Educational Material
Animal assessment
I developed this getting-to-know-each-other activity (but it can also be considered as a team building session) long ago on occasion of a training course in Ukraine and I realised that participants appreciate it a lot. For this reason, I proposed it again during the YDEA training course on Emotional Intelligence in Bulgaria, and with the participants we had the idea to upgrade it, improve it and turn it into a "well-refined" game. Let's see what we will be able to achieve! In the meantime, here you can download the material you need to coordinate this very simple but nice and effective session, to be used at the beginning of your project. The aim is to break the ice and invite the participants to share more about themselves, using animals as metaphores for their personality traits. You can print the sheets and place them on the floor or on a big table; give some minutes to reflect and read the sheets; then, ask participants to create a new imaginary "beast", which brings together three animals, according to their personality (see example on the last card). To conclude, each participant should share with the group an important information: "if you want to work with me, you should know that ....". Give 1 or 2 minute to each participant to present and then hang the profiles on the wall. Invite participants to read the profiles regularly during the meeting or training course, as they contain precious (and real) information about the way they work together.
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Grapheazy
Grapheazy is a nice educational tool I created for SCI in cooperation with the Pool of Trainers and Facilitators of the organisation, with the support of graphic specialist Balázs Kajor. It is the result of many years of improvement and feedback: an essential contribution was provided by the participants of the seminar "Non-Formal education at the mirror" organised in Vienna in November 2014. Grapheazy consists of 50 colored cards, with visual metaphors and drawings. The tool helps tackle sensitive debate, promoting active participation and the creation of new ideas. In order to better understand its use, please take a look at this section or read this digital leaflet.
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The Euromap Game
This is a game I created and I've been playing quite often over the last years. it has always proved successful. It can be played the very first evening of a project, while waiting for the last-comers.
The Euromap Game is about European geography. To play the game you need 50 small colored cards (10 x 10 cm). Each card has a name of a European country (if you include the micro-states and caucasic region, you have 50 states, just like USA!). Moreover, you need 50 small flags for each country (1 x 2 cm).
Each participant receives two or more cards (according to the participants available). Aim of the game is to place the cards on the table according to the geographical positions of the countries. Participants are not allowed to talk, nevertheless they are invited to cooperate. When the "map" is complete, each participants receive some flags, to be correctly placed on the related countries.
After this stage, you can ask participants to following questions:
- what countries are members of CoE? EU? Eurozone? Schengen? NATO? EFTA?
For the answers, you can refer to this chart (list as of Januray 2013)
The Euromap Game is about European geography. To play the game you need 50 small colored cards (10 x 10 cm). Each card has a name of a European country (if you include the micro-states and caucasic region, you have 50 states, just like USA!). Moreover, you need 50 small flags for each country (1 x 2 cm).
Each participant receives two or more cards (according to the participants available). Aim of the game is to place the cards on the table according to the geographical positions of the countries. Participants are not allowed to talk, nevertheless they are invited to cooperate. When the "map" is complete, each participants receive some flags, to be correctly placed on the related countries.
After this stage, you can ask participants to following questions:
- what countries are members of CoE? EU? Eurozone? Schengen? NATO? EFTA?
For the answers, you can refer to this chart (list as of Januray 2013)
L.T.: a volunteer from outer space
Besides working as a trainer, I have also experience as EVS and LTV tutor for different organisations in Europe. EVS means European Voluntary Service, the second action of the EU Youth in Action programme; whereas LTV stands for Long Term Volunteering, a service provided by SCI. Both programmes deal with the promotion of long term voluntary commitment, that is any voluntary project lasting more than 3 months (EVS projects usually last between 6 and 12 months). Working as a tutor for incoming and outgoing long term volunteers helped me develop new skills (mostly in the field of counseling). I don't hide that I coped with several intercultural and communication problems; however, this was just the side of the job that I like most! In 2006 I participated to a general meeting of the LTEG group of SCI in Finland. LTEG is a group that was set up to promote projects hosting long term volunteers and to improve the quality of the exchange procedure, including preparation of participants and youth workers involved in the field. For that occasion, I prepared a special activity in the form of an interactive comics (made up of 4 flipc-charts) with "junctions" and multiple endings. The story is quite simple: a small alien, called LT, lands on planet Earth and a nice girl, after an initial shock, decides to help him/her/it integrate in the local community...which proves to be a very hard job! Readers take part in the game by following the story and deciding which way to take when the comics gets to a "crossroad". All the decisions deal with possible problems that anyone wishing to become an LTV or EVS mentor can find, and for this reason this activity is ideal for seminar focusing on long term volunteering (mentoring, project managing and designing, preparation of volunteers and similar topics).
A nice getting-to-know-each-other game
Getting-to-know-each-other games are essential when coordinating an international youth exchange or a seminar, and their quality should never be neglected. The one I present you here is among my favorites. It can be played by large or medium-size groups (I'd suggest up to 30 participants), it requires a number of chairs equal to the number of participants (the number should be even; if it's odd, a trainer can join the group). The game is played with small, preferably colored booklets (see picture). Each page contains a question ( here is the file with the template and instructions). The setting is very easy: divide the group into two sub-groups (with equal number of participants) and place chairs in two concentric circles; then invite participants to sit in the chairs in order to form couples; each participant sitting in the inner circle receives a booklet; explain the group that each couple will have 3 minutes to answer each question of the booklet; the game starts and each participant of the inner circle asks the participant on the outer circle the first question; then is the turn of the participants sitting in the outer circle to ask the same question to those sitting in the inner circle. After three minutes, invite participants sitting in the outer circle to shift rightwards. The game goes on with the second question following the same procedure. When the participants of the outer circle complete a whole round, the game ends. Besides being very entertaining, this activity presents many positive features: it allows participants to exchange relevant information about themselves, their lives and the place where they live; it avoids deadlock or long presentations where participants only listen but are not active; and, even though it may seem counter-productive, this game does not provide participants with enough time to exchange so much information, thus increasing their curiosity and motivation to continue talking!
A list of games for intercultural meetings
A good facilitator, trainer or workcamp coordinator should have a good toolkit with games and activities to be used according to the different occasions. Here you can download a file listing many of them. Even if people call them usually "energizers", such games possess diverse features that make them suitable to specific needs and situation. To make some examples: have you ever heard of "disenergizers"? Do you need to play some games indoor, in case of heavy rain? Or you prefer playing with chairs? This list might help you find the right activities for your programme. Moreover, you can find suggestions on how to adapt them to the participants' needs (for example, people with disabilities), how to present them and how to cope with participants who refuse to play. Have fun!