Girl Scout Training "Leadership Essentials"

Last night my mom and I drove all the way to the other side of town for Girl Scout training. I sign in and pick up the packet of hand outs only to realize this is the same training I went to last year. Apparently it never got recorded that I was there so I sat through the already boring class again.

If I had not been a girl scout growing up, this might have been a useful class. If I was not an education major with LOTS of experience writing hands on lesson plans, this might have been a useful class. But I was a girl for many years and I am an education major. I did however learn some things at last nights meeting. I learned to appreciate the fact that I am an education major. I never realized how much this training affected my ability to be a great girl scout leader.

During the training we broke into groups by the age level we plan on leading. I was the only person in our group that has already been a leader and the only one with ANY experience with the new Journey program. Our group was supposed to basically write a lesson plan using one of the activities from the journeys book. I started by explaining to the group what I knew about the journeys program, then I sat back to let them do most of the work (no, not because I'm lazy but because I've had a year of experience and they are about to go out on their own and lead a group of 5-6 year olds). I soon realized that people who are not teachers (in some aspect) do not understand what it is like to lead a group of 5 year olds. Our group consisted of basically three pairs on my right were to middle aged women who were starting a girl scout group at their church. Their big idea for an activity to do with their troop was to take them to volunteer to clean out cages at the zoo. HELLO PEOPLE YOUR GIRLS ARE 5! THE ZOO IS NOT GOING TO ALLOW THEM TO CLEAN CAGES! The pair to my left were young girls probably in their late 20's who couldn't seem to come up with any activities they thought a 5 year old would be able to do. Both groups also thought "learning by doing" meant drawing a picture of a bird when learning about bird habitats although the one group did want to take their kids to see a habitat and go to the animal rescue place. When I suggested they make bird feeders you would have thought I had come up with an award winning idea.

I would love to meet up with these same leaders a year from now and find out how their first year went.