Were you a girl scout or brownie leader? Give me your advice...
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Anonymous
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The Brownie Quest Journey looks .... so boring!
Why would anyone think girls want to do this stuff? I was excited to be a Brownie leader next year but I can't even figure out how to change this to make it interesting. http://www.girlscoutsnorcal.org/documents/Brownie_Quest.pdf Session 1: Discovering...You, Values, Family pg.42. Brownies discover and give voice to their special qualities and appreciate the qualities of their sister Brownies. Then they “find” the values of the Girl Scout Law and prepare to share them with their families. They could: • Fill in the blanks on the Discovering Me activity sheet on page 49 of the girl book • Participate in a ball toss game where they name special talents or qualities they might have recording the qualities on the troop “star” chart • Participate in a word search around the room or outside looking for values of the Girl Scout Law • Read or listen to chapter 1 of the story in the girl book starting on page 10 • Go home with the “family star” handout to complete with their parents Session 2: Discovering and Connecting page 57. The girls engage in a team-building game and reflect on the experience, which guides them to create a Brownie Team Agreement—the first step to the second key. They could: • Share their family stars in a Brownie Circle • Celebrate earning the Discover Key by relating what they have discovered about themselves and their family • Play a team-building game • Learn about connecting at home by reading and discussing the story on page 54 in the girl book • Read or listen to page 55 in the girl book and make a commitment to try at least one healthy habit and to encourage their family to do the same • Take home the Healthy-Living Family Activity handout and encourage their family to return the Commitment Card Session 3: Connecting and Taking Action page 65. Brownies earn the Connect Key by first exploring the “circles” of their lives and then expanding their caring to their community by writing a letter to a school or town official to seek a healthy- living improvement. They could: • Create a Brownie Team Agreement on page 53 in the girl book and add it to their books • Share their family Commitment Cards and what they did to help their family to make a healthy change • Using the ME circle on page 60 of the girl book learn how to connect with others around them (leader guide page 66—67) • Listen to or read the story on page 64 in the girl book about a real group of children who want to fix a broken sidewalk Session 4: Choosing a Take Action Project page 75. Brownie Team members identify a community need that matters to them and begin to create a solution—a way to Fly into Action and accomplish something on behalf of others. They could: • Brainstorm who needs the Brownie ELF team and what they can do for them (page 77 in the adult guide) • Using a simple link arms game learn what possible project their partner likes and do some trading to help them learn what a consensus is • Decide their Take Action Project • Make a plan to gather supplies and information needed to carry out the Take Action Project • Learn about writing to people in authority and practice using the sample letter on page 70 of the adult guide Session 5 and 6: Taking Action and Making the World a Better Place page 85. The Brownie Team moves forward with its Take Action Project to make an impact in the community and earn its third key. They could: • Plan and carry out their Take Action Project and make the connection to their community • Evaluate how the Take Action Project went and make a memento of their experience to add to their book • Learn how to write thank you notes to everyone who helped them on their project • Start planning their closing ceremony and celebration Session 7: Celebration and Reflection Unlocking the Code to Leadership page 88. Depending on the girls’ Take Action Project and the time and resources available, the Brownie Team may earn the Take Action Key and “put all the keys together” to earn the Brownie Leadership Quest Award at the closing of session 6. Or you could decide to hold a special Session 7 closing celebration with family and friends. They could: • If celebrating with guests, make a display of what they have learned with their maps and their mementos Reflect on what their Take Action Project meant to them using the questions on page 68 of the girl book • Earn their Take Action Key and their Brownie Leadership Quest Award What is a Brownie Take Action Project? Brownies are encouraged to: look in their community to identify needs. Draw attention to the need through letters and presentations to their family and friends Find out what steps they can take to help make the project happen It is not expected that Brownies are going to go out and repair a sidewalk but they can draw attention to the problem by alerting the city official who can make that happen. |
Anonymous
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My daughter has been in GS for 3 years, and I was a Daisy leader this year. I really dislike the official materials. This year we just did the petals and came up with our own projects for earning each one. Throw in a few fun field trips and a GSCNC or SU activity or two (be selective--some are good, some are lousy) and you're done.
For next year I'd like to focus on two areas that are not replicated in other activities -- outdoor skills/enjoyment and community service. We may do more fun patches and just just a few of the official badges. Question for experienced Brownie leaders -- do you need to buy the new badges in packs (e.g., 3 different badges together), or can you buy them individually? do you need to buy them with the paper inserts describing the activities or can you just buy the badges? |
Anonymous
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OP here:
To the PP re: badges... you have to buy the journey badges as a set of four (i.e. Wonders of Water or World of Girls, etc). You can buy all the "skills" badges separately (i.e. Pets, Computers, etc.). |
Anonymous
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All of those who dislike the Journeys--please write a letter to GSUSA and share your concerns. I hope that if enough of us write they will reconsider the Journeys. They are going to drive girls out of scouting.
Girl Scouts of the USA 420 Fifth Avenue New York, New York 10018-2798 |
Anonymous
| The GS have an office on 5th Ave in NYC? |
Anonymous
They've sold a lot of cookies! 
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Anonymous
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I'm a first-year Brownie troop leader. Because I had no experience of Try-Its or the old program, I just implemented the new program with my troop: the Girls Guide to Girl Scouts, journeys, and journey activity packs. For those of you who haven't had a chance to try out the new program, my Brownies loved it. The legacy badges which are in the GGGS are very task-oriented and they are progressive. At the next level, the badge categories will be the same, but the scope is slightly different. For example, the Cook legacy badge for Brownies is about making snacks, at the Juniors level, it is about making dinner. So, girls moving through the levels will have some continuity as they build their skills.
I personally found the journeys a bore. We did the Brownie Quest and Wonders of Water (tie-in with Thinking Day). I think we took two meetings for each journey. The girls really liked the teamwork aspect of the Brownie Quest and the science aspect of the WOW journey. What they *really* enjoyed were the activity packs associated with the journeys. We did the WOW activity pack, which is a pack of 5 badges (you have to buy the requirements for all five badges, and then buy each badge invidually): potter, senses, hiker, my great day, household elf. Household elf was about conservation and recycling; my great day was about getting organised. We meet about twice a month, for two hours each time. Some months we meet less often due to Service Unit activities. We've just gone on our campout, where we were able to complete the requirements for three badges. The girls' sashes are full with badges and they are all really eager at the meetings. At the start of the year, my co-leader and I set out the calendar with the themes for each meeting, and asked parents to lead one meeting each. That has gone well, I think because the legacy badges and activity packs have very clear guidelines on what needs to be done. We also collected troop dues at the start of the year, with an additional collection for the campout. I kept track of everything with scouttrax for Brownies. On the whole a pleasant, though tiring, experience. I think the new legacy badges and activity packs must be similar to the old Try-Its. |
Anonymous
| 23:00 -- I reserved a room at school for the whole year. I have also seen girl scout meetings in conference rooms in public libraries -- you could try your local library. |
Anonymous
X2 I am a SU delegate and leader. Almost every leader and older girl is not in favor of the new materials. Our council has made this very clear to National. In the mean time our SU recommends using the Journey book as a "guide", not "gospel". As the leader figure out what the main idea is. Then help your girls learn about it and in some way help theur community. Journey complete. I have a Junior troop and we focused on skill badges and field trips this year. We meet evey other week and earned 10 skill badges. The more active we are the more the girls have enjoyed it. The more the girls enjoy it, the more involved rhe parents were. I would recommend going to your SU mtgs. Having a chance to talk with other leaders about what works and what doesn't has been a huge help to me. In our SU there is a direct link between leaders that go to the SU mtgs and troops that keep going through higher grades. |
Anonymous
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PP, I have finally really looked at the Journeys and I think I have figured out why I really don't like them.
The general Journey Path seems to be: Step 1: Learn about a topic and how it relates to you. Step 2: Figure out a way to make your community better surrounding that topic Step 3: Teach other people how to do Step 2 in some way. Step 4: Share what you did in step 3 with your community. Steps three and 4 just really don't seem relevant for young girls. When we do journeys, we just do steps 1 and 2 and we fudge three and four almost completely. |
Anonymous
| OP here --- I like your plan 23:03...it's steps 3 and 4 that stump me as well. I think I'm going to take a broader approach and do a lot more of the old "Try its"/badges rather than have the girls buy the journey book. I'm getting the impression that some people are more strict and some people are more flexible in how they complete the journeys. I think it is going to work out better to be "hands on" and active rather than reading a workbook and talking about what we read. Doing is more fun than talking about it. |
Anonymous
I totally agree OP! I think whatever consulting group the GSUSA hired to help them revamp their Leadership Experience, they decided that girls need to become leaders in the world by learning to speak up and communicate and advocate etc. I think that is very appropriate for older girls, like middle school and up, but I'm not so sure it needs to be the focus for girls in elementary school. It seems to lead to a lot of activities that say "talk about", "teach", "tell" instead of "make" and "do" and "practice" and "explore". |
Anonymous
Agree. I'm a Daisy leader and I think the materials go way over their heads. They are too theoretical and verbal for that age group. Luckily my girls seem to ask when they don't understand something so we can break it down or explain it. Also, my girls ind all of the little stories boring. They really only enjoy doing the crafts or playing games, which I actually think is fine for kindergarteners and first graders. |
Anonymous
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I'm transitioning my girls to Brownies and am really looking forward to the new badge skill sets -- I think they are more meaningful than random, individual badges, and offer more interest areas than the Journeys. However I won't dismiss the Brownie journeys without truly giving it a try. As Daisies, we did the garden journey but compressed it to 3 months and the girls liked it. We tried to earn the petals in no more than 1-2 meetings but I don't know how much the girls *really* connected it to the law. We tried though!
I think there are great ideas in the new materials -- especially as they link the age levels -- but I agree that national didn't convey the new "path" very well. I've found better descriptions of their intentions by poking around the internet. I've also read the new Brownie leader book and that is helpful when supplemented by troop activity ideas from the internet. (Google "Brownie meeting planning" for example.) It can help if you can plan a few activities per year with another same-level troop. I'm very outdoors oriented but another leader friend is not, so we are planning to do a few shared field trips with our troops (I lead) and a few "quieter" badges (she leads). This will be predicated on girl input, of course, but we will play to our strengths. Regarding training: I've been to some mediocre GS trainings from the Council but the Service Unit meetings (run by the volunteers) are great places to get ideas and advice from other leaders. I am a little leery of leaders who dismiss the materials, untried, and just do meetings their "own way"; imo they are making scouts more like a private club than connecting their girls to a bigger experience. For your troop, the most important thing it to have the girls contribute to their meetings and planning as much as possible and feel their ideas are respected. Help them with the structure but let them execute the plans as much as possible (Girl Scouts can't be "mommy do.") My girls also loved visiting older troops, and when you see what those girls organize by themselves you can't help but to be impressed. I love the GS mission and it reflects why I want my daughter to be part of it: "GS builds girls of courage, confidence, and character, who make the world a better place." That says it all! |
Anonymous
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I have been a brownie leader for two years and I dislike the journeys. I think that if they were more linear it would be helpful. I especially disliked the girls book where they had to flip it one way and then the other. The journeys are supposed to be done over ten weeks, so what I did is figured out what each segment was trying to teach and then came up with my own activities where I didn't like the ones suggested. I did end up using many of the games and activities, I just parsed it out a bit differently. I think the girls got much more out of the badges which I like a bit more given there are discreet tasks to cover in each.
There is a lot that is a very positive and affirming about girl scouts and it has been fun to experience it with my daughter. |