Today was a very exciting day- the beginning of our program! Jia, Michaela, and Julia had organized the curriculum for the day and were leading the activities. They did a fantastic job.
It was really interesting to see how some of the old classic activities, Anatomy of a Leader, worked differently with students from the Chinese culture. In the activity, students first trace the body of one of their group members and then draw things on the outline which represent different qualities a leader needs. For example, one group drew big ears because leaders need to listen to the people they represent, while another drew a liver because leaders need to be able to take a difficult situation with someone and prevent bad blood from ruining their relationship. The students started out with very literal suggestions, but I was really impressed with their creativity in the end.
Students presenting their leader
Later in the day, we told the students that they were the audience of a game show. We had a four of our mentors stand at the front of the room and sets of three facts were listed off that belonged to one of the mentors. The students then had to guess which facts belonged to which mentors. Most of them used assumptions and stereotypes to guide their choices and because many of the facts defied what one would assume from first impressions, most of them misidentified at least half. Jia lead a great discussion for the students about first impressions and how to avoid making wrong assumptions. Our group of students is extremely insightful and most are also very willing to participate.
Another classic activity: Chocolate River
(Careful: DON’T TOUCH THE FLOOR!)
It's a great combination and it made for a wonderful day full of many more fun, didactic activities. The students were also split into their final project groups. In order to provide aid to the migratory-worker elementary school we hope to help through this program, we created 4 groups: finance, internal relations, external relations and implementation to work on different aspects of creating a mentorship program for high school and the elementary school students there as well as completing a project to improve the school. In their groups, the students used brainstorming skills they learned during the day to come up with a lot of possible projects they could work on. Many commonly shared ideas included creating a leadership program similar to the one we're doing here, teaching the students other skills like English, how to study effectively and prepare for their futures, and music or art classes.
Mentors and students engaged in a brainstorming exercise
We also got our mentor / mentee pairings today and everyone is so excited about the students they're working with. We had half an hour to discuss the day, but I was having such a good time talking with my mentees that we only got through the first few activities. After session, some of the mentors went to one of our student's homes to bake in preparation for a cultural "Journey Around the World" activity tomorrow, and the rest of us went to a conference room (with a beautiful, distracting view) to debrief about the day. Everyone felt it went really well and we were also able to offer some suggestions for improvement for the rest of the week. After that, we had some free time for dinner and preparing for the rest of the week. More exciting adventures tomorrow!
-Taylor
No comments:
Post a Comment