I'm talking good 'ole fundamental FFA and Ag stuff. Today we had an FFA meeting at lunch. Now... With only an average of 35 showing up at our meetings (keep in mind our program is 93), I told officers to keep it simple. My students like something that they feel is fun yet they can be competitive at. Hence today's meeting of HOPSCOTCH RELAYS.
Now when the kids asked how to keep it simple and I replied "hopscotch, Pictionary, cards simple schoolyard and elementary aged activities", I thought that they would maybe elaborate??? Um nope! Not my officers! When we think simple- we do simple things and then we add competitive component. I was a little apprehensive about the response to hopscotch relays. But I remembered back to when we did a nighttime Pictionary meeting and how surprisingly successful it was.
Again today, I was overwhelmed by the enthusiasm of the students that were there. We had everyone from the cute little freshman girls who don't talk, all the way to the junior and senior guys with with the old big lifted trucks that think they're too cool for everything. And everyone participated and laugh and had fun! It's amazing to me how the reward of candy can motivate so many people to run through hopscotch course. It was more successful than I could've imagined.
Lesson of the day: KISS- keep it simple stupid
I've learned this year by moving to a small chapter that it's really important to go back to the fundamentals of getting kids interested in attending FFA meetings. Every kid is motivated by something different whether it's food, candy, laughing, being with friends or whatever it may be. But FFA is home for all of them and it's important that I learn to teach the basics to the officers so that we can build in future years on the activities we do.
"Success is neither magical nor mysterious. Success is the natural consequence of consistently applying the basic fundamentals."
We even had a surprise visit from Ms. Riley Nilsen
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