School has begun in earnest and academic classes are in their full swing. Still, my school (Brooklyn School for Collaborative Studies) places a large emphasis on developing social and emotional growth of our students so this past thursday we took our various Crews out of the building and into the city. The crew of 26 that I work with was split in two and my half was supposed to complete a scavenger hunt of Central Park. Every other crew had a scavenger hunt of their own and we would all meet back at school by around 3:00pm for dismissal.
The problems began as we entered the subway because my half-crew wanted to join up with another coworkers half-crew, leading to tension when the answer was a simple, "no." The intention behind the day was to have the half-crew bond more thoroughly and to get to talk to kids more one-on-one, something that is easier with smaller sizes. Unfortunately, my half-crew was not amenable to this.
When we started the scavenger hunt, a few students expressed some negativity, which eventually led to our group staying put on a bench near a pond for about 45 minutes. There was a lot of discussion about the trip being boring, more forced than enjoyable, and a waste of time. I found this interesting and tried to push a few of the students expressing these feelings about why they changed their views. Two days prior they all seemed excited to spend time together and even made a list of guidelines for the day (including participating actively).
It became evident through the course of the day that there were two groups in the half-crew: one was more ambivalent and would go wherever the majority wanted; the other was very negative and decided to disconnect from the idea of crew. After analyzing with some coworkers, it really came down to two students who were leading the charge against completing the scavenger hunt - two young men with whom my relationship is pretty poor.
My fiancee came joined us for the morning of the trip and all she had to say by the time she left was that she is impressed by my abundance of patience and how she would never have done what these kids did.
At the end of the day I discovered that of the eight groups that went out on scavenger hunts, mine was the only one that completed nothing. Every other group had at least found 4-5 clues and taken photos in a more relaxed fashion.
This is going to be an uphill battle but I am going to try my hardest to make sure that I develop stronger relationships with these two young men so that we can work better together in the future.
The problems began as we entered the subway because my half-crew wanted to join up with another coworkers half-crew, leading to tension when the answer was a simple, "no." The intention behind the day was to have the half-crew bond more thoroughly and to get to talk to kids more one-on-one, something that is easier with smaller sizes. Unfortunately, my half-crew was not amenable to this.
When we started the scavenger hunt, a few students expressed some negativity, which eventually led to our group staying put on a bench near a pond for about 45 minutes. There was a lot of discussion about the trip being boring, more forced than enjoyable, and a waste of time. I found this interesting and tried to push a few of the students expressing these feelings about why they changed their views. Two days prior they all seemed excited to spend time together and even made a list of guidelines for the day (including participating actively).
It became evident through the course of the day that there were two groups in the half-crew: one was more ambivalent and would go wherever the majority wanted; the other was very negative and decided to disconnect from the idea of crew. After analyzing with some coworkers, it really came down to two students who were leading the charge against completing the scavenger hunt - two young men with whom my relationship is pretty poor.
My fiancee came joined us for the morning of the trip and all she had to say by the time she left was that she is impressed by my abundance of patience and how she would never have done what these kids did.
At the end of the day I discovered that of the eight groups that went out on scavenger hunts, mine was the only one that completed nothing. Every other group had at least found 4-5 clues and taken photos in a more relaxed fashion.
This is going to be an uphill battle but I am going to try my hardest to make sure that I develop stronger relationships with these two young men so that we can work better together in the future.
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