How do we turn experience into learning?

Camp is full of experiences. But not every experience is educative, in fact, many experiences can be mis-educative. What are the mitigating factors?

• The experience tends to provoke greater learning if it pushes you out of your “comfort zone” and into your “groan zone”.
• The learner must decide to move from her “groan zone” of discomfort to the “growth zone” by drawing back from the experience to reflect on it, observe her reaction and those of others, then to understand the whys or theories in play and finally to move into making concrete changes or adjustments for the next experience.

This is the essence of experiential learning and since camp provides a wide gamut of experiences our CCI/LA instructors need to know how to learn from experience themselves to be able to teach others how to as well.

Therefore, the first phase of the IFI in Mexico was a four day focus on training them to be facilitators of experiential learning using low ropes courses or team-building elements.

This 4:56 min. video (can be viewed directly on my YouTube channel: http://youtu.be/2lnB0nFMvRM) shows you how we begin by teaching safety skills, both to guard one’s emotional and physical safety. This is how we teach about emotional safety for example:

• What are some of the words or gestures we tend to use that are destructive in nature?
• What are words and gestures that we can use that are constructive and useful for building each other up?

You’ll also we also notice in the video that we practice spotting skills to avoid accidents when we are doing the team-building activities.

Our CCI/LA training is always characterized by a combination of theory and practice. We teach an idea or concept and then give ample opportunity for it to be practiced and accompanied by immediate feedback so the images of people in the video doing the activities are led by the students themselves.

How have you learned from experiences? How would you teach others to learn from their experiences? Tell us your thoughts, if you please, by sharing your observations using the link below.

We are on the right track! Strategic initiative of CCI/LA –Formation of a multicultural team of professors

Until now, the two professors responsible for teaching these Institutes for Forming Instructors have been two missionaries, two North Americans. The task at hand is to broaden this team of professors in a number of ways. How the top tier of our Leadership development pyramid is being broadened (see arrow):

• Instead of just one small team, we are creating two teams, one for the region of South America and one for Mexico/Central America.
• Instead of just two members, each team will have approx. 6 members, making for a pool of 12 professors to draw from.
• Instead of just one culture being represented, ten will be represented, from North to South: USA, Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Costa Rica, Panama, Peru, Bolivia, and Argentina.

We have started this process and feel God’s confirmation that we are on the right track! A flame burns in the heart of a number of very proficient instructors with a yearning to become part of this multicultural team of professors and they are counting the cost to belong to it. With the exception of three of us, all the rest are volunteers. God did a mighty work just to get these professors to Mexico and He used many supporters from around the Globe who prayed and gave generously so we could begin the process of preparing them to be professors of the IFI.

Here are the professors-in-training:

Gloria Garcia (Monterrey, Mexico)

Evelyn Umana (San Salvador, El Salvador, she's the one standing up)

Rixy Leiva (San Salvador, El Salvador)

We all aspire to be like Bob Sabean, who at his 74 years of age, continues to serve faithfully, impacting our lives with his wisdom, Biblical insights and historical perspectives.

Someone has to lead the games!? That would be me! I love to play, to teach others how to play, and to teach others how to lead games!

What do you love to do?

Tell us about it by clicking on "observations" below and sharing!

Two Institutes for Forming Instructors (IFI) held in 2011

Since 1990, the manner in which we impact children and young people’s lives for Christ is through our Leadership Development pyramid (see figure). Each layer of leadership is developed by the tier above it and grows exponentially with each new camp counselor, program director and instructor formed.

This year, 2011, Christian Camping International, Latin America (CCI/LA) has added a total of 29 new instructors to the pyramid (IFI Argentina in January—13 new and one former instructor from the IFI in 1992 “updated” & IFI Mexico in July—16 new and two former instructors from the IFI in 2001 “updated”). The addition of 29 instructors will result in directly impacting the lives of hundreds of camp counselors who will participate in the training courses they will hold throughout Mexico, Central and South America. These counselors in turn will impact for Christ the lives of thousands of children and young people who will attend the camps held by these newly trained counselors.

The impact of these IFI’s will be felt throughout Latin America as viewed in the map since graduates come from nine different countries of Latin America (Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Costa Rica, Panama, Peru, Bolivia and Argentina).

This July the IFI was hosted by the camp I served at during my initial five years of ministry (1983-1988), Camp Kikotén, Mexico. What a thrill it was to walk around the camp, with my children playing on the same recreational elements that we had built years ago!

I actually got to see one of my co-workers, Julieta Garfias, whom I had not seen since I left in 1988! She was 18 years old when I last saw her and here she is married with two children!

I love serving with the kids in ministry!

What do you love about the ministry where you serve?

How do you know if an IFI has been successful?

One day, during a meal we shared together, my boss Robert Bruneau was asked: How do you know if an IFI has been successful?

I was close by so I took notes.

• Success is measured by the depth of the lived community we experience. God Himself blesses us with His presence as we begin to intentionally walk together and share life.

• Success is visible through the discoveries we listen to and see people make: Ah! Now I understand! I just realized… I never knew…Wow, this is new to me.

• Success is apparent by the progression we observe of the guided-supervised practices. After watching you teach several times, we get a handle on how well you are grasping the concepts and able to teach them to others.
• But we recognize, that we can only see the outward signs, God knows what's going on in the hearts of us all and He defines success by His means and standards!
  
  

Formative Evaluation bears fruit

A vital part of the IFI is giving the instructors opportunities to practice what they are learning. As they practice, we offer them "formative evaluation" and here are the new insights and perspectives they are gaining regarding the guided practices in the IFI:

• I am learning not to call my mistakes, “margin of error” but rather “the lesson of the day.”

• I am very pleased that I did so poorly on my first guided teaching practice. Now I see that to fail is to succeed.

• I am sorry to say that I have never said: I was wrong. I made a mistake. That’s how I was raised. But being in these classes here at the IFI, I feel like I’m in another world. For those who need to be active and playing with something, they give us toys, we even toss them at each other during breaks! We can speak freely. What’s more incredible is that we are free to make mistakes! I haven’t come to an IFI, I have arrived at God’s school for me!

• Oops, I messed up. Oh well, I made a mistake but no one got on my case. What’s more, they actually congratulated me the next round because I looked for help and learned from my errors.

How do you feel when you make mistakes? What has been your experience regarding getting evaluated? I'd love for you to share with me your thoughts!

Part 1: What I learned in the IFI Argentina (2011)

Here are some quotes from the folks who attended our Institute for Forming Instructors- Argentina. On the last day of the 17-day long Institute for Forming Instructors (IFI) we just held last month in Cordoba, Argentina, the graduates filled out an evaluation entitled: What I learned in the IFI...

Edwin Velasquez, Peru:
I learned to make mistakes and let someone help me learn from them. (Here he is doing a practice teaching of session 3 of our introductory course to camp counseling: Building Relationships.)




Edwin, far right, tended to take over the leadership during the team building initiatives, his leadership being so skilled and capable that it opaqued that of others.

I discovered a new way to lead... from "one step back". I don't always have to lead from the front of the pack. I can stand behind others to help them learn to lead.

(By the way, the goal is for the group to maintain the pole upright while pulling it through a maze...until it comes to its final resting stop-an upraised platform.)


Claudia Aguirre from Salta, Argentina:

* I learned to value learning in community.
* I learned to recognize my weaknesses and strengths honestly.
* I learned to experience evaluation as a true instance of learning.
* I discovered my own unique form and style of learning.

I also developed the capacity of self-evaluation and reflection.

Claudia works as a teacher with blind pre-school students in the northern part (Salta) of Argentina.



Carlos Luyo, Lima, Peru:

I learned to aadminister the time I'm given to teach and the content through the use of a teaching agenda.

Carlos has graduated from Seminary and serves in a church.

Andrea Torres, Buenos Aires, Argentina:

She is one of our graduates from our first IFI in 1992 and she wrote this about her second IFI where she got "updated."

I got re-activated with the pleasure of teaching, as well as found once again the pleasure of sharing in community and enjoying being in a 17-day long camp!

Institute for Forming Instructors

Here we are in Argentina!

Here are pictures the members of our new multi-cultural team of teachers.
(if the pictures are not visible in the email, just click on the title: A happy camper's voice on the web, to view them!

The last picture is the entire group of us, 14 instructors-to-be and the 5 members of the multi-cultural teaching team!

Here we are in Argentina!

Traveling with a Senior citizen like Bob Sabean has its distinct advantages! We are co-directors of the Institute for Forming Instructors and were en route to Argentina for 3 weeks of intensive teacher training.

Upon our arrival in Panama, Bob offered to go to the counter to get our seating rearranged to sit together for the upcoming 6 hour flight, while I watched over our bags. Engrossed in a new spy novel, I barely heard him coming until he excitedly showed me the new boarding passes and exclaimed: Lisa, I can't believe it! They upgraded us to FIRST CLASS! Who knows why since I didn't ask for it but praise God from whom all blessings flow!

We couldn't believe our good fortune--we crept into our seats like two elementary school children who had switched their seat assignments and were hoping the teacher didn't notice! After a few minutes of tension, we realized our good fortune started to enjoy seating in the "lap of luxury!" Six hours of sheer pampering! :)

This delightful start to our trip has been just one of many signs of God's blessing and providence as we gather the week before the Institute of Forming Instructors starts with the Teaching Team--a team with members from Peru, Bolivia, Honduras, Argentina and Bob and I.

Each day is filled with deep, intense discussions about how God brought our here, how to evaluate our performance as a team, how to harmonize our cultural differences, how to follow in the footsteps of Bob and Lisa as the up and coming professors of IFI, how to handle other people's expectations, so many delightful and memorable conversations.

I am overjoyed to be a part of God's work in Christian Camping International and we anticipate the arrival of 15 new instructors next week to be certified to teach our CCI counselor-training courses.

I invite you to accompany us in prayer:

• Lord, keep us teachable one to the other.
• Lord, mold us together into a harmonious team so that you may be glorified by our unity.
• Lord, enable us to grasp the concept and be gifted in teaching it to others.
• Lord, make us sensitive to the needs of others as we live, work, play together 24/7 for 3 weeks!
  

Long hours with few people

(Reflections on the Institute for Forming Instructors continued)

Robert paused and confessed: “Whenever I attend international events I find myself questioning why CCI /LA has so few members. Why don’t we have 1000’s of people attending our conventions and events?”

“I have compared ourselves to other ministries and felt like we aren’t getting anything done. But of late my perspective has changed. Look what we noticed when we counted how many hours we spent working with each individual who attended the IFI-3, we created an event whereby they would interact with God’s Word in various settings—90 hours total!”

“Let’s compare that to other teaching models”, Robert continued.

How long does a professor spend with a student per semester?

At Trinity, I responded, over a 2 week period of time, I spend 30-40 hours in class with the professor and I have the opportunity to get maybe one or two 30-minute appointments with them during the two weeks I am on campus.

Another comments, “I receive training 2 hours per week but the teacher comes and leaves class barely speaking to anyone, he is not available for but a few brief moments after class.”

Robert ponders on: “Let’s look at Christ’s ministry of earth. How long did He spend with the multitude versus with a small group of disciples? He spent far more hours with a few than with the multitude. But look at what those few did. Those eleven were used by God, together with others, to start a revolution that pushed on even today and has changed the course of history. It’s what Lisa’s professor Jim Plueddemann calls a ‘silent, peaceful revolution.’ ”

As a staff and teaching team we came away from that discussion encouraged. Encouraged to look at the value of really investing our lives in a not so large a group of people who in turn will invest themselves significantly in other and so on. We’re not perfect and we can do much more to promote what we do but we are on the right track.

Raising the bar!

(Testimonies from the Institute for Forming Instructors continued)

During our Institute for Forming Instructors (IFI) Feb. 1-15, 2009, Jose Climaco, said about Christian Camping International, Latin America (CCI/LA):

Every time I attend a CCI AL training event I know I’m going to get evaluated and my shortcomings pointed out, but I keep coming back for more!

I should know better!

I started with Lisa in 1993 when she came to El Salvador and although now I’m a missionary with Assemblies of God, and have served in Peru and Dominican Republic reaching out to children, I love about CCI/LA that they have a high standard. They raise the bar for me and I need that challenge and the accompaniment to change.”

He continues his confession, “my problem has been finishing my homework, writing my thoughts and ideas and mapping out plans, that’s why I haven’t finished my professional studies and so although I hesitated attending this IFI due to my “my human side” being exposed, God brought me here because He knew I needed the push. I will return to my studies the Monday after I return after having stopped for 10 years.”

PS. Since returning to El Salvador, Jose has written all of his fellow instructors indicating that he indeed is finishing his studies. Praise the Lord for the accountable relationships formed during the IFI-3!