Pictures from Our Game Day

Sadly George was the first one out on this round of Simon Says.

Who needs Payton Manning when you have a quarterback like Zach and Ben covering as a center!

Touch your toes! Ben may just be doing some light stretching but Christy was ready to win this round of Simon Says.

We were able to buy the kids a new air hockey table.

Poster boys for the United Way!

What We've Been Waitng For

Friday, October 23 the day when we would see all our hard work pay off as we got to interact with the kids at the Boys and Girls Club. We all went in with our plan and what we expected to happen. Everyone knows we are the sports group who decided to share that passion with the children of Lafayette. However, on the blog today I'm going to share about what I hadn't expected that really made the afternoon great.

When we arrived we went to the gym to start setting up our first game and I volunteered to play a game with the kids that didn't want to play in the gym. Little did I know what I would be getting myself into. These kids were running around like crazy, talking over each other, and not being very agreeable. I got the kids together and really pumped up the idea of hide and seek. We played for a while and the kids still weren't real sure this was a cool enough game. So we switched to hiding a ping pong ball and playing the "hot and cold" game. The longer we played the more I realized it wasn't the game that mattered it was the fact that someone was showing an interest in them. We played "Simon Says" and "Red Light, Green Light" and the kids seemed to change right before my eyes. These crazy children were only acting that way because they wanted attention and to know someone cared about them

There are many examples I could share that assure me we accomplished our group mission of helping those in our community. One example is a little boy named Rylan. He was a first grader that thought he was a fifth grade champ. Rylan joined my group that was not playing games in the gym. I hadn't really noticed Rylan until all of a sudden he was standing in front of me on a couch and launched himself into my arms. I hugged him until it was time to go find the hidden ping-pong ball and from then on he was the sweetest little boy. He minded what I said and played every game with us. The second example child was a very shy little boy who joined my group later in the day. He never said much but his face would light up when we included him. Finally, as we were leaving to go home he tapped my arm and told me him got 3 A's and 2 B's on his report card. I was so proud of him even though I had only known him for an hour or two, but what a special little boy who just wanted someone to share his good news with.

Our group wondered why we didn't just collect cans or pick up garbage and I believe we now know why. I feel we did make a difference and I would love to go back and play with the kids again. It was only a few hours but I feel we did make an impact in the lives of lots of children.

Christy

Successful Day

Friday was our group's field day at the boys and girls club. It was very successful. The event was moved indoors because of the cold, wet weather.

First the kids wanted to play dodge ball, so we split them into two groups. There were a few who did not want to play, so we took them into the game room where they played games such as air hockey and ping pong. After awhile, we split the kids up to play knock out in the gym. This was a good change of pace for them.

Next, we set up a game of basketball. The kids loved this, and George did to. Once the basketball game was done, some of the kids started to go home, so we just let them have a free for all and play several games. Some of the kids played in the game room, and some played catch with a football. Christy got a hand full together and played Simon Says.

The Boys and Girls Club was very happy with the results and glad to get an air hockey table too.
By:Ben Schnepp

Conflict Resolution....and Our Groups Success

GOMO - Get Over It and Move On

http://www.execstrategies.com/Facilitator/ConflictResolutionStrategies.htm

I found this to be a really interesting conflict resolution strategy. It is one I like to use a lot. The first thing I always ask myself during a conflict is "Is this really worth arguing over." Often times I realize that it is really not worth it and its best for me to just accept it and move on. This is a great way to prevent a small little argument from turning into a big fight. The website calls it "It’s a powerful secret that needs telling for resolving daily conflicts." I think this is very true and a great way to make your day less stressful.

I also wanted to say that I thing our Field Day was a success....
I think that our Service Learning project went great. Everyone did an awesome job of playing with the kids and keeping them entertained. We definitely had a lot of obstacles throughout our project and many things changed by the club but I think everything turned out really well. Even though the weather didn't allow us to have the field day outside we were still able to carry out all our activities. I think we did a great job of allowing the kids to pick the activities they wanted to do play and really making the field day all about them having fun. It seemed like the kids really like having us there and the adults really appreciated having adults to interact with the kids. Overall I think that we worked great as a group and made it through all the conflicts that arose with no problem. Great job everyone.

By George Vauter

Almost Game Time

As the day of our project gets closer, I'm feeling good about the group. I think we are prepared to put on a great event for the kids at the boys and girls club. The plan is pretty much ready to go, and I think our group will handle any more challenges we find in stride. I'm excited for the actual event day to come so we can put the plan to the test. On tuesday we are going to visit the club and let the kids know what will be happening on event day. It feels like our work is about to pay off.

-David Hoff

How Does Starting 5 Solve Problems

The Starting 5 has had to make several decisions for the COM 320 class. Because the group is fairly small, we have been able to take a group consensus in our decision making. The problem is presented to the group and each person argues their opinion until the group decides what to do. The problem with this method, is many times it takes longer to make a decision. However, we choose to use this method because we feel it gets the best results.

There are times when one person's experiences or knowledge makes their opinion more influential to the group decision. It is not that person makes the decision, but that the group takes more consideration in the expert's argument. Up to this point in time, this method has worked to solve the group's problems. While this method may not work for all groups, it works for ours.
-By: Ben Schnepp

Survival of the Fittest....I lose

Moon walking, moon pies and moonshine, but surviving on the moon, I don't know about that. Our activity in class required us to rank items we needed to survive a crash on the moon. This activity showed just how important group work is for the Starting 5, especially the female member (me.) The scores we found are evidence that our group is stronger together than apart.

Scores:My Score- 60
Group Score- 15
Best individual score on our team- 28

As you can see if this game was survival of the fittest I'm not sure I would make it out alive. However, what is important is that when the five of us worked together our group succeeded. Even the strongest member of our team in this exercise was better off with the team score.

Our group worked together to create the list of supplies through a majority vote. At times we disagreed but we were good at discussing the pros and cons of each decision until we all came to an agreement. This is different than group think because it is not one person making decisions that everyone agrees with; it is our group deciding what is right and putting the good of the group ahead of what we think individually. Our process in problem solving involved us starting with an idea, discussing the issue, and finalizing our decision after everyone was heard to achieve our goal.

Needless to say I am grateful that my group taught me a bit about surviving a crash on the moon. Next time I fly through space though I will be sure to invite my team members!

Christy Penner