GETTING PREPARED FOR GAME CHANGERS WORKSHOPS

WORKSHOP HOURS


The workshop will begin promptly at 9:00 and will run until 15:00 (unless otherwise scheduled with us). Please ask your students to arrive by 8:45 so that we can start on time. We will plan for lunch around 12:15 on both days. If these hours are not possible for your school please let us know and the schedule can be adjusted, within reason. Let us know if you have any special requests regarding timing of morning and afternoon breaks.

Please invite your school's headmistress/headmaster to open our workshop at 9:00 with greetings and some words about the school (if not possible in the morning, before or after lunch or a break would work). The students really appreciate the message that it sends to have the school director open their workshop, even if it's just greetings of a few minutes.

PHOTO AND VIDEO RELEASE


If your school doesn't already have permission from students to take photos at events (including by program partners), please ask each student to provide a photo and video release form (EN / FR) signed by a parent or guardian and that you provide us with these signed forms on the first day of the workshop. Photos are used for project reports and some project-related communication - e.g. our website or social media. If a student does not want to be photographed for any reason, they can of course still participate. Please just let us know so that we can avoid taking their photo.

FOOD & DRINK


Your school is responsible for providing food on the day that you host the other school for the workshop. This includes:

> a full lunch for all students from both schools
> refreshments for morning break (around 10:45) and afternoon break (around 13:45 - day 1 of workshop only) - e.g. drinks, fruit, waffles, snacks
> water throughout the day

Please ensure to provide a vegetarian option and to communicate with your partner teacher to address any specific dietary requirements that students from your partner school students may have (e.g. Halal, Kosher, vegan, allergies). If the food is being delivered, please ensure it arrives by 11:45 so that it can be ready for lunch time by around 12:00.

MEDIA COVERAGE & PHOTO/VIDEO


It would be wonderful if you and your school could help generate some coverage of the workshop. This could be the school magazine or A/V club, or a community newspaper. If this is possible, please let us know in advance (it’s important to us to know who will be visiting the workshops and when). If you, student or school staff photograph the workshop, please share your photos with us!

TRAVEL


Please make sure to provide students with the exact meeting point and plan for arriving to the workshop. Kindly take care to plan travel so that you are all at the workshop by 8:45. Your school is responsible for ensuring that all students have a valid and completed travel permission form signed by parents (as required by your school) and insurance coverage from the school.

ROOM SETUP


Please ensure that the room is ready on the day of the workshop by 8:15 with a projector and screen and with clean working tables each set up with 8 chairs (+/- if you have more or less students). Please see diagram for illustration of how to set up the room, with illustrations for square/rectangular tables or circular. If you haven't hosted a Game Changers workshop, we will plan a site visit with you in advance to discuss set-up.

STUDENT LIST AND TABLES


The week before the workshop, please send us a list of your students who will be attending from your school. It is important that this list contains the correct spelling of the student’s full names as well as gender. During the workshops the students will be seated in groups of 8 (4 from each school).

As you know your students much better than we do, we ask that you help us with group assignments. Using the template below, please assign your students to a group number (1-5) with four members in each group - keeping in mind which peers are likely to positively influence, support and work well together (and which might distract or otherwise disturb one another).

Documents


Please send completed student list to us at least 48 hours before the workshop and bring completed photo/video release forms with you.

NOTES ON THE ROLE OF TEACHERS

IN PREPARATION FOR WORKSHOP


The 2-day Game Changers workshop offers an intensive, interactive experiential learning opportunity to discover and practice new ideas through experience and interactive reflection - in English!

As such, please DO NOT prepare the students on workshop content (e.g. don't tell them in advance about the orange story or the arm game), or give them answers during the workshop, as this will interfere with their experiential learning process.

If useful, you can show the following video to help students understand a bit more about what they'll go through. Please don't over-prepare them, though. Best for them to come ready to experience and discover.

In addition to logistical preparations, much of the success of the program depends on the preparation and follow up the students receive in the classroom, and the mindset that they bring to the experience.

Please DO help get your students understand that this will be a participatory experience in which they will actively do, reflect, and discuss. Encourage them to take part and to share their experiences and thoughts without worry about finding the "right" answer or making mistakes in speaking.

A key aspect of the workshop is bringing together students from different schools and backgrounds. Please discuss with your students how they would like to be hosts and guests, and how they can get the most out of the experience.

Some questions to consider together with your students:

> How can we be good hosts and guests? What do we want our guests to experience when they're at our school?
> How can we all get the most out of the workshop?
> How will we welcome the students when they arrive at our school?
> Will we mix and interact with students from the other school at their tables and during breaks? How will it feel to them if we don't?
> Could we take them on a tour of the school during lunch?

It's also useful to remind students of basic guidelines for taking part in such a program: no cell phones during the workshop, respect any materials that they are given, come back from breaks on time.

Dress Codes


Please coordinate with your partner teacher around any dress code policies that your school has in place and needs to enforce during the workshop. For school-hosted activities such as Game Changers workshops, PATHWAYS defers to school policies and will rely on teachers to enforce their school's guidelines. Given its potentially sensitive nature, it is important that you coordinate around dress codes with your partner, and set clear expectations with your students, so there are no surprises or misaligned expectations that lead to avoidable embarrassment, frustration or conflict.

After-school, elective activities like the Negotiation Leaders workshops and reception fall outside of school hours - on the students' own time and initiative - and so will not be covered by school dress codes.

AFTER THE STUDENT WORKSHOP


Information about the Negotiation Leaders workshops to be held in Brussels on two Wednesday afternoons (dates TBC) will be shared with students on their final workshop day, along with a link to apply. Motivated students can apply to take part in these follow-up sessions where they'll meet students from a variety of other schools, strengthen their confidence and skills, and explore how their new tools can be useful in social projects and entrepreneurship.

After the workshop, you can challenge the students who went through the workshop to think about how they can apply the ideas they've learned to their daily life in schools. How can they be leaders and "change the game" - in their daily lives and in the school? Options for students to apply what they've learned include: writing about the experience for the school newspaper, creating a poster or photo series, or delivering a mini workshop to younger students.

If there is a positive connection between your schools, please work with your students and with your partner teacher to brainstorm and plan a follow-up activity together.

Ideas might include:
> Creating a shared project (cultural, environmental, artistic)
> Organizing a joint tour in each others' cities/neighborhoods
> Online communication and collaboration
> Inviting the other students to an existing event at your school

Please share with us ideas you come up with so we can share!

DURING THE STUDENT WORKSHOP


During the 2-day workshop, we will operate as a team and model for students the values of the program. While we are responsible for facilitating the workshop, we ask that you be involved together with your partner teacher in helping students make the most of the workshop.

Please help stimulate discussion during group tasks, encourage quieter students to participate, and ensure students stick to the task at hand. Feel free to help students with English if they have questions. That said, please do not correct students' grammar, give students answers, or guide them on how to do things. Let them do their best and learn from the experience.

Please help us to create a positive workshop culture in which there is not excessive talking, no use of cell phones, that bathroom breaks are managed with teacher’s permission, that students participate with a respectful attitude and that students return to the room after breaks and lunch on time.

Thank you! We look forward to working together.

QUESTIONS


Please don't hesitate to contact us with any questions:

Avi Goldstein
avi@pathways.be
0483.48.15.76

THANKS to our partners


The GAME CHANGERS program is supported by and run in partnership with:
> GO! Scholengroep Brussel
> GO! GO! Scholengroep Impact > Royal Library of Belgium > Fulbright Commission
Thanks to our partners for making this program possible!

FINAL EVENT


We are aiming to hold a special reception and closing ceremony on May 22 (TBC) to celebrate the completion of this year's program and to recognize students who chose to take part in the Negotiation Leaders series. Students who take part in the Negotiation Leaders will be invited along with teachers, school directors and program partners.