Last night I had the pleasure of going to a Future Aces workshop with my mother, also a teacher! The workshop was full of amazing educators of whom I learned a lot from! Although I was there for a short period of time, it was time that was valuable to my future teaching career. Above you can see some pictures from the workshop of some activities we did as a group, and individually. To start, I will talk briefly about the organization that ran the workshop. Future Aces is a foundation that was founded by Herbert H. Carnegie in 1987. Unfortunately Herb passed away in 2012 so the foundation is now run by his two daughters, alongside a great crew. Future Aces' purpose is to inspire youth as well as adults to become the best people they can be. It helps students see the benefits of being responsible, respectful, peaceful and confident as every day citizens. One of the Future Aces' mandates are to foster self-esteem and ethical behaviour by applying the Future Aces Creed. To learn more about their foundation, Creed, and if you are just genuinely interested in more information I have embedded their website link in the picture at the top of this blog post! One thing I found particularly fun, was an ice breaker activity (but could be used for any subject!) where the teacher hands every student a puzzle piece, and the students have to complete the statement on their piece with the statement on another piece (e.g. "always say" and "please and thank-you"). This is a way to get students to interact and collaborate. We then had to share one interesting thing with our partner that they wouldn't know about us, and then we shared that interesting thing about our partner with the rest of the people at the workshop. This would be an excellent ice breaker for students, and a great way for them to show positivity, kindness, and courage, even if it wasn't used for an ice breaker! At this workshop I learned how to have the confidence to speak in front of large groups. I learned that there are so many people that think in a completely different way. We did an activity where each table was given a piece of another puzzle (different than the first activity!) and it had an item written on it that is shown in the Future Aces Creed photo (see photo to the right) (e.g. the clouds) and we had to write on that puzzle piece what we thought Herb's message was through putting those items in the picture. Every group then had to tell the rest of the people at the workshop which item they got and their reasoning behind what they thought Herb meant. This item really opened my eyes to how everyone has different views and sees something different in everything! Once everyone went, the pieces fit into the puzzle to spell the word "aces" (refer to photo below!). I lastly wanted to talk about how most of the activities we completed last night at the Future Aces workshop were based around puzzle pieces and putting them together. This foundation really strives to make students become one, and become a team where everyone is collaborating with a positive attitude, setting an example for one another! This workshop was so valuable to my education, and I am so glad I learned the things I did!
Thank you Future Aces for allowing me to join your workshop as a student candidate, and helping me extend my knowledge and open my mind to new opportunities for my future students! Again, if any readers are interested in reading about this foundation, click the picture at the top of this blog to go to their website!
1 Comment
Jessica Kearney
10/27/2016 02:40:39 pm
That looks like an amazing work shop!! You look like you are ready to share your experiences and be a real teacher!
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