Courses
Choosing
a Course
Curriculum
FAQ's
OB
Schools
School
Locations
General
Information
News
& Events
Newsletters
Conferences
& Meetings
Licensing
How
to Start a School
Licensing
Process
Licensing
Resources
Staff
Resource
Jobs
Research
Training
Publications
Governance
Links
Members
Only
Safety
& Quality
Safety
at OB
Risk
Management
Safety
Resources
Safety
Reviews
Contribute
To
OB International
To
an OB School
 July
15th, 2002 |
| Outward Bound International Electronic Newsletter |
|
|
|
International News at a Glance Quote of the Month: "I am not afraid of storms for
I am learning how to sail my ship." -Louisa May Alcott
|
|
INNOVATIVE PROGRAMMING AWARD (IPA)
WINNERS!
It's a tough job to be a judge for the IPA. This year 13 very quality
applications were sent in to Outward Bound International. Applicants are
judged in four categories: innovation, fulfilling the mission of OBI,
effectiveness, and replicability. The top two are chosen each year to
receive an award which includes a trip to the World Conference to present
their programs. Those that the judges found very good and in the top five
receive honorable mention awards. And, this year's awards go to..http://www.outward-bound.org/docs/enews/IPA_winners.htm
WORLD CONFERENCE UPDATE AND SNEAK PEAK!
Interested in hearing more about the Innovative Programming Award Winners?
Greg Farrell President of Expeditionary
Learning Outward Bound will be giving the Keynote on Day 2 of the
World Conference this year. He will share Outward Bound's critical role
in public education reform in the United States.
If you haven't already signed up for the World Conference, do so as soon as you can! Space is filling up! Sign up at: http://obwc2002.obs.org.sg
GLOBAL FACILITATION SKILLS TASK FORCE SURVEY
OUT!
The OB's Facilitation Skills Training Task Force (GFTF) was created in
order to support and develop the training of facilitation skills for OB
schools around the world. One of their initial goals is to find out more
about what is happening locally at each school, in order to help create
a picture of global facilitation skills training. If you are a program
director or training director, please take the time to fill out the survey
you will be receiving in a separate email from OBI. For more information...http://www.outward-bound.org/docs/research/GFTFindex.htm
BOOK REVIEW--The
Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell
OBI would like to periodically offer a book review that
might be a useful tool for practitioners and/or administrators. If you
have a book that has helped you in your work, please email
us a review!
In this fascinating examination of social epidemics, Gladwell, a columnist
for the New Yorker Magazine, looks at how ideas and social issues can
change dramatically during a short period of time in human communities.
Of particular interest to me as an Outward Bound practitioner, was the
chapter on Sesame Street and Blues Clues. This chapter carefully illustrates
how these two children's TV shows researched preschool developmental learning
and designed their shows to meet their needs. These two shows have been
very successful at teaching preschool children to read, count and learn
language. By looking at "Tipping Points" in a variety of areas,
such as teen smoking, crime in New York, health epidemics and marketing
practices, Gladwell illustrates the power of the few to influence the
many. With a different Outward Bound hat on, I learned a lot about effective
marketing practices. It finally explained why, in the U.S., over 50% of
OB participants come because of "word of mouth". Click
here for more information on The
Tipping Point.
Review by Rebecca Bear, OBI Program Consultant
CURRICULUM TIDBIT--Literacy through Expeditionary
Learning
Students need time to read and write, and this time must be sacred. Every
day, students need regularly scheduled, uninterrupted blocks of time in
school for independent reading and writing. Students also need opportunities
to choose their own reading texts and writing topics, styles, and formats.
To engage fully in their own reading and writing endeavors, students must
be able to make decisions based on their individual skill levels, interests,
and preferences. Finally, students need direct, explicit instruction from
their teachers to learn how to read and write proficiently.
The Expeditionary Learning Outward Bound Literacy Platform calls for time, choice, and explicit instruction, and the Reader's/Writer's Workshop model provides the template necessary to take those initial steps from the platform to the classroom, from theory into practice....click here for more
THOUGHTS ON THE FUTURE OF OUTWARD BOUND by Graham
Ellis-Smith
After spending intense time with the Outward Bound community at the OBI
staff Symposium in January, Graham Ellis-Smith a well known experiential
educator and aboriginal cultural specialist in Australia had some thoughts
on how Outward Bound can move "From
Struggle to Serendipity"....http://www.outward-bound.org/docs/enews/From_Struggle_to_Serendipity.pdf
STORIES FROM THE FIELD
The OBI Enews welcomes your
"Stories from the Field"
please email us!
When faced with her fear of heights, Catherine or "Cat", a 17
year-old girl from Texas, was paralyzed. During a recent course with the
Pacific Crest Outward Bound School,
Cat had the opportunity to face this fear head on. While hiking to the
rappel site, she was so afraid of slipping and falling she needed to hold
someone's hand. Standing at the top of the rappel she took a deep breath,
focused intensely at the directions, and courageously stepped over the
edge. On the way down all she remembers is staring at her hands and the
rappel device. She did take one quick glance around to smile a fearful
grin for the camera. A captured moment she will remember forever. Once
down her knuckles, red from gripping the rope, released and she sighed,
not really believing what she just did. That evening she spoke profoundly
of how she had tackled a mental block that kept her from achieving. For
the rest of the course, Cat's confidence grew. Now at home, she says she
had the chance to really see herself fully for the first time at Outward
Bound.
SUBMIT TO THE ENEWS!
The electronic news is designed for you to share your ideas, curriculum,
stories and critical information to the OB International community. If
you have something you would like to share, don't be shy, please SUBMIT
them to OBI.
TRAINING OPPORTUNITIES
Jen Nold of OB Belgium is please to support a training by Martin Ringer,
Dr. Francoise Ringer, and Luk Peeters to be held in France August 20-24th.
The purpose of the workshop is to build on participants' existing levels
of expertise in leading experiential learning groups, adventure-based
groups and experiential/adventure therapy groups and hence to release
creativity and talent in group participants. The workshop will be based
on a psychodynamic theoretical background, including socio-analytic, Gestalt
and psychodramatic approaches. The foundational approach will be experiential
learning and so it is assumed that participants will be familiar with
at least one approach to experiential learning or have the openness and
affinity to learn in self-aware ways...http://www.outward-bound.org/docs/trainings/Psychodrama_training.htm
NEWS FROM SCHOOLS:
Thompson Island Outward Bound
Education Center completed the sale of its development rights, thereby
creating a conservation restriction on most of the island. The development
rights were purchased by the National Park Service and the Massachusetts
Department of Environmental Management for $4 million. While Thompson
Island Outward Bound continues to own and operate the island, this agreement
prohibits any future development on 80% of it and limits future development
on the 45-acre campus area.Funds for the purchase came from two main sources
-- $2 million from the Federal Land and Water Conservation Fund and $2
million in state funding through the 1996 Massachusetts Open Space Bond
Bill. These funds will be deposited into Thompson Island Outward Bound's
endowment, and will in turn help fund youth programs on Thompson Island.
While the money for the endowment is an added bonus, the significance
of preserving the island for perpetuity cannot be overstated. When the
original group of trustees purchased Thompson Island in the 1830s and
founded a school here, it was their intention that the island would remain
always and forever a unique resource for Boston's young people to learn
and develop. Now that dream can be a reality!
CORRECTIONS:
In the June Enews we failed to mention OB
Singapore as one of the schools contributing to the distribution of
the Outdoor
Medical Incident Database. Thanks to Singapore and all the other donors
to making this safety database available to all schools!
THE DEADLINE FOR THE OBI PRINT NEWSLETTER is
AUGUST 30th!
The theme for this issue is "International Programming". Please
send submissions to OBI Newsletter
Editor.
© 2002 Outward Bound International.
Outward Bound® is a registered trademark of The Outward Bound UK
Trust.