[ instigate change ]

Hey Peeps! Sorry for the lapse in time. I've been on the road for the last two weeks and really should have pre-posted more than I did. I've tried to resist the assumption that everywhere in this world has internet access...such was not the case this last week. Here's a new activity! It's a really fun one to play around with and works well with a number of different ages for a whole bunch of contexts. I started using it after I went to a management team building session. I always have to laugh at myself when I'm put into situations where I'm part of the team rather than the facilitator - especially now after facilitating for so many years. I don't really like being facilitated. And though I still love learning - I'm becoming less and less tolerant of being facilitated THROUGH the learning experience. I think that's something that occurs with age. We become know-it-alls or something. What about you? Do you react to facilitators the same way that...

Hey! So did everybody get it? Once you have the patterns - it's difficult to lose it. The most important thing I think when facilitating this activity is to allow your group to fail - to experience the "trial and error". I've seen teachers, parents, and facilitators step in too early because it's hard to watch people struggle. But struggling and working through different ways to do things is a part of life. We as facilitators have the ability to show students and adults of all ages to have the courage to fail, get up and try again. It takes more character to continue trying than it does to quit. I have seen groups try and fail over 30 times in this activity. When I explain it - I also let them know that I have a couple of hints that I can give them but the whole group must agree together that they want the hints. Most of the time - the group will want to find the answer on their own but they need to know that it is okay to ask for help. Asking for help is ofte...

How did we do with it? Well - before I get completely carried away with a debrief...let's give you the answer key and let you master the .linear version. [L5]        [L4]        [L3]       [L2]        [L1]           O        [R1]        [R2]        [R3]        [R4]        [R5] Before I give you the all out answer key...here are two hints first. Hint #1 : (it's more like a riddle) Once you come to a place where you're looking at someone going the opposite direction as you with the free space in between you - it is the person who HASN'T gone that goes first. Hint #2: (And this one will help nearly everyone solve the puzzle) - Once...

Peeps!! How is it going! I am currently on a staff recruiting tour in Northern Alberta, Canada. Right now - outside of my broken furnaced room - it's a whopping -39degrees celius. Barf. I'm trying to be super positive about my surroundings but as I type this and my nose won't warm up...I'm wishing Jamaica would arrive just a little sooner. Activity for today - well, when I started working at camp that was like...let's see...it's 2012 now...I started in 1999....okay - so for like 12 years...this activity was called pegs because the markers you stood on were wooden 4x4" stuck into the ground with a round peg in the middle. I mostly travel all around doing workshops and clinics so I've resorted to using either coloured (sorry my dear Americans, that's how we spell it...apparently our Powers That Be really like the letter "U") markers or  crushable pylons. I love this activity. Again - it's super versatile. Inside, outside, masking ta...

If I were to fit this activity into one of the stages of group formation - it would likely be the norming stage of group formation. So we've gone through the forming and storming stages - we had some conflicts and disagreements and have survived to tell the story. The group still has some kinks to work out but all in all - you're starting to see some good stuff come to the surface. Things that you will start seeing - idea sharing between participants, supporting each other, creativity, and trust building. To encourage your group during this stage - activities like Pile On! are perfect. It allows group members to still plan and strategize with each other and continue to build trust. It does introduce physical contact so that is something you always have to be aware of and watching as your participants interact with each other. Note their comfort levels and how the activity progresses. While I go through this debrief - I want to outline a pretty standard framework for process...

Hi folks! Sorry I've been a bit tardy this week in delivering an activity. It's budget time for me and so finding time when I have not been crunching numbers has been difficult. I've got an old faithful activity for you today that I've been doing for years. It is also a staple activity for many of my staff because it can be done just about anywhere and you don't need a set prop or permanent apparatus to do it either. I find that the majority of Americans (for what reason, I do not know) call this the All Aboard whereas I learned it as the Pile On. The funny story about the name "Pile On" is that when I first learned it...over ten years ago - I thought the facilitator had called it the Pylon. The name was confusing and I could only assume that she called it that because the tarp we were using was orange and the base of a vehicle pylon is square...so I called it the Pylon for years (seriously) until I was facilitating a group one day that tried to stack...

The New Year has come around and with it comes planning and resolutions and more things to fill your time with. The activity Patterns is a perfect activity to use when you're looking at skills like multi-tasking and communication when there are similar yet very independent tasks to accomplish. Patterns is great for a couple reasons. It's progressive - the group can create and become proficient at their own pace. They are also making all of the decisions during the activity which makes the task different from others in that as the facilitator - you do not possess the answer or the key to solving it. This activity goes as fluidly as the group is focused. The Chucking pattern is always simple, especially if the group can create ways of helping each other remember the pattern. It normally only takes two to three rounds of practice before the group is performing it perfectly. The Calling pattern comes across as a little more complex. There's little reason for it to be but most...