Ask a trainer: Any ideas for a meaningful ‘WhyTry final project’?

WhyTry Training Consultant Bruce Bushnell answers:

Here are ten ideas that helped when I was teaching WhyTry as a school counselor:

1. Passion, purpose, interest
Using WhyTry’s Motivation Formula as a reference point, give your students an opportunity to share their passion with the rest of the class. This could be through a PowerPoint, a video, a collage, a performance, or any other demonstration of the student’s choice. A young man in one of my WhyTry classes loved skateboarding, and his “passion” presentation was demonstrating a new move he’d been working on.

2. Pick a visual metaphor
Divide the students into teams and give each team one of the ten WhyTry visual metaphors to focus on. Each group will create a presentation about that metaphor and discuss how they have applied it in their lives throughout the semester.

3. Be a producer
Allow your students to be producers. Have them write a song about something they’ve learned in WhyTry and create a music video performing it. They could also use one of the WhyTry hip-hop songs or another song that relates to principles in the program. This is a fun way for them to get creative while learning other skills, such as filming, editing, and posting videos to YouTube.

4. Pay it forward
Either individually or as a group, have your students plan and implement a service project to “pay it forward” to the community. As a group, my students planned a project for the Forest Service, planting trees in designated areas. Another time, when the semester ended in December, the students decided to provide Christmas for families in need. One of the most impactful projects was the time the students made “quiet books” for children living in a local domestic violence center. They delivered them personally and spent time playing with the children. Many of the students loved the experience so much that they returned to the center to volunteer again.

5. Assembly
Have the students invite a member of the community they admire to come and speak at an assembly they plan.

6. Field trip
Field trips are a great way to help students walk away from your class with important life lessons. After learning the “Reality Ride” – specifically how every choice we make has a consequence – I took my students on a tour of the local jail. It really opened the students’ eyes to the reality of the things they’d just been taught in the classroom.

7. Career goals
Have students do a presentation to the class about their plans after high school. They could present on a post-high school career or college goals that will lead them to their dream career.

8. Be a reporter
Let your students be reporters. Have them interview and write the story of someone who has turned something hard in life into something positive. You could have the students write an article about their experience or share the person’s story with the class.

9. What’s been meaningful?
Students may gain the most in a final project from being allowed to write or draw about the thing that’s been most meaningful or helped them the most as they’ve gone through the WhyTry class. This can also help you, as a teacher, know which portions of the program have been most impactful to your students. Don’t forget to take advantage of WhyTry’s free student satisfaction survey to get the details on what worked and what didn’t.

10. Let them choose
It’s empowering for students when they’re given a choice of four, five, or six different things they could do for their WhyTry final project. You can select some of the options above or create some of your own. This allows students to complete a project that will benefit them most.

Bruce Bushnell is a WhyTry trainer, former school counselor, and creator of several of the WhyTry learning activities. For more ideas on projects and activities to do with your students, contact us at 866.949.8791.

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Meet the WhyTry Training Team

They love what they do. They’re passionate about youth success. And they’re wholly converted to the WhyTry Program. Here’s what this talented group has to say about what they see in WhyTry:

Chris Brown:

“I truly feel that the WhyTry Program is the umbrella and/or starting point of a comprehensive education. Aristotle said, “Educating the mind without educating the heart is no education… WhyTry is about the HEART and Relationships. It’s about life skills and how math, english and the sciences must be relative to understanding and appreciating each of our worlds. It is about courage and getting up every time we get knocked down. Rocky said it best in this clip: http://youtu.be/_Z5OookwOoY”

Gina Purcell:

“WhyTry is a program designed to motivate children and youth (as well as adults) using videos, music, visual analogies, and activities. It is unusual in the sense that the methods implemented are very effective yet rarely used. I used the program with youth for 9 years and it was very effective in motivating youth, helping build relationships with them, and teaching them basic life skills. One of my favorite things about this program is that it’s not just giving kids skills to get kids through school, it’s giving them skills to get through life.”

Steve Robinette:

“WhyTry is much more than social/emotional curriculum for youth who are at risk. WhyTry helps kids and adults at all levels in life to take a look in the mirror and build a game plan for their future starting day one. Many educators have told me that their experience with WhyTry has not only helped how they work with their kids but has been a life changing experience for them as well!”

Bruce Bushnell:

“This program teaches social and emotional life skills in a multi-sensory approach, catering to all the learning styles. We’re helping students look at their challenges differently and helping them turn their challenges into positive motivation. Essentially, we’re helping them answer the question, “Why put effort into life?”

Mark Fuller:

“The key in helping our youth is to make today relevant. That’s what most teachers are trying to do for their students day in and day out. And the WhyTry Program helps them meet that goal.”

To learn more about the varied and inspiring backgrounds of the WhyTry trainers, click here.

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WhyTry announces online curriculum launch

After months of building, planning, and re-building, WhyTry is excited to announce an online product subscription! Not only is this move helping us go “green,” it will benefit WhyTry facilitators worldwide by putting all of WhyTry’s favorite products in one place. Below are the “top ten” highlights of what you get when you switch over to the WhyTry virtual community:

1. The WhyTry teacher’s manuals: Each subscription includes both the elementary and secondary teacher’s manuals, divided into colorful, comprehensive, and improved versions of the printed curriculum. Each chapter also provides you with a “flexible lesson plan” sheet to fill out and create a lesson that meets your group’s needs and time restrictions.

2. Visual metaphors: You’ll get beautifully colored, printable versions of the ten WhyTry visual analogies. We’ve tried to improve the art as well as the questions included on these posters.

3. PowerPoint: When you sign up for a year’s subscription, we’ll send you our full PowerPoint DVD, but a condensed version of this DVD is a click away on the WhyTry Online site.

4. Music: At no additional charge, we’ll provide you with all of the WhyTry elementary, secondary, and hip-hop tunes, easily downloadable in iTunes. Printable lyrics and processing questions are also provided.

5. Student journals: You can print out elementary and secondary journal pages for each of your students, and find facilitator journal prompts to make the most out of journal time.

WhyTry Journal Activity

6. Learning Activities: WhyTry has 150 learning activities to engage students and help them effectively process the WhyTry principles. Each activity has a recommendation for spatial requirements, age, group size, and time.

7. Tutorials and other video: Training videos for each of the metaphors will help you improve your teaching and better understand the activities. The site also gives you recommended links for entertaining videos that help complement your lesson.

8. Recommended reading: For each lesson, we provide you with a book list and description of how each book can enhance the learning experience for your students. Simply click on the book title to order the book from Amazon.

9. Virtual community: Your WhyTry online subscription includes free entry into the WhyTry social media site, where you can collaborate with other professionals and get new implementation ideas.

10. Instant product updates: Because WhyTry Online is, indeed, online, you’ll be the first to know when there are updates and improvements to the program. You’ll instantly get to utilize these improvements…at no additional cost.

Click here to be directed to the online site. If you have additional questions, feel free to contact us at 866.949.8791.

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“Keepin’ it Real”: How to make your classroom relevant for today’s youth

A key element of the WhyTry resiliency formula is becoming relevant with the youth we work with. This doesn’t mean you have to change your clothing style, know how 2 lol in a txt msg, or start calling everyone “dude.” It does mean stepping away from the chalkboard and entering their world: the world of multimedia. Here are some ideas for getting started:

1. Talk the talk. And do it on social media sites, like Twitter or Facebook. If these sites are as foreign to you as an alien planet, surrender the one-up by asking your youth to give you some lessons. Keeping a regular blog about the goings-on in your classroom will also help your youth feel more comfortable and excited to go to class. A recent study, titled, “I’ll See you on ‘Facebook’: The Effects of Computer-Mediated Teacher Self-Disclosure,” showed that students who “accessed the Facebook website of a teacher high in self-disclosure anticipated higher levels of motivation and effective learning and more positive classroom climate.”

Do note that ”friending” and “tweeting” with students is a controversial topic in some school districts, so make sure you are aware of the rules and norms for your area.

2. Watch the vids. Sites like YouTube can be a great resource to engage students. James Sanders, a middle school history teacher at KIPP San Francisco Bay Academy, says YouTube has become the most useful tool for engaging his students. He recently wrote in the official YouTube blog: “I’ve used YouTube in my classroom in countless different ways. I use videos to spark classroom discussions, increase instructional time by assigning videos as homework, and create playlists for each lesson so students can dive deeper into specific areas that interest them. I also found countless educational videos on YouTube that energize and excite students about a number of topics…”

3. Know the tunes. Nursery rhymes are out, and some new sounds, like the ever-growing genre of hip-hop, are in. Gavin Sheppard is the founder of the “Remix Project,” a program that helps troubled youth develop their creative gifts. In a recent interview with the TED organization, Sheppard said, “Hip-hop [music] can be that gift, that Trojan Horse, that gives you the ability to get past the defenses [youth] put up. Once you’ve gotten past that, and you give them that gift and they’re engaged, that’s when you can start to hit them with life skills. That means helping them develop everything from business etiquette to refining the natural raw talents they have. Whether it’s in graphic design — maybe they are really cool graffiti artists. Or maybe it’s as a music producer or an engineer, or something else.”

Finding it difficult to sift through the hundreds of songs that give off negative messages for a few inspiring tunes? Your best source is the youth themselves. After teaching them the motivational principles found in the WhyTry curriculum, have them share the songs that motivate them or remind them of these principles. Have them explain why. They’ll remember your lesson every time they listen to that song.

The WhyTry program uses video, hip-hop music, hands-on learning activities, and other media to help youth develop social and emotional skills. To learn more, visit our website or contact us.