How many times have you attended a training or sat in a classroom and struggled to maintain interest and focus? You then wonder if anyone will notice that you are not taking notes, but rather answering emails on your laptop or phone? Perhaps you’re on social media? The same may be true during parts of our RYE student orientations. An observation, when I first joined Rotary, that too often the inbound and outbound orientations were too long, too much talking done by Rotarians and perhaps too much repetition of information. What we know in the field of education is that when learners are active and engaged, their learning and recall of the information is much improved. Activities or “games” can be impactful, learning is improved and everyone enjoys the experience. Come and discuss a wide range of engaging action orientated activities for your program. Facilitator: Cindy Harrison

1. Games (Activities)
People Play
Training RYE Students, Rotex and Rotarians

4. SIGNS

7. Pins given as awards throughout Camp

8. Kahoot.it
•Go online and type in:
Kahoot.it
Enter the Pin and create a name

9. Have You Ever:
• Fallen asleep in class?
• Checked social media while in a work meeting?
• Checked email while at a conference?
• Texted during class/meeting?
• Lost track of the conversation because you were thinking of
something else?
• Left a conference early because it was boring?
• Thought the topic could have been covered in 20 minutes, but the
presenter took 2 hours?

10. Examine Your Goals
What are the goals of your orientations for outbound students and inbound
students?
To provide meaningful training so that students will be prepared for their
experiences (living in a host family, attending school, learning
a new language, culture shock etc)
What are your goals for training Rotary Counselors?
What are your goals for your host family orientations?
**You must be clear about your goals in order to effectively implement the
use of activities. Otherwise they become games.

11. How We Learn
We Also need to keep in
mind the three most
common learning styles
1.Verbal/Audio
2.Visual
3.Tactile or Kinestetic
What is your style? Do
your orientations mimic
your style?

12. If you must lecture….
• Pair Share – what they learned from the lecture
• Kahoot – quiz, discussion, survey after the lecture
• Have Rotex and outbounds pair up to give presentations/topics you want
covered and have them teach the group (Rotarians oversee)
• Teach it to two outbounds, have them teach it to two more, have them
teach it to two more, have the last two teach it to the Rotarians.
• Have a large article to read? Divide into teams of 6. Then divide the
reading into 6 parts. Have each person on a team read their one part (not
the whole article) then have all summarize their parts.

13. Creating Activities
• Be Creative. There is no box, unless you created one!
• Keep your goals in mind.
• If you can’t think of an activity, google it!
• Think about how exhausted we feel after a conference all day. So
much information while we sit passively in our chairs. Use this as
motivation to create a different kind of orientation.
• The longer we sit in a lecture, the more often our brain/thoughts
wander
• Many of the activities to be presented can be used in various training
situations.

14. Processing Activities – Use the ORID Model
Observational – What do/did you see
Reflective – How do/did you feel doing this activity
Interpretive – What did you learn? Why did we do this activity?
Decisional- What will you do with this knowledge/now that you know this?
Too often when we do an activity we intellectualize and jump past the
observation and feeling levels as adults. Yet, during the exchange
experience, our observations and feelings are often tipping points.

15. Icebreakers – All RYE Trainings
• What Makes a Group
• Yes Game
• String Game/Skittles etc. For outbound students have them then
translate into their target language and do it again
• I am from Poem

16. Language Activities
• Speaking backwards – Use during outbound parent and student orientation, host
family orientation and counselor training.
• Label items during inbound/outbound camp (and add a few sentences below the
word: I open the door. I close the door. I knock on the door. This will give you more
interaction with more of the language. For use during outbound camp.
• Read a children’s book to the group in target language
• Powerpoint/Introduction and Banner Exchange in language of
country placement/target
• For use during outbound orientation/camp.

17. Student Outbound Orientation – Camp
Activities
• Jet plane game
• Fear factor
• Signs – Topics may include: making friends in a new country,
conflict with host parents/siblings, learning the language, your
Rotary club is not involved/engaged
• Voices of RYE - Read the experiences of past students/role play
• Spontaneous combustion
• Dot Activity

18. Outbound Camp – Continued
• Safety techniques – practice them
• Journal writing
• Strength Bombardment
• “Rule/guide book” for the year or Goal setting activities – This is part of
their own 4 D’s and 6 B’s. I don’t write their guidelines, I have the student
write their own, meaningful rules while on exchange.
• Paper folding activity

19. • Yoga, centering techniques for stress management
Why? On exchange students are often scattered. Lost in their own
thoughts, feeling anxious. Our stress and anxiety impacts our
relationships with others, decision making, and even our sleep patterns.
Quick Centering techniques:
• Feel your feet. Place both feet firmly on the ground and focus on the
sensations in the bottom of your feet for 30 seconds.
• 54321 – 5 things you see, 4 things you can touch around you, 3 things you
hear, 2 things you can smell and 1 thing you can taste

20. Identity Activities –
For outbound students/Rotarians on the committee/host family orientation
• Colors Personality Inventory – how our personalities come in to
play with host families, friends, siblings, Rotarian relationships.
After color identification, you can divide into colors and have
them draw an exchange student based on color.
*Colors may be used with inbound students but may not be as effective depending on
language skills if used at inbound orientation

21. Culture Activities
• Blue and Gold Game - Can be used inbound/outbound/Rotarian
• What Would you do now? (AFS) – Outbound
• Bafa Bafa – Outbound, Host family, Rotarians
• Value Line – May be used for all groups; change questions/values to be
discussed
• Paper Activity

22. Inbound Student Activities
• Ice Breakers – listed previously
• Perfect exchange student – If language is a barrier, this can cover
responsibilities of students, 4 D’s,6 B’s etc.
• House Activity or Identity Sculptures (in place of colors because of
language barriers)
• Signs – topics may vary depending on group/concerns already
brought to your attention
• Yoga techniques for managing stress

23. Questions/Comments/Thoughts
• Cindy Harrison
Contact me on whats app 4802621897
Email: cehaz@cox.net