Reflection on adapting a training

1st Promise Training in April

This is the first Brownie Adventure training in April 2014 when the new resource was freshly published. The turn out was low only 4 leaders representing just 2 units, because it was the night before the Brownie Birthday PGL weekend. The resource wasn't widely available at this point so I took the approach of colour photocopying & laminating the pages so everyone could get to look at the pages. It proved to be quite a challenging training simply because the leaders present weren't the ones who needed the training. They had a fantastic amount of experience with a huge amount to share, maybe just a little too much to share and I was having trouble getting word in edge way! I also bought rather cheap paper tablecloths so when I got the leaders to write their evaluation on the table cloth it seeped through to the table! So please be aware if you try that with the girls.
 

Unofficial Moving Up resource

A Kindle e-book first published in March 2014 by a young leader called Rebecca Craven, its only 57 pages long and costs £3.08 but the young author has a lot of energy. Rebecca has included a section asking other Leaders what has girl guiding done for you that you wouldn't already have done? It certainly got me thinking about my trip to Our Chalet, my stay at Pax Lodge with my sister, meeting all the wonderful people in BGIFC, my weekend at the USA Girl Scout conference talking about British Guiding and how old my first Brownies will be now (at least 35 years old now)!  

"If it wasn't for guiding, I would never have......"

 

Rebecca has done a lot of research into the movement's history, and surprised me with a couple of things I didn't know, but the real strength of this resource is to show it to your Guides contemplating the Senior Section. I think this e book could play a role in getting your girls to move up.

More Brownie Adventure resources

This is a selection of some of the most useful ideas from Girl Guiding UK publications to help you get your brownies participating and contributing to the decision making processes:

 

Email me and I will send you an MS word version (I've lost some of the clarity with the pdf to jpeg conversion!)

Resources for Brownie Adventure training

This is a "treasure hunt" using the new Brownie Adventure book:

The answers are:
  1.       Adventure, Adventure On, More Adventures
2.       3
3.       P62
4.       P66
5.       Clean-up time
6.       Diwali (p93)
7.       See p34, p70, p104
8.       BROWNIE (p110)
9.       P123
10.   World Association of GG & Girl Scouts
11.   P132
12.   The Pandas
13.   www.girlguiding.org.uk/brownies p15
14.   P37

This is a twist on the Feelings wheel on page 78 (I tried getting the girls to draw the faces but they all ended up looking the same!) brownies need to add a pointer with a split pin to use the wheel. There are 2 wheels on 1 piece of A4 card to get the most from the printer.

Brownie Adventure: introductory game

A running game to introduce the “Brownie Adventure”

Brownies sit in their sixes and numbered 1-6 (just to keep them in the correct order) and given the following things to remember – when their word is read out in the story they have to stand up and run to the end of the room and back. When “Brownie Adventure” is called all Brownies run together.

1.      Adventure

2.      Adventure on

3.      More Adventures

4.      Fun

5.      Challenges

6.      Excited

Sarah & Shelly are excited about starting their last year at Brownies. Brown Owl used the new brownie book whilst on their unit holiday over the Summer when they had great fun completing the Adventure, Adventure On & More Adventures Fun & games pages; and then wiping them clean for their Brownie friend’s to try. Brown Owl explained they would still work on “You”, “Community”, & the “World” but the new book is much more fun & exciting for them.

Brown Owl said “the new brownies would start their Adventure with ways to keep their Promise, get help to choose an interest badge, take part in loads of fun and challenges about being safe and secure, join in a pow wow and go on a special Adventure”

The older Brownies can help plan their Adventures On badge, have their own challenges like making a special light for Diwali & finding out about global grub.” Adventure On means we can help make decisions and will be our own record keepers, so we can show our parents what we do at Brownies” said Sarah.

The oldest brownies will have fun doing the More Adventures badge, when we do an interest badge we will be challenged to learn something new and when we go on an Adventure we will help other brownies. “We will do “Brownies Go For It!” to learn all about what Guides do and we will plan our own celebration to remember our exciting time at Brownies” said Shelly.

Sarah & Shelly are very excited as they can even choose challenges to do at home so they can have even more fun at Brownies, whilst achieving the Adventure, Adventure On & More Adventures pretty badges. ”The Brownie Adventure is all about how we can use our ideas at Brownies to make sure we discover, we grow” said Sarah.

Girl Scout Cookies

Fabulous Packaging from Girl Scouts Cookie Boxes

Promotional Messages - cool marketing

I came across this packaging I saved from last year whilst adapting my next training plan for next week. Apart from missing the cookies themselves - they used to sell them literally like hot cakes in Feb/March of each year in the boys international school cafeteria. They are a huge fund raiser for the Girl Scouts, despite the key ingredient of Palm Oil. Check out girlscouts.org for a history of cookie sales going back to the 1920's and some amazing program resources. Could we learn something in the UK about the motivational text on the cookie packaging? 

"Good Guiding is ......."

My "Good Guiding is ....." Flower

I really like the idea of "Good Guiding is ...." its just a way to communicate the 10 effective methods to get a balanced and varied programme. Now I have done an entire training on just the methodology itself I will aim to incorporate it into as many of my trainings as possible. It's not new (I have trained on it before back in 2010) but the revised version is improved with more examples & space provided to fill in.


However what is missing is a way for leaders to capture their intent on one page, the official resource has blobs on several pages but to use that in a training just gives too many ideas away in one go, and its a lot of photocopying for a big group. Hence my flower opposite - each leader is given a blank version to complete as we progress through the training. It's a lovely way to add in other GG UK resources as a way to support some of the 10 steps e.g fun in the programme. It's also a good topic to use with a mixed bunch of new and experienced leaders in the same training.


The real success of the training was the blind date game I used as a review activity - getting the leaders to share what they will take back to their unit to demonstrate "Good Guiding is .....". The activity created a huge buzz and I could have kept it going for a lot longer. It's recommended in the trainers notes for "Good Guiding is ...." on the website.