Green Band: Back to School and Better Than Ever

What a wonderful group of kids!  What an exhilarating start to the year!This first week was a deep centering breath before we dive into this new year.  We took time to get to know each other as the quirky wonderful creatures we are and create a thoughtful list of group agreements.To give us something to chew on as we formulated these agreements, the group played a game that required them them to work as a team to solve a problem.  They had to listen to each other to negotiate strategies.  Our debrief of this game fed our brainstorm on how we want to treat each other. Here are the five group agreements that we distilled from dozens of postit notes and much insightful conversation:It's one thing to talk about group agreements and another thing to really embody them.  I left some things in our band space unfinished so that the group could have a mini project in which they could practice problem solving and good communication.This started in the shop with a lesson from Sean on how to ask for and offer help.  His nugget of wisdom was to take a moment to ask what a person is doing and if they would like help before jumping in with your suggestion.  The kids practiced asking for and offering help in a mini challenge.  This challenge required them to become familiar with the shop and some of the tools they will encounte there.The band also read an article from a wonderful book, "Problem Solving 101" by Ken Watanabe that described different approaches to problem solving.  The kids reflected on how they approach problems and what makes a good problem solver. As the group worked together to make our band space more functional and beautiful there were opportunities to learn from each other, practice resilience in the face of setbacks and think through some challenging logistics.I am so excited about this group of kids and the new year we have in front of us!