guest speaker who owns a business as a Professional Organizer to visit our class. She talked about how she got into the business, the kinds of problems with organization and time management that she sees with all sorts of different kinds of clients, and the training and licensing she has to work in this field. In addition, she offered many helpful and very practical, applicable tips about how to get started organizing your own materials and work spaces, and even demonstrated by taking students' bookbags as an example and showing how the notebooks, school supplies, loose papers, etc could be better organized and better use the space to help the students be more successful. Chapter 7 Setting and Achieving Goals Students were partnered (using partner appt listed in intro section above) and chose a quote out of a fish bowl. After 1 minute of discussing it together, each student read the quote aloud and said what they felt it meant or how it related to their lives or our 180 team in general. Download handout here. Chapter 8 What's Your Emotional IQ? Chapter 9 Dealing with Pressure: Lighten up a Degree! Chapter 10 Communication, Conflict, and Communication Chapter 11 Leadership 101 Chapter 12 21st Century Global Citizenship: Taking Action Misc. Sample Handouts for use in assessment like a goal setting calendar, weekly reflections, and portfolio requirements are attached below.