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Resources | Youth Programs | 2010 Confronting Concerns | 2010 Youth Conference | Workshop Report: Teachers & Teens
2010 Confronting Concerns1. OVERVIEW: CONNECTING NYC YOUTH | 2. HOW TO PLAN A WORKSHOP | 3. 2010 CONFERENCE 2010 Network for peace Youth Dialogue conference1. OVERVIEW | WORKSHOP REPORTS | PHOTO GALLERY | PRINT-OUTS Workshop Report Network for Peace through Dialogue Leadership Institute For the past three years, the Network for Peace's Youth Leaders have worked to address the gap in communication between youth and adults in their communities. This workshop will examine the strategies and skills that lead to positive communication and dialogue between teens and their teachers and youth workers. Through interactive games and activities, participants will explore how they can use dialogue in difficult situations in school and encourage real understanding and change. [download handout] Workshop Preparation TEACHERS AND TEENS: UNDERSTAND WHAT THEY MEAN! Brittani: Welcome teachers, parents, dear friends, and students, to the “Teachers and Teens: Understand What They Mean!” workshop. We are from the Network for Peace through Dialogue. My name is Brittani Anderson. Mala: And my name is Jahmala Cornelius. We are going to be your facilitators today. We will be leading the workshop. Here at the Network for Peace through Dialogue, our objective is to reach out to people all over the world and discuss the issues they may be having in their neighborhood or community. Brittani: Today we will be discussing issues that teachers and teens face throughout a regular school day. We will play a couple of games to get comfortable, and learn about new techniques for dealing with situations in a positive manner. Mala: At the end of the workshop, we want to hear how you felt about the workshop, and play a short closing game. But first, we want to go over the guidelines for today. First, one mic, meaning when one person is talking, everyone should listen until they’re done. Respect each other’s opinion, meaning no negative criticism, keep it positive. And lastly, have fun and try to get the best out of this workshop as you can. Brittani: The first game we’ll start off with is an icebreaker. In this icebreaker you will be stating your name and an adjective about yourself that goes along with the first letter of your name. Also, tell everybody what school or organization you’re from. For instance, my name is Brittani, so I would be “Brave Brittani.” And I go to Mott Hall High School and work for the Network for Peace. I’m gonna pass it down to the next person. (Next person goes until everyone’s had a chance to introduce themselves.) Mala: Now we are going to play a game that has to do with situations that happen in school. We want to see how you would deal with different scenarios that happen between students and teachers, as well as students and parents. What decisions would you make? The name of the game is Walking Debate. The object of the game is to choose a side, either Disagree, Undecided, or Agree, based on each scenario. Brittani: Ashley is a pretty decent kid who turns in all assignments on time. Recently she got a bad grade on her midterm and it caused her to fail the class. Her teacher Ms. Green failed her because the test was a large part of her grade. Ms. Green allowed Ashley to do make-up work. Do you agree with Ms. Green’s decision? Jahmala: Asks people why they chose the side that they’re on. What made you choose agree? Brittani: Benny has been struggling in his math class for the past 2 weeks and is failing math. Instead of him going to the teacher to ask for help he has too much pride and thinks he can figure it out on his own. The teacher called his house to notify his parents, and Benny is very upset. Do you agree or disagree that Benny had a right to be upset? Jahmala: Asks different people the same questions as before. Jane is always late to school every Tuesday and Wednesday because she has to drop her little sister off at school, which is far away. Her teacher Ms. Kress is getting fed up that Jane always disturbs her class in the middle of the lesson. Do you agree or disagree that she should be understanding and excuse Jane of her lateness? Brittani: Asks people the same questions as before to get more discussion started. More debriefing questions Mala: We’ve talked about the difficulties that can happen when teachers and students communicate. Now we want to introduce what we think are skills that can lead to positive dialogue. We picked these techniques based on our day to day life, in school and at home, and we feel that these techniques can be used in any kind of environment—in the workplace, family, etc. From prior workshops, we’ve chosen these five as the ones people most strongly agreed had the best effect on communication. Brittani passes out techniques sheet and starts a popcorn read: Who would like to read the first one? (And so on…)
Understanding: Understanding the situation and taking it for what it is Mala: Asks reflection questions: Brittani: We’re going to go into role plays so that we can all practice these skills. We’ll do a count off to make sure there are both students and teachers in the groups! (Count off by 4, there should be 4-5 people in each group). We’re going to give you two of the skills, and we want you to create a 3 minute skit that uses that skills without actually stating what it is. Those in the audience are going to identify at the end of the scene which skill was used, and how it was used. Give people a few minutes to practice role plays. Mala: Now we’re going to show the role plays. DO we have a volunteer group to start? Brittani: (After role play) We’d like to thank everyone for coming out to “Teachers and Teens: Understand What They Mean” workshop. We hope you enjoyed the workshop and that you’ll walk away feeling more comfortable using dialogue in your lives. We hope you’ll be that able to use these techniques and come up with more techniques of your own.
REPORT TEACHERS AND TEENS: UNDERSTAND WHAT THEY MEAN Mala Cornelius and Brittani Anderson facilitated the workshop. Participants discussed the difficulties that occur in student-teacher communication, as well as the way they could use dialogue skills to communicate with one another more effectively. The group included a mix of youth and adults, including current and former teachers. • After an opening introductory icebreaker, the facilitators introduced a Walking Debate activity in which participants would discuss how they would approach different conflicts that can occur between teachers and students. The conflicts included:
After each scenario was read, the group did a "Walking Debate" in which they discussed whether they agreed, disagreed, or were undecided about how the scenarios had played out. They also talked about what can lead to negative dialogue, as well as what skills will lead to a more positive communication. The group agreed that teacher-student communication could be very difficult because of several important factors, including the fact that teachers are an authority figure; students and parents at times have overly high expectations of what a teacher is responsible for; students may not be comfortable approaching certain teachers, etc. • Mala and Brittani then introduced five skills that are useful in student-teacher communication. They were respect, honesty, involvement, listening, and understanding. In addition to these skills, the group agreed that confidence on the part of the speaker was very important, because it helped people speak up and assert themselves in difficult situations and to try to communicate with other people. • Afterwards, the group divided into two groups and created and acted out role plays to practice those five skills. The first group did a role play that dealt with respect, honesty, and listening. In their role play, the teacher got upset when two students were talking in class. When one of the students responded that they were talking about the assignment the teacher got upset and made him leave. The second role play dealt with involvement, respect, and listening. The group created a classroom discussion in which the teacher introduced a topic (why respect is important) and each person in the group responded to that question, building their responses on what others had said and involving everyone in the group. • As a closing activity, the whole group did a human knot together. Using communication and supporting one another, they were able to untangle the knot very quickly. The workshop ended on a very positive note. by
Workshop Reports
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