This past Spring, I facilitated BGCA’s Club Director’s Academy in San Antonio. It was a BLAST! (If you haven’t been to a CDA yet, what are you doing with your life? Learn more on BGCA.net.) We cover so much great stuff in this three-day training, but there is one particular reflection activity I knew I had to share on the blog.
On the last day, we do an activity called STACK. It serves as a large-group debrief and reflection on what we’ve learned and our experience throughout the training. STACK stands for:
The way we do it at the CDA is we circle everyone up and we go down the list, letting people jump in with their reflections. The length of time you give to this will depend on the size of your group. Remember that there are five categories, and you want to give enough time for each one. I’d say we set aside a solid 20 minutes for this, but we had a group of nearly 40. It can be helpful for the facilitator to kick it off with a shout-out, but this is time for the participants, so facilitators should primarily listen.
What I really love about this activity is not only does it give an opportunity to think about what we’ve learned, but it calls out a chance to recognize the efforts of others AND to self-reflect on what *I* as a participant could have done better. The “Curious” piece gives everyone a chance to voice things they are still curious about or questions they still have, which is helpful for follow-up.
How could you use this at your Club? This activity is best suited to older youth or staff, as it does require some pretty deep thinking. With youth, you could use it following a multi-session program or maybe a big event that youth helped to plan. With staff, it is perfect as the last activity in a long training, or even as a Clubhouse staff at the end of a summer or school year programming period. Any time you want to do some really meaningful reflection about a large chunk of material or time.
What are your favorite reflection activities? What other ways do you inspire deep thinking in your youth or staff? Let us know at ClubXBlog@bgca.org!
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