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LEARNING FOR LIFE PROGRAM
Professional Staff Members Here To Serve You . . .
For more in-depth information on the Learning for Life program,
please visit the National Learning for Life Web Site - CLICK HERE
Post Web Sites
St. Francis Days Committee Explorer Post 63
Milwaukee Fire Department Explorer Post 875
Milwaukee County Sheriff's Office Explorer Post 890
Oak Creek Fire Department Explorer Post 1848
Learning For Life Character Camp 2008
2008 Character Camp was a great success! This year close to 3,000 children took part in Character Camp. Of the nearly 3,000 students, about 400 kindergarten youth were at camp. This is a display of evidence that even Learning for Life's youngest participants are building character through the program. The activities at Character Camp are character development and team building activities such as archery, field sports, row boating, and programs in the Layden Family Mining Company Mine, L.S. Gratz Landship, and the James A. Merry Castle.
Learning for Life would like to extend a warm thank you to each volunteer that assisted in helping Learning for Life with another successful year at Character Camp. In addition, Learning for Life would also like to extend an extra special thank you to Character Camp committee members George Fix, Sue Fix, Barbara Haag and Bill Janutka.
We are now looking ahead to the 2009 Character Camp, and want to invite new volunteers to join the committee with new ideas. If you are interested in joining the Learning for Life Character Camp Committee, please contact Steve Lirely at (414) 443-2863, or at swlirely@mccbsa.org.
A Year Closes at Northern Star High School with Learning for Life
Learning for Life takes pride in highlighting great examples of its schools that exhibit the values encompassed by character education (the basis of Learning for Life). This school year, Northern Star students utilized the Learning for Life program and applied it to everyday life in and outside the school.
Through Learning for Life and Principal, Valerie Benton-Davis, Northern Star students have gained life-long lessons that will help allow for a smoother transition into careers and adulthood. Some of the final Learning for Life lessons were enriched with visits from Learning for Life community affiliates like Vashyon Jackson-Wilder from M&I Bank (8300 W. Silver Spring Dr., Milwaukee, WI), and Author/Motivational Speaker, Lawton Merritt. M&I Bank backed up Learning for Life by providing a lesson in financial responsibility, and Lawton Merritt did so by providing an accelerated lesson in "real life today."
Learning for Life is proud of Northern Star students for their excellent display of excellent character education during the 2007-2008 school year, and would like to wish them a fantastic summer.
Learning for Life/Exploring Leadership Team
Learning for Life Director: Steve Lirely, (414) 443-2863 - swlirely@mccbsa.org; Learning for Life Executive: Shannon Mattox, (414) 443-2860 - smattox@mccbsa.org. If you wish to submit pictures, articles or Scouting stories on Learning for Life’s web page, please submit to Steve Lirely.
EXPLORING
Developing Responsible Citizenship
Character Education in Exploring In the Learning for Life program, you will hear the belief in experiential learning and the values and ethical principles that this kind of learning seeks to promote being referred to as character education. The following are the key components of character education in Exploring.
Learning Through Experiences
Exploring is experiential learning with lots of fun-filled, hands-on activities. It promotes the conditions necessary for the growth and development of adolescent youth. Young people need experiences that allow them to:
1. Interact with peers and acquire a sense of belonging
2. Gain experiences in decision making
3. Discuss conflicting values and formulate their own value systems
4. Reflect on self in relation to others and discover more about themselves by interaction
5. Experiment with their own identity
6. Participate as a responsible member of a group
7. Cultivate a capacity to enjoy life
Exploring can provide these experiences in wholesome, well-planned programs run by post members.
Problem-Solving Skills
The way young people learn to solve problems and make choices will stay with them the rest of their lives. Explorer Advisors can do a great deal to help the youth in posts learn a simple decision making process that can help them make choices and resolve problems. Explorers can use this practical three-step process to solve problems:
1. Empathy. Put yourself in the other person's place.
2. Invention. Invent as many solutions to the problem as you can, without trying to decide which is best.
3. Selection. List the advantages and disadvantages of each option and then select the one that comes closest meeting the needs of everyone involved.
Initiative Games
Initiative games are fun, cooperative, challenging games in which the group is confronted with a specific problem to solve. In Exploring we use initiative games for two reasons. First, initiative games demonstrate and teach leadership skills, which help to promote the growth of Explorers. Second, initiative games demonstrate a process of thinking about experiences that helps Explorers learn and become responsible citizens. Here are a few suggestions for conducting the games:
1. Begin by clearly explaining the game.
2. Don't offer ideas for solving the problem.
3. Reflect on the activity. Spend a few minutes afterward talking with the Explorers about what they learned.
The character education activity encourages the development of the following personal skills:
1. Promoting productive conflict
2. Polite disagreement
3. Listening to new ideas
4. Understanding other people's perspectives
5. Working toward a solution that the group involved will support and implement Why are character education activities so important? They're important because whether we know it or not, they're all around us, all the time. We have an ongoing potential for making decisions that affect the quality and value of our lives, the lives of others, and the world we live in.
Character Education Forum
A character education forum, which could be held at a regular post meeting, is simply a more formal way of gathering information. One or more people who work in the special-interest area of your post are invited to speak to your post about character issues in the field. The members in your post can use the information gathered in a character education forum to help them develop their own career character education activities.
Reflection
Reflection is looking back at experiences once they're over in order to understand what happened, and using this understanding in looking forward to the next action and new experiences. We facilitate reflection by asking questions that cause people to think, questions such as:
1. What happened in this activity?
2. Did you like what happened? Why or why not?
3. What did you like best (least) about what you did?
4. Did you learn anything? What?
5. Has this experience affected (changed) you in any way?
6. What kind of leader do you think you were?
7. How do you think the others perceived your leadership?
8. Would you do anything differently next time?
A good way to practice reflection is to start using it with initiative or cooperative games. Initiative games are activities in which the post is confronted with a specific problem to solve. Cooperative games are activities that emphasize participation, challenge, and fun.
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