This week’s Friday Lesson continues our “back to school” series of community building strategies to help educators develop positive rapport in their classrooms or with staff or advisory groups. “Group Bingo” is a well-known “get to know you” favorite. This version of Group Bingo is offered by Laurie Frank and Chris Cavert in their [...]
Last week we shared the first in a series of classroom community building Activities aimed at helping you start the school year off on the right foot.
The handshake activity we shared is a great method for “breaking the ice,” building rapport, and practicing social introductions and names.
A key ingredient for creating a positive environment in [...]
It’s “back to school time” and many educators are looking for activities to help them start the school year off on the right foot. Over the upcoming weeks we will be offering a series of posts focused on building a positive foundation for a productive classroom learning environment.
Along with the upcoming activity posts, readers might [...]
During these final days of summer many families gather for vacations and reunions. Educators and Counselors often are looking for some new activities for that final session of their summer program, or are starting to think about the first week back at school. Here is a activity from Jackie Gerstein’s Book A Place of Connection, [...]
Our last few Friday Lessons have focused on “Executive Functioning” and some simple activities that help learners practice cognitive and social/emotional skills. Here is another adaptable activity from John Bergman and Saul Hewish’s book Challenging Experience.
Blind Slalom
Aims:
Practice visual mapping.
Practice controlled behavior.
Practice safe physical behavior.
Method:
Have the group stand in a diagonal line across the [...]
Last week we shared a role-play activity from John Bergman and Saul Hewish’s book Challenging Experience. Though their book is targeted at serious offenders, their collection of activities are quite adaptable for any counselor or educator looking to help learners improve executive functioning.
Executive Functions are the cognitive processes that enable individuals to engage in goal-directed [...]
John Bergman and Saul Hewish offer adaptable, experiential activities in their book, Challenging Experience: An Experiential Approach to the Treatment of Serious Offenders ©2003, Wood ‘N’ Barnes Publishing.
The subtitle of this book can make it sound intimidating or exclusive. But we encourage you not to let that keep you from tapping into [...]
Inspired by Journaling in the Classroom: Educators shares how they have used journaling prompts from The Me I See, 2E with their students.
July’s Friday Lessons have been focused on learning through writing and reflection with examples from our own The Me I See, 2E. Last week Heidi Pauer shared examples from her high school classroom. [...]
Inspired by Journaling in the Classroom: An educator shares how she has used journaling prompts from The Me I See, 2E with her students.
Heidi Pauer, a High School Language Arts Teacher from Bow, NH, shared a couple of fun ideas with us. The first was how she has been using The Me I See, 2E [...]
More on Learning Through Writing and Reflection: Thoughts on Sharing Journal Entries With Others
From The Me I See, 2 Edition ©2009—an easy-to-use collection of journaling prompts produced by the Wood ‘N’ Barnes Collective.
Journaling is a powerful reflection tool that helps individuals solidify and understand their thoughts and work through their personal feelings and reactions to [...]
From The Me I See, 2 Edition ©2009—an easy-to-use collection of journaling prompts produced by the Wood ‘N’ Barnes Collective.
Introducing Students/Clients to Journaling
The practice of reflection is what helps us maintain balance in this hectic world. By passing the art of reflection on to our students and clients we are providing them [...]
A Summary of John Dewey’s Experience and Education from Steven Simpson’s Genuine Learning, Genuine Freedom: An Educator’s Reflections on the Philosophy of John Dewey, in 11 parts.
©2010, Steven Simpson & Wood ‘N’ Barnes Publishing
Point No. 11. If experiential education is to be community-based, it includes teaching students to work with others.
One aspect of [...]
A Summary of John Dewey’s Experience and Education from Steven Simpson’s Genuine Learning, Genuine Freedom: An Educator’s Reflections on the Philosophy of John Dewey, in 11 parts.
©2010, Steven Simpson & Wood ‘N’ Barnes Publishing
Point No. 10. Experiential education is not only student-centered. It also is community-based.
Another reason that Dewey did not [...]
A Summary of John Dewey’s Experience and Education from Steven Simpson’s Genuine Learning, Genuine Freedom: An Educator’s Reflections on the Philosophy of John Dewey, in 11 parts.
©2010, Steven Simpson & Wood ‘N’ Barnes Publishing
Point No. 9. Experiential education, at its core, is student-centered.
In spite of the fact that Dewey had the educator doing virtually [...]
A Summary of John Dewey’s Experience and Education from Steven Simpson’s Genuine Learning, Genuine Freedom: An Educator’s Reflections on the Philosophy of John Dewey, in 11 parts.
©2010, Steven Simpson & Wood ‘N’ Barnes Publishing
Point No. 8. To bring together subject matter and the current interests of students, experiential educators must develop a knowledge base [...]
A Summary of John Dewey’s Experience and Education from Steven Simpson’s Genuine Learning, Genuine Freedom: An Educator’s Reflections on the Philosophy of John Dewey, in 11 parts.
©2010, Steven Simpson & Wood ‘N’ Barnes Publishing
Point No. 7. Experiential educators teach subject matter. Disseminating information (presenting facts and ideas in an orderly manner) is as much [...]
A Summary of John Dewey’s Experience and Education from Steven Simpson’s Genuine Learning, Genuine Freedom: An Educator’s Reflections on the Philosophy of John Dewey, in 11 parts.
©2010, Steven Simpson & Wood ‘N’ Barnes Publishing
Point No. 6. Competent experiential educators have more extensive experience than their students, and the knowledge and wisdom derived from this [...]
A Summary of John Dewey’s Experience and Education from Steven Simpson’s Genuine Learning, Genuine Freedom: An Educator’s Reflections on the Philosophy of John Dewey, in 11 parts.
©2010, Steven Simpson & Wood ‘N’ Barnes Publishing
Point No. 5. Experiential education programming is carefully planned.
A Summary of John Dewey’s Experience and Education from Steven Simpson’s Genuine Learning, Genuine Freedom: An Educator’s Reflections on the Philosophy of John Dewey, in 11 parts.
©2010, Steven Simpson & Wood ‘N’ Barnes Publishing
Point No. 4. Not all experiences are educative. Some close doors to future experiences.
A Summary of John Dewey’s Experience and Education from Steven Simpson’s Genuine Learning, Genuine Freedom: An Educator’s Reflections on the Philosophy of John Dewey, in 11 parts.
©2010, Steven Simpson & Wood ‘N’ Barnes Publishing
Point No. 3. Not all experiences are educative. Some are aimless activity.
A Summary of John Dewey’s Experience and Education from Steven Simpson’s Genuine Learning, Genuine Freedom: An Educator’s Reflections on the Philosophy of John Dewey, in 11 parts.
©2010, Steven Simpson & Wood ‘N’ Barnes Publishing
Point No. 2. Experiential education should be enjoyable and open doors to new experiences.
Learning should never stop. All of us [...]
A Summary of John Dewey’s Experience and Education from Steven Simpson’s Genuine Learning, Genuine Freedom: An Educator’s Reflections on the Philosophy of John Dewey
©2010, Steven Simpson & Wood ‘N’ Barnes Publishing
“Currently I am writing a book about the educational philosophy of John Dewey.1 I’d like to present a list of eleven concepts gleaned [...]
Courtesy of Justin McGlamery & Michael Gessford|
Shared common physical activities can have a positive effect on group focus. Activities that provide everyone with the same experience allow groups to eliminate outside distractions and narrow their focus to a lower common denominator. A shared common physical activity can help your group refocus for [...]
Courtesy of Maurie Lung, Gary Stauffer, and Tony Alvarez|
One of the great things about teaching is that sometimes your students present you with an unexpected gift. That is exactly the case with Balance Challenge. We were teaching a class at the University of Hawaii School of Social Work when one of our students, Warren, [...]
Courtesy of Micah Jacobson |
What is the difference between hearing someone and really listening? How do we know when we are really listening, and maybe even more important, how do others know? In this lesson, we are going to work on listening in a more active and thoughtful way than we do most days.
Activity [...]
Courtesy of Laurie Frank |
This week I would like to offer suggestions about how to take an activity and use it in myriad ways. Seeing an activity and how it fits with your group and situation (e.g., stage in their process, developmental levels, content focus, environment) is the beginning of facilitator freedom. [...]
Courtesy of Chris Cavert |
A.S.A.P. Activities (As Simple As Possible)
Needs: Each activity will have its specific needs. For some of the timed activities, you, the facilitator, will clock everyone under the same time. Also, each activity is designed for groups of 10 to 12 participants.
Procedure: The following activities can be used in a variety [...]
by Chris Cavert, experiential educator and author of Games for Teachers (with Laurie Frank) and the Are You More Like…?/What Would It Be Like…? back-to-back book.
Courtesy of Jennifer Stanchfield author of Tips & Tools: The Art of Experiential Group Facilitation Download This Lesson (pdf)
In past segments of the Friday Lessons series, I have focused on the importance of reflection and have shared a number of metaphoric and active review activities for educators to use with groups. Facilitating individual/self reflection is [...]