Who's in the Spotlight??

"Who's in the Spotlight?" was a typical question that was asked in our group this past Wednesday. We had had some trouble hearing each other last week because everyone was talking over each other, so Arielle had this wonderful idea of using a flashlight to show whose turn it was to talk! If a student (or coach) had the flashlight they were "in the spotlight" and it was their turn to speak. If we noticed others were talking when they didn't have the flashlight we would simply ask "Who's in the spotlight?" to get them refocused. It worked magnificently!

We also established some roles in our group which helped focus them in. We had two Facilitator roles to do two different beginning activities. The Facilitator of the Opening Focus Activity (OFA) came up with a question to ask the group. It could be anything from what was one good thing that happened to you this last week to what's your favorite animal? Olivia was our OFA facilitator this past week and she asked, "What's the silliest thing that happened to you this last week?" As we were debriefing after our time with the students Arielle commented on how it was nice to have even that short amount of time to get to know the students a little better and not have to be solely focused on just "getting the job done;" the job being the public achievement project.

The other Facilitator was in charge of running the Remember and Review (R & R) activity in which we reviewed what we did the week prior. So they asked their classmates what they remembered from the week before and gave them the spotlight as well as said what they remembered. Avery was our facilitator for this activity. It was great to see him step into his role this week in contrast to last week where he was easily distracted.

We also had the role of the Recorder. The Recorder is in charge of writing or drawing anything needed during the meeting. They may also do any audio or video recording needed during the meeting. This last week Rowmar was the Recorder and we needed him to write down new ideas the group had about needed expectations for each other during our meeting times. He did a GREAT job and was very organized about it!

The Encourager is another role we assigned. It may sound kind of like we were running out of ideas, but I believe this is a very important role. It gives the students an opportunity to really reach out and care about their classmates. When they notice a student hasn't been saying much or had the chance to say much they might ask them if they have any ideas or what their thoughts are. The role of an encourager is to give everyone an opportunity to be heard and to encourage others to continue to contribute by including, uplifting, and complimenting them. Brian was the encourager and he was excited to encourage his classmates to speak and contribute to conversation. He definately felt this was a role for him!

The last role we had was the Task-Master. This person will get an outline of the schedule for the meeting and will make sure that the group stays on task to be sure to get all necessary things done. They will keep an eye out for the time and help with transitions to different activities by giving the spotlight to whoever is facilitating the next activity. La'Tavia was our task-master this last week and we could see the pride she took in her role as she paid close attention to the time and helped us move from one activity to the next.

Arielle led an activity in which we responded to the journal entries the students made last week. It was all about what they needed from their classmates in order to do their best with the public achievement problems. In short, what expectations do they have. They each got to be "in the spotlight" and share what "rule" (for lack of a better word) they thought was the best and why. In the end they came up with some new ones, got rid of some they didn't think were necessary, and decided on a list that was somewhat long, but they thought was best. I think having this conversation was very beneficial because now they all know what they need to do and not do. I was very surprised at the importance of throwing trash away to the group. They felt that if their focus was on trash and the environment they needed to be doing their part in not littering! What integrity from our group of fifth graders!!

The last activity we did was brainstorming. We did what's called "Pass the Paper" brainstorming. They used a journal piece of paper and at the top put one idea on a specific issue related to trash/environment. Then they passed their journals to the left. And then read the idea from their classmate and added another idea to the list until they kept passing journals and they got back to where they began. I was a little apprehensive as to how this would go. Would enough ideas be generated? Would it go too fast? It ended up going a lot better than I expected, and it was the perfect amount of time. I think it was a lot better than having 5 students shouting out ideas all at once. It kept them focused and thinking which I believe kept ideas flowing.

Their assignment for journals this week was to pick one of the brainstormed ideas (either thiers or one they read) and research it a little. What is the issue? Why is it important? What causes it? How could it be solved? They are going to bring back their researched ideas on Wednesday and we're going to talk about the different ideas they have and hopefully pick one to start really digging into and researching!

This week was a very motivating week! Things seem to start coming together and I'm excited where the students take us from here!

Public Achievement Core Concepts

This last Wednesday was our second time in the 5th grade classroom at Sojourner Truth Academy. Arielle (my wonderful co-coach) and I were a good half hour early, but it proved to be beneficial since we decided to tweek our focus of the meeting. :)

It was exciting to see the 5th graders again. I was surprised at my lack of memory when it came to their names. Normally I pride myself in how well I remember names, but it was difficult to put the names I did remember to the faces!! :( Hopefully by next week their names will be rooted in my mind. I don't think I'll have any difficulty remembering the students in my and Arielle's group though! I must say, we have an amazing group of kids! But I'll get back to them in a moment.

This last week we decided to help the students understand what Public Achievement was by showing them a video of a group of High School students in Colorado who were active in their school. After talking about issues in their school and deciding on which one they wanted to be pro-active about they set out and researched statistics and interviewed their fellow classmates. Their issue? The cliques and discrimination in their school. In the end they decided to have a "Mix It Up" day where students were encouraged to talk to people they don't normally talk to and sit by people at lunch whom they normally don't sit with. It was both a success and failure because some students chose not to participate while others benefited from the day. In the end, the high school public achievement group experienced democracy at it's finest. They learned they had a voice against the issues that surrounded them, and were active in their community.

After showing this video and talking about it for a very short period we split into our generalized issue groups. We had 5 groups as I believe I stated in my previous blog. We dispersed ourselves among the classroom. This proved to be difficult on our group. We decided to sit at a fairly large table at the side of the room which meant we were more spread out. In our debrief we discussed how this was probably not the best place to sit because it left room for a lot of distractions and it was hard to hear each other. The listening and hearing parts were the hardest of the day. In a room full of students all talking at once in different parts of the room we were unable to hear each other and give each other the attention they deserved.

Arielle and I had a few activities planned for our group. We wanted to talk about the core concepts of public achievement and dive into what public achievement actually is. Afterall if you don't understand what your doing before you do it how can you do it effectively, right? But before we discussed the concepts we went around and said our names and 2 positive things that happened to us this last week. I like that Arielle was thinking positively when she made up this opening question! :) I was surprised at the amount of participation and interaction we got from the 5 students in our group. Even the two students who had been labeled "non-talkers" participated when asked to.

There were 11 core concepts to public achievement. We had construction paper, sharpies, and definitions. Their job was to read the definition and redefine it in their own words so that it would make more sense (the definitions given were worded very complexly). I think it was hard for them to understand the concepts and Arielle and I tried to explain some of them, but we were also participating and trying to make some posters, so that took us away from helping them understand the meanings of the concepts. If we were to introduce core concepts again I would want to make the activity a little more 5th grade friendly. :)

I think another thing that added to the not quite failure, but not quite success of this activity was the simple fact that the amount of noise coming from the room was a huge distraction and it made it hard to think. One of our students got so frustrated with the fact that he didn't understand the concept he was trying to redefine he refused to do it. Thankfully, he didn't throw a fit, or yell, or walk off, he just simply and calmly refused to do it. He tried, and tried, and gave up. He didn't want help, he just didn't want to deal with it anymore which, in the end, was fine. We couldn't make him participate, and I think Arielle and I realized what we were asking the students to do was kind of difficult, though a little more simple for some.

I'm excited to see different personalities and characteristics already come out in our group. One student has shown leaderships skills already, another has a voice for speaking, another is strong-willed, and yet another has many good ideas. If they can learn to work together and allow each other to speak they will make a powerful impact on whatever they choose to do! I'm looking forward to what they come up with. Though I hope that Arielle and I can work together as good, effective, encouraging coaches for them! I have confidence that we can! My fear right now is talking too much. I like to be in control and offer my opinion, so I end up talking a lot. I'm learning about being aware of how much I talk and contribute and making more room for the students and Arielle to talk.

This coming Wednesday we will be talking about expectations that they have for each other in the group; things they need from each other to be able to work well together (ie. only one person talking at a time, stating opinions, being open, contributing ideas, etc). Then we hope to get into some brainstorming activities to think about issues involving trash/environment, so they can go home and research a little about one issue and bring that back the following week.

I really enjoy working with this age group, and as much as I feel like I should be nervous, I'm not. I think preparing for each week gives me confidence for going back and working with them. Sure, last week wasn't a complete success and improvement is needed, but it's only the beginning, and we're learning how to coach just as much as their learning about democracy and public achievement. It's a process, and maybe I have more grace for myself than I should, but I'd rather focus on doing my best, and enjoying my time there than worrying and fretting that I'm not doing things perfectly.

Successful First Day!! :)

So my classmates and I had our first visit to the 5th grade classroom we will be working with at Sojourner Truth Academy yesterday (Wednesday)!!! There's about 25 students in the class who will be splitting up into 5 different core issue groups.

We started our time there with an ice-breaker. They had to think about a one-word character trait or stength that they had that would benefit their public achievement group. Some wrote leader, drawer, math thinker, reader, speaker, encourager, organizer, and more! We (my classmates and I) also participated in this activity. Then it was time to introduce ourselves-students included! Everyone got up and walked around the room introducing themselves to each other. "Hi my name is _____, and I'm a(n)______!" And they talked about how their strength is important for their group. It was fun learning their names and hearing more about them!

Our second activity got them thinking more in depth about issues they already wrote about. They had a journaling activity to do in which they wrote about one thing they would change if they could. There were five different key issue areas we (the coaches) recognized, so we made 5 posters labeled "violence," "fighting," "increased knowledge" (aka. education)," "bullying," and "trash/environment." We added a poster labeled "anything else?" so that the students could add anything that we missed. They were split into 6 groups and spent about 3 minutes at each poster discussing why the issue on the poster was an important issue and should be addressed. They wrote their ideas on post-it notes and stuck them to the poster. I was at the "trash/environment" poster for this activity. I was surprised at how interested in this activity the majority of them were. They were very thoughtful in their responses. Many themes arose in their concerns about trash/environment. They were concerned about the health impacts on humans, pollution of drinking water, harm to animals, and the overall appearance of the community due to littering. I am excited to see what the "trash/environment" issue group comes up with to address one of these issues!!

After this activity ended the students sat back down at their seats and were able to write down their top three issues they would be interested in working on. Over half of the students chose violence as their first choice which shows that it must be a very big issue. Interestingly the topic of "increased knowledge" was the next largest in amount of interest with the students.

After class we had a debrief with Michael K. and Kristy. It was good to quickly talk about how everyone felt about the things that worked, and the things that we would have changed or done differently. We got a chance to split the students into groups and choose the group we will be working with. Arielle and I are working with 5 students whose first or second choice was to work to create change concerning the issue of "trash/environment." From the small amount of interactions I had with the students that are now in the trash/environment group I think we have a great group of students and I am excited to work with them.

There were a few things that we could have done differently or better. One would have been to have already pre-deligated roles for each activity. We, the coaches, did a fairly good job of working together, but I think it was somewhat unorganized for our liking because we weren't sure who was introducing what activity. In the end, it would have been better to have clarity on each one of our roles. Another thing that we decided would have been better would have been to leave out the summary of each poster at the end before they voted. After the students went around and discussed the importance of each poster we summarized what everyone had said, and during debrief we felt this wasn't necessary and took away from some time the students could have kept talking about the issues.

One thing that worked nicely was the ice-breaker. Many of us had our doubts on how the students would like it, but there was much interaction with the activity and many students seemed to have fun with it. I also felt like the coaches did a very good job of working together and planning for this first day with the students.

I enjoyed this first day very much!! I'm excited to get to know the students even better and dive into the issues they have with trash/environment! For the longest time I had wanted to be an upper elementary teacher, so it's exciting to be able to work with this age of students again!