Instructional Methods

Here’s a great idea from The Trainers Corner blog: A Scout games backpack is filled with games and various items for quick game ideas.

Information educates the mind, experience develops skill.

During his lifetime Robert Baden-Powell, founder of the worldwide Scouting movement, wrote many books and articles directed to Scouters.

Are you motivated and inspired by the Scout requirements? What about your Scouts? Are your fellow Scouters inspired to administer them by adopting an encouraging, inspiring tone themselves? Can you smell the wood smoke and feel the warming glow of a campfire against the cold sting of a winter campout when you read them? Ask your Scouts to sit down and read a couple of rank or merit badge requirements and ask them what they mean.

During his lifetime Robert Baden-Powell, founder of the worldwide Scouting movement, wrote many books and articles directed to Scouters.

Scouts Canada has created a clear, uncluttered, engaging process in the “Plan-Do-Review” component of the Canadian Path .

I want to encourage you to stop training youth leaders and start developing their leadership skills – two very different things.

This is the second of a five-part series, Part one Understanding Cubs Part three – Understanding Volunteering Part four – Blessed are the Den Leaders Part five – Understanding Parents I’ve been a Cubmaster, and a den leader for Wolf, Bear,and Webelos dens.

During his lifetime Robert Baden-Powell, founder of the worldwide Scouting movement, wrote many books and articles directed to Scouters.

We can all agree that Scouting is fun, right? What is Scouting fun, and what isn’t? Young people are in Scouting because they crave an honest challenge.

“We want to make our program fun.

IT IS, IN FACT, NOTHING short of a miracle that the modern methods of education have not yet entirely strangled the holy curiosity of inquiry; for this delicate little plant, aside from stimulation, stands mainly in need of freedom; without this it goes to wrack and ruin without fail.

Jargon is an Old French word meaning “the chatter of birds”.

Scouting is a game, not a science.

Do you know why the Smoky Mountains have so many species of salamanders? I didn’t.

I’ve headed up a number of Scouter training events, and been trained in several different volunteer positions.

During his lifetime Robert Baden-Powell, founder of the worldwide Scouting movement, wrote many books and articles directed to Scouters.

During his lifetime Robert Baden-Powell, founder of the worldwide Scouting movement, wrote many books and articles directed to Scouters.

During his lifetime Robert Baden-Powell, founder of the worldwide Scouting movement, wrote many books and articles directed to Scouters.

The Merit Badge Program is An active dialogue between scouts and counselors Merit Badge counseling is an active, engaged dialogue; not a passive lecture.

In his essay The Impending Demise of the University Don Tapscott defines linear learning; In the industrial model of student mass production, the teacher is the broadcaster.

What are Scouting Skills? Can you throw some things in a pack, step off the road into the woods and live comfortably for a few days without getting lost? Can you build a fire, lash a tripod together, set up a shelter, cook your food, stay warm and dry and leave no trace of your presence when you leave? If the answer is yes then you possess what I would call some basic ‘Scouting Skills’.

I do sign off requirements in the if I am functioning as a merit badge counselor, but not too much in my role as a Scoutmaster.

is a game of observation and memory.

Wood Badge is Scouting’s premier adult leader training.

Second in a series of articles about the four steps to Scout Advancement.

What if? Two very powerful words.

“Advancement is like a suntan; something you get naturally whilst having fun in the outdoors.

Use this image as your Facebook Cover: here’s how On my honor, I will do my best To do my duty to God and my country and to obey the Scout Law; To help other people at all times; To keep myself physically strong, mentally awake and morally straight Be Prepared Do a good turn daily How do Scouts advance ? By doing the things that Scouts do .

Walter Underwood I’m a preacher’s kid, so I’ve sat through a lot of sermons, pretty much all of them longer than a minute.

What follows is a first look at one part of a youth leadership training-mentoring program I have been working on.

Burak Kanber is an engineer with a blog.

Individual active instruction and personal evaluation are at the heart of Scouting but classroom style instruction is the universal default method of sharing knowledge.

Our perception of learning shapes the way we instruct and lead.

Here’s a game to help Scouts with requirements that have a number of things to remember or identify For example First Class rank requirement 6: Identify or show evidence of at least ten kinds of native plants found in your community.

“At its most elementary level then we can define game as an exercise of voluntary control systems in which there is an opposition between forces, confined by a procedure and rules in order to produce a disequilibrial outcome.

Doug Stowe’s The Wisdom of the Hands blog discusses a saying I find particularly compelling: “The way to the brain, goes through the hand” This isn’t a new thought, but it is particularly relevant to Scouting.

How far back do you go? Did you have a Little Orphan Annie or Captain Midnight decoder ring? Did you marvel at Dick Tracy’s two way wrist T.

Here’s an interesting piece from the Outdoor Ed Community blog; Teaching is listening, learning is talking.

Much is said about the scope and effectiveness of our national education system but one irrefutable fact is the decline of what was once called ‘manual training’ then ‘industrial arts’ and now ’tech ed’.

Scouting’s progressive program is built on the idea of developmental stages.

Peter at the Ropes and Poles pioneering blog has posted three lashings from John Thurman’s book Pioneering Principles (available in PDF format from The Dump ) These ‘new’ lashings are certainly worthy of wider use.

The skill team approach lends itself to the dual goals of instructing Scouts and training instructors.

Methods If adults are doing all the instruction they are denying their Scouts the opportunity to develop some important skills.

Good Scout instruction is based on the good preparation by the instructor.

It may seem a fine point but the physical position and posture of the instructor and the Scouts is an important distinction between Scout instruction and other forms of instruction: Neither the Scouts nor the instructor should be seated unless absolutely necessary.

Rudyard Kipling’s book for boy’s “Kim” is the story of the orphan son of an Irish soldier in India who was trained for government intelligence work by showing him a tray of precious stones for a minute’s observation, then covering it, and asking Kim how many stones and what kind they were.

Developing the leadership skill of training or instructing others is an important goal of Scouting.

Small groups, 10-15 minutes of instruction at each station, lots of activity.