Training last Tuesday incorporated our last Fish Principle, Be There. Everything started normally with a speaker and an AU Knowledge Test. The parent program of SOS was introduced and elaborated on. Next was our Be There activity. I decided to do two activities to drive home the importance of Be There.
I started with ‘The Brain Game’. Every OL was given a list of 20 words to memorize. They had two minutes to look at this sheet; then they had one minute to rewrite the words in the correct order with correct spelling on a blank piece of paper. These were collected and graded so to speak to see who got the most correct. While these were being graded the OLs got into pairs and were given two minutes to look at a different list of words. Again they were given a blank sheet of paper and one minute to rewrite the new list of words. These were also graded to see which pair got the most right. Both lists of words were very similar; many times it would be the same word with a different suffix or prefix. The idea behind this activity was to demonstrate mentally Being There. It took a lot of focus to get even five words correct and we want that focus on the day of an SOS session.
The second part of the activity was more of an icebreaker. The OLs were split up into groups of 5 or 6 and they had to find similarities they all shared. Each group was given a big piece of paper and a marker. They were instructed to write the similarities they found in the middle of the paper and draw a big circle around them. Anything that was unique about an OL they wrote along the outside and also drew a circle around each person unique qualities. Each group was also given a couple questions to start off their discussion. At the end each group had to present their poster to everyone by explaining the similarities the group shared and also by telling a unique quality of each member. The activity helped the OLs get to know each other and served as an example of an icebreaker they could do with their group.
I tied everything together by saying that the more we know each other the more comfortable we are together and the easier it is to Be There for one another. By asking a group questions and helping them find commonalities, an OL is making their transfer students feel welcome, making the day feel personalized, and helping them make friends. By being engaged in the group an OL is Being There for their group. And obviously to do any of this successfully each OL needs to be mentally present and focused on the SOS session.
As a final bit of excitement to end my activity the group and the individual who got the most words correct in The Brain Game got a prize of a half a point extra credit on any Auburn Knowledge test they want. Overall, I feel like the training went well and the OLs had fun while focusing and getting to know each other.