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My history with games

I have used these games and others like them for many years: during more than 30 years as teacher, playing them with primary and high school students and during more than 40 years as a leader and trainer with the Girl Guides Association.  I have played the games with young people aged from nine years to adulthood and played them with adults during training sessions with youth leaders and other trainers.  I have played them with classroom teachers and administrators during teacher workshops and staff team building sessions.  The adults have invariably enjoyed them and enthusiastically taken them away to share with others.  The young people have loved playing them and their insight into what and how much they have learned while playing them is astonishing.

In 1996, I decided to move on from classroom teaching and over the next 14 years, I travelled to many primary and high schools across Western Australia, assisting students and staff to implement the Peer Mediation Program into their schools. I used many of the activities in this book while training the young people to be mediators so that they could mediate in their peers’ conflicts.

The school mediator is a leadership role that requires all the skills that support good leadership: team skills, communication and conflict resolution skills such as active listening, negotiating and assertiveness, as well as problem solving and decision making skills – in other words, life skills.

The training sessions, each held over a two-day period, used only games and role-play activities to teach every skill required by the mediators.  The only time the students picked up a pencil was to complete and evaluation at the end of the two days.  They loved it!

Workshops for teachers followed and again, it was necessary to have them play the games in order to understand fully the impact the games would have on their students.  A common comment was that they would not have fully realised the power of the games if they had not participated in the play.

In 1997, the Peer Mediation Program received a Certificate of Merit from the Australian Violence Prevention Awards.

This was an exciting and busy time for me because my move from full time teaching was noted by the State Commissioner for Girl Guides Western Australia, who asked me to develop and manage an outreach  Life Skills Program for teenage girls who were considered by teachers and parents to be socially ‘at risk’.

I wrote and managed the very successful Life Skills Program that incorporated many of the games contained in this book.  The purpose was to teach the girls life skills – such as team and leadership skills, problem solving and decision-making skills and conflict resolution skills – as a preventative measure.  During this time, I trained and managed up to six group leaders to use these games as the training base for the desired skills and continued as manager until 2004.  In 2001, I was a recipient of the National Australia Bank’s Award of Recognition for the development of the Life Skills Program

The games were also a big part of the program when, as a member of the State Mentor Team, I had the privilege of working with many adult Guide leaders, building team and leadership skills and melding teams within districts and divisions.

A few years ago, I retired from racing around the countryside and set up my home tutoring business but it saddened me deeply that the games were locked away in a cupboard – hence this book with at least one more to follow.  Play hard and have fun with the kids.

 

Anne Fyffe