Week Seven

This was our second and final week of group presentations with Stephen. The first group that presented was Music and Rhythm. We started off with an activity where we were able to choose which type of instrument we wanted to make, out of a selection of five. I chose to make a wind chime because I thought it was a really neat idea that I had never seen before. We could decorate it anyway that we wanted by using colored string, markers, and nail polish. The next activity that we did was sat in a circle with our instrument as one person was in the middle of the circle creating some type of rhythm or beat that they wanted the class to follow. After the class caught on to their beat, they then chose someone else to go into the middle and create something with their instrument. The third activity that we did was musical chairs. In this activity the music was a combination of the homemade instruments as well as background music. Once people began getting out in this activity, they joined the “band” and created music for the others to play musical chairs with. Later on in the activity the background music was dropped after the band was able to work together and end their music at the same time. The fourth activity that we did was sat in a circle as one person randomly drew a card that had a name of a song on it. Once they knew their song, they were to play it will their instrument and see if we could guess what it was. If the class couldn’t figure it out, then the player could also hum it as they played it. At the end of this activity participants could chose to play a modern song that they wanted the class to guess. The final activity that we did was we broke into groups so that every group had each type of instrument. Each group was given ten minutes to come up with a song that they wanted to present to the class. My group chose to do Fishing in The Dark. At the end of the activity, the facilitators debriefed their program.

For the second half of class, the Creative Writing and Journaling group presented. We began this program by choosing a journal and decorating it how we liked. We also had to come up with a name for our journal which had to include an adjective that started with the same letter of our first name. My journal was called Tricky Taylor’s Journal. After we were done decorating, we were split into three groups based on the color of our journal. In this group, each of us had a different number inside our journal that pertained to a random sentence written on the board. Our first activity was that each of us had to continue the random sentence that we were given for one minute. Once our minute was up, we had to pass it clockwise to another member in our group. They were then given one minute to continue the story. This action was repeated until our original journal was back in front of us. We were then given one final minute to end the story how we liked. Each group member shared their story to their group, and decided on their favorite to present to the class. The next activity that we did was listen to Brad Paisley’s song “Letter to Me” as we wrote a letter to ourselves giving advice and hints of what our future would bring, as we were 16 years old at the time of this letter. We were given ten minutes to write this letter to ourselves. Afterwards, anyone could share parts of their letter to the class if they wanted. The facilitators did a short debrief after this activity. The next activity that we did was Balderdash. Each group was given an unheard of word from the dictionary in which each group member was to come up with a likely definition of the word. All of the group members’ definitions along with the correct definition were thrown into a bucket. The definitions were randomly read off as the other two groups had to decide which one they thought was the correct definition. Our final activity of the night was that each group was randomly given a news headline, in which we were to come up with a story that explained how the headline came about. Our group was given the headline, “Rude Sidekick Admires Child”. Long story short, we came up with a silly story of two guys attending a bachelor party, and while there, the man that was the sidekick ends up finding a child who he comes to admire. Each group was given the opportunity to share their story with the rest of the class. After this activity, the facilitators did a final debrief of their program.

I learned a lot from this week’s activities that would help me professionally. I was introduced to a lot of creative ways to incorporate writing/journaling and music/rhythm when working with specific groups that I never would have come up with. I really liked that we got to choose what instrument we wanted to make for the Music program because it allowed the participants to have a decision in the activity as well. I thought both groups came up with great adaptations for their activities and did a great job of explaining how and why they thought their adaptations would work. This also gave me a lot of great ideas and resources that I can turn to when I am in need of a way to adapt an activity. This week I learned that I am not very musically inclined, but that I enjoyed myself anyways. I found that I cannot decipher between songs just by someone playing a beat. I think this is the reason why I didn’t join band in high school! I also learned that I turn to humor when I am in uncomfortable situations or ones that I don’t know what I am really doing. I believe I do this because it is my way of getting over the issue and not letting it bother me. I have always been one to crack jokes with people that I become comfortable with, such as “Hoosegow”, I answered, “Our current chancellor here at UW-La Crosse”. I think it is very important to be able to make light of situations when it is out of your control, so that you are able to make the best of it. This week my way of “striving for excellence” was to get to know other members in our class better. When you are used to working with your group members, it makes it really easy to just naturally turn to talk to them rather than others that you don’t know very well. I felt I was able to do this with both programs because for certain activities we were split up randomly so that you didn’t actually have to choose who you worked with. It is great to be able to get to know everyone as most of us will be in the same classes for the remaining years of our major. I really enjoyed this week as well as the last six weeks. I am going to miss Stephen’s section!