Resilient Youth
On April 23 Tuesday, we had three fun guest speakers to talk to us Peer Mentors, Leaders and House Captains. Maurice, Scott and Shelly, from Resilient Youth played and taught us many fun games that require us all to think strategically, to collaborate, to engage with others we haven’t met or don’t know that well, to problem solve, communicate and to try our hardest. I can admit, some of these games felt rather embarrassing and at first, we were probably not too eager to participate. It probably looked a bit silly to other students in class watching us, but we all learned that there’s a method to the madness: learn to have fun even if you look silly!
The games were very engaging and ranged from easy to difficult. There were games such as moonball, where you have to keep the ball up in the air and not catch it or let it touch the ground. One of the highlights was a game where everyone walked around with a card on their head not knowing what card it was. You would want a King or a Queen, or possibly a Jack. There were no Jokers or Aces in the deck. Everyone would walk around with a card on their head, not talking, and trying to silently engage with people around them who had a higher card. In the end, everyone found out about their card. You could tell if you had a good or bad card based on if people tried to talk to you or their facial expressions. The moral of this game was, as said by Scott: When you walk around school, treat people like they’ve got a King or a Queen on their head.
The games all helped us learn something new, and to be bigger and better leaders. The games lasted for the first four periods of the day, then in the fifth and final period, we split up into our House groups and wrote a list of activities that we will do with our Houses, and the equipment needed. This was enjoyable because we all had some input, and we organised it ourselves. To top it all off, we sat down and closed our eyes, then put up thumbs up if we learned something or liked the activities, in the middle if it was okay, and thumbs down if we did not learn nor enjoy anything. To our teachers' surprise, not many people had their thumbs down. Mission accomplished! It was great for building our skills, and will definitely support us in the future when getting a job. Thank you to Maurice, Scott and Shelly for the wonderful experience!
Sofia Sinopoli, Year 9 Mannix
