Johnathan Hershey
Monday was our first day facilitating lessons in Lurgan Junior High School. The team was divided into groups of three or four and facilitated name games and ice breakers in individual classes to give our team a brief familiarity with the classes and the students’ names. Then, we jumped into a lesson we wanted to impart to them. For starters the team was only in one classroom, one at a time; in subsequent days, we will be fanned out across the school and teaching all day as our lessons grow in substance and time.
My team (comprised of Brittany Redding, Amanda Beck, and myself) hit the ground running, as we were charged with facilitating the first class that came in in the morning. After our name games and icebreakers, we played a game to demonstrate the importance of teamwork and individuality. Students formed five groups, and each one encouraged to come up their own dance move. Afterwards for the next rounds, the groups either had to continue their move or emulate another group, until finally all the groups were doing the same move. At the end, students had to discuss when it would be good to work together, versus when it would be good to stand alone. Answers for working together varied greatly, including school projects, cleaning up the environment, and sports teams. However, we concluded that reasons to pursue individuality included standing up to bullies, following personal values, not telling lies, etc., regardless of what other people are choosing to do.
Shortly afterward, Kaitlin, Molly, Olivia, and Tim had a class come in. Their key lesson was to discuss differences and similarities between the United States and Northern Ireland. Some of the children in the class wondered whether everyone in the United States carries a gun or eats hamburgers for every meal; alternatively, we concluded that neither country has unicorns (news to me) and that each one has their own stereotypes. Regardless of the stereotypes that each country has, we realized that no matter your walk of life, we can always find similarities with those seeming to be very different from us. Hilarious skits were also performed, in which each group had to act out their own stereotypes.
In Jordyn, Lauren and Jonathan’s class, they separated the class according to their preferences, asking which things people’s favorites were on a variety of subjects. Separating the class required some friends to split up who normally wouldn’t otherwise, while other students were paired with students that hadn’t previously realized they had anything in common. As the questions slowly became deeper and deeper, the lesson here was to encouraged individuality and recognize that not everyone has the same preferences, which is a theme we will be returning to later in the week with other classes.
All in all, it was a tiring but rewarding day! It was nice to debrief at Love Coffee at the end of the day, and talk about the pros and cons of what happened throughout the day. We are looking forward to serving in the school for the rest of the week.
Monday was our first day facilitating lessons in Lurgan Junior High School. The team was divided into groups of three or four and facilitated name games and ice breakers in individual classes to give our team a brief familiarity with the classes and the students’ names. Then, we jumped into a lesson we wanted to impart to them. For starters the team was only in one classroom, one at a time; in subsequent days, we will be fanned out across the school and teaching all day as our lessons grow in substance and time.
My team (comprised of Brittany Redding, Amanda Beck, and myself) hit the ground running, as we were charged with facilitating the first class that came in in the morning. After our name games and icebreakers, we played a game to demonstrate the importance of teamwork and individuality. Students formed five groups, and each one encouraged to come up their own dance move. Afterwards for the next rounds, the groups either had to continue their move or emulate another group, until finally all the groups were doing the same move. At the end, students had to discuss when it would be good to work together, versus when it would be good to stand alone. Answers for working together varied greatly, including school projects, cleaning up the environment, and sports teams. However, we concluded that reasons to pursue individuality included standing up to bullies, following personal values, not telling lies, etc., regardless of what other people are choosing to do.
Shortly afterward, Kaitlin, Molly, Olivia, and Tim had a class come in. Their key lesson was to discuss differences and similarities between the United States and Northern Ireland. Some of the children in the class wondered whether everyone in the United States carries a gun or eats hamburgers for every meal; alternatively, we concluded that neither country has unicorns (news to me) and that each one has their own stereotypes. Regardless of the stereotypes that each country has, we realized that no matter your walk of life, we can always find similarities with those seeming to be very different from us. Hilarious skits were also performed, in which each group had to act out their own stereotypes.
In Jordyn, Lauren and Jonathan’s class, they separated the class according to their preferences, asking which things people’s favorites were on a variety of subjects. Separating the class required some friends to split up who normally wouldn’t otherwise, while other students were paired with students that hadn’t previously realized they had anything in common. As the questions slowly became deeper and deeper, the lesson here was to encouraged individuality and recognize that not everyone has the same preferences, which is a theme we will be returning to later in the week with other classes.
All in all, it was a tiring but rewarding day! It was nice to debrief at Love Coffee at the end of the day, and talk about the pros and cons of what happened throughout the day. We are looking forward to serving in the school for the rest of the week.