Getting ready . . .

We are excited to travel to Joplin, Missouri with our Leadership in Service class students!  We've had a great two days of class to prepare for our trip.  We can't wait to help others in need and to see how our students grow from this experience.

These first two days of class have gone by quickly.  We've learned about leadership styles and characteristics.  We've talked about the nuts & bolts of the trip, like what to pack and what to expect.   We've done several different activities to help us work on our communication and leadership.  Here are a few of them:

The human knot:  Students had to untangle themselves, without letting go of each others' hands.  Teamwork and problem-solving were key to this activity!  We discovered that it's very important to listen to each other and to not all talk at the same time. :)

Pretzel Activity:  Students were given about 15 pretzels and sat back-to-back with their partner.  One person had to make a picture with the pretzels and then give instructions to their partner, hopefully resulting in their partner making an identical picture.  The trick was that the listener could not ask any questions to clarify - they were at the mercy of their partners' good instructions.  We had some great successes and some rather different, but interesting, pictures.  The second time, partners switched roles.  This time the listener could ask clarifying questions about their partner's instructions.  It was much easier to end up with the desired result when we had two-way communication going on!