1st BGCG Session

Woah...what a week this has been! I know that everyone on campus is really busy and really tired at the current time, but it seems like my professors just all got together and talked about how best to screw me over by giving me really full plate this week. On top of all my school work, this week was also the beginning of my, Cait, Megan and Laurel's mini-/crash-course in Conflict Resolution with the Torch Leadership Group at the Boys and Girls Club of Georgetown. Our first session went pretty well, but there is definite room for improvement, in terms of what the Torch Club members get out of the sessions and also what we get out of these sessions.

Some of the kids in the group showed a real interest in listening to what we had to say and providing insightful, constructive feedback during the activities. But others showed more of an interest in answering their cell phones and carrying on conversations with their friends during the middle of our session. I think that we decided as a group that this next meeting would set down a ground rule that everyone has to silence their phones when they are in the sessions, a rule which will also apply to me and the fellow members of my group.

I bought cookies from Wal-Mart before the session and they ate less than half of them. So, this next time they get cookies again...Haha!

We took extra care in preparing the specific aspects of the activities we have planned for today's meeting, even though we had to go off-topic at some points last week in order to gain their attention. So all our well-thought-out plans might go to waste, just depending on how the kids respond to the activities and the scenarios we have chosen.

Tuesday's session focused mostly on helping the Torchies get oriented with the concepts we were talking about. In today's session I hope we are able to keep their attention help them to start identifying conflict in different scenarios and also helping them to realize when it might be best to walk away from a conflict. I think that being able to recognize when, despite repeated attempts, the lines of communication between yourself and another person have been broken.

In everything that we talk about, we are trying to emphasize the concept of Wants versus Needs. In short, not only being able to recognize that all of us have a good amount of Needs in common, whereas the Wants change in terms based upon whom is being asked. Thus, we asked the kids during our Tuesday session to try to remember what we had talked about that way we don't have to start from scratch.

Our next meeting is in less than hour and, just like last time, I am feeling a little nervous. I just feel like I could have an adverse effect upon these Torchies, despite our high goals for what the program could be. I am writing down all the thoughts that pop into my head in reference to our curriculum in hopes that I will have a stroke a genius (smartness, haha). But, I really don't think that we will need a stroke of genius, as I have a good feeling about today's meeting. But I am a glass half-full kinda guy...

Brady