leadership, lessons, pairadimes, reflection, student leadership

Candy Cultures – Reflections on a leadership activity

For a number of years I have used The Candy Cultures Activity, first as a multiculturalism activity, then as a leadership activity. I had a chance to experience it on two other levels recently. First, I ran the activity at our Pro-D with staff a week ago. I also shared it with the Student Leadership Council (SLC) Executive and, this week, they ran the activity at their first meeting with about 60 students participating.

In the activity members of a specific culture greet and chat with members of other cultures. One culture consists of ‘close talkers’ who like to make physical contact when talking, others like their personal space. Some cultures feel subservient and/or superior to other cultures. Participants mingle and a funny social ‘dance’ begins.

With the staff: After running this activity with students for so many years it was wonderful to run it with adults. I was impressed with the involvement of my peers, they really engaged in the activity. What I enjoyed most was listening to the meta-analysis of the activity during the debrief. I didn’t have to lead the conversation anywhere, it simply flowed from why we did it as a staff, to why to do the activity with students, to how it relates to our school beliefs…etc. I ended the debrief talking about how sometimes in a meeting we might all have the schools’ best interest in mind, but yet because of a defensive tone, or because of someone taking a different approach, we end up seeing each other in adversarial roles. We misinterpret ‘delivery’ with ‘intent’. I then pointed out that in 9 years at the school this is the first time we have almost all of the staff back. We know each other, and don’t need to do the ‘cultural dance’ we do with new people, so we really have the potential to have a great year.

With the SLC, (student leaders representing each Middle and High School in the district): I have never had the opportunity to casually observe this activity without being involved in some way. The approach taken was very good, and what I really liked was the debrief questions they came up with.

  • 1. Describe your frustrations/challenges.
  • 2. How do you improve communication?
  • 3. Relate the experience to school.

Question one is about the experience students went through. Question two asks students to look inward and improve their own experience. Question three asks students to look outward at their school experience. The discussion went very well and it was great to see students pulling this off so eloquently with their peers.

Originally posted: October 1st, 2006

Reflection upon re-reading and re-posting:

  I didn’t add a blog post for 6 months before this, and quite honestly would never have considered myself a blogger at the time of writing this post. It would be another 2 months before that metamorphosis occurred.

  Empowering students is something I get great pleasure out of as my Master’s Paper and Student Leadership Resources demonstrate. It was only after I saw how technology could liberate students as learners that I delved into the world of web2.0 that I am so deeply entrenched in now. What I wasn’t expecting was how much it transformed me as a learner.

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