This year in college it was mandatory to take a group dynamics course. This course was really neat, because instead of having a teacher, we split into teams and took turns teaching each other the content.
Every week a team would teach two chapters through a creative presentation. When we weren’t the teaching team, we would either be the evaluation team, the energizer team, the review team (reviewing the content from the preview week), or the executive team.
After each week we rotate jobs, which gives us many situations to grow from, but also creates many conflicts. That is the main point of the course; to put us in tricky group positions, make us step out of our comfort zones, and then become better at working with people, instead of being dependant on others or being to help carry others.
This is relevant to my coming summer for many reasons. Other than the obvious team building, there is also a creative aspect to learn from, and it has helped teach me to teach others in a critical way that is not boring. Every week we have a theme to help us incorporate creativity into the lessens and activities (eg. Hawaiian or starwars). Our group in the last two weeks had to be the teaching team, and before that, the review team. During those weeks to teach and review ”critical discussion, critical thinking, and effective problem solving within a group”, I ran common camp games and adventure activities. They included Jesus boots, human knots, spiders web, many skits and winter version of the adventure skis.
From this class I’m going to be able to come to camp this summer with my creative juices flowing, lots of practice leading some camp games, and a willingness to work, learn, and grow together as a staff.
I can’t wait for the summer!
Peace,
Ethan “Bacon” Brown
Head Counsellor