Tuesday

January  26th, 2020

Photo by Photoholgic on Unsplash

Today is: Australia Day

Learn About Australia's History

"This is the Story of Australia - the story of an extraordinary nation. The Story begins 60,000 years ago. New chapters are written every day. On Australia Day, we reflect on our history, its highs and its lows. We respect the stories of others. And we celebrate our nation, its achievements and most of all, its people." 

-Australia Day Website

Check-In - 5 Minutes

What did you have for dinner last night? What changes or upgrades have you made to your work space to make it safer?

Show and Share (5-10 min)

Have you ever taken part in a civic observance or taken part in an advocacy day? Share your story or photos from the event or date.

Tomorrow's Show and Share

We often feel stressed out when we don't have control or information about how our time will be spent. Can you share a time when you felt stressed out because someone else was deciding everything and you didn't have a say? 

Thematic Activity 01 (10-15 min)

PRESENTERS: share screen and show the planner page. Encourage those who received their planner to follow along. Encourage those who don't yet have it to use the annotation tool.

Let's look at the January Wrap Up page again. 

In the upper RIGHT hand corner is the "I learned..." box. What did you learn about in January? Draw a doodle, write it down, or tell us about it. 

Staff can share too. We all learn all the time and it's wonderful how much our brains love to learn new things. 

Thematic Activity 02 (10-15 min)

There are many public calendars that help us participate in our communities. Did you know that your city council has a calendar of public meetings? Your local community center also has a calendar. So does your library and the parks department. 

PRESENTERS: chose 1-3 items as a group and share screen to demonstrate the process of an internet search. Then navigate to the calendar and look at what is coming up. Note that during Covid the calendars are sparse or things have moved online.

Choose one or more of the following calendars to look up. Anyone who is good at using the internet can help presenters find community calendars. Can you identify any important discussions or community decisions that are listed in the calendars? 

• City Council public meetings
• Local college events
• Library
• Community Center
• Theatre
• Parks Department

Skills Focus (5-10 min)

Changing an inspiration into an action requires planning. Read about the following situation and figure out a good plan for Jodi. Keeping our  commitments in a planner gives us the control to make changes when it's important. It also helps us give others more notice, which is polite. 

Jodi uses a wheelchair. While watching the local news they heard that the city council is going to vote on a whether to let businesses put wheelchair ramps far away in the backs of buildings because it saves money. Jodi is upset because the handicapped parking spaces are all in the front of the buildings and it would be very tiring to have to wheel the chair all the way around  buildings just to get inside. 

The city council is having two public meetings to hear what people think. One of them is during Jodi's work day. The other one is at the same time as their music lesson. 

1. What kind of planning does Jodi need to do to be able to go to that city council meeting and give their opinion?
2. What might Jodi need to cancel or reschedule to go to that important meeting?
3. Why is it important that Jodi go to that meeting?
4. Can you share a recent time you had to reschedule or when someone had to reschedule on you? How did that feel? Was it hard or easy? 

What did we learn today?

What are we doing this afternoon? 

Wednesday 

January 27th, 2021

Photo by Guilia Gasperin from Unsplash

Today is: International Holocaust Rememberance Day

United States Holocaust Memorial - Rememberance Day 

"The United Nations General Assembly designated January 27—the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau—as International Holocaust Remembrance Day.

On this annual day of commemoration, the UN urges every member state to honor the six million Jewish victims of the Holocaust and millions of other victims of Nazism and to develop educational programs to help prevent future genocides." 

-United State Holocaust Memorial

Check In — (5 min)

Show & Share (5-10 min)

We often feel stressed out when we don't have control or information about how our time will be spent. Can you share a time when you felt stressed out because someone else was deciding everything and you didn't have a say? How can we advocate to get a say in how our time is used?

Tomorrow‘s Show & Share

Planning things we want to do for others. Can you remember a great surprise, gift or outing that you planned for someone else to express your appreciation? When did someone surprise you with something that took a lot of planning? 

Life Skills Stories (10-15 mins)

Read this life skills story together and discuss the questions at the end. 

Regular Exercise Routines

1. Is your planner a good place to set up your exercise routine?
2. Do you know people who have a regular working out schedule?
3. What are real reasons to skip exercise?
4. What are just excuses?

Body Break (5 min) MOVE IT DRINK IT ROCK IT move that booty!

Thematic Activity 02: Planning For Health Challenges  (10-15 min)

Challenges to health are usually conditions we have like allergies, asthma or diabetes. These are things that don't really ever go away. Doctors call this a "chronic" condition. (If people want to share conditions they find challenging that's fine but only talk about your own, not someone else's)

If you happen to have a chronic condition you can manage it best by being a smart planner. If you don't have such a condition there is probably someone in your life who does and it helps to understand what they need to manage it. 

Review these slides. 

See if you can identify the things that require planning for a chronic condition.

Presenter Note: Use the PRESENT button in the upper right to make the slides fill the screen. ESC key will close presenter view.

People with chronic conditions also need to think about their schedules a lot. They often have more doctor visits and pharmacy errands than others and can't always participate in everything they would like to. For each condition, can you name something that person should probably avoid?

• Asthma
• Diabetes
• Chlorine allergy
• Pet allergy
• Narcolepsy-a disorder that causes one to fall asleep suddenly in the middle of doing things

<Body Break - let it be, make it free>

Covid Mitigation Moment (5 Minutes) 

We have spent a lot of time on ways to keep COVID-19 contained. It's more important than ever to review simple ways we can all help with battling Covid. This is a potentially serious illness and many people have died of it. It is our community duty to do everything we can to protect one another. 

Social Distancing 

Want to know two easy ways to protect yourself and those around you? Practicing social distancing and wear a cloth face covering when around others.

Social Distancing Explained

Skill Builder Activity (5-10 min)

Changing Plans At the Last Minute

Sometimes we need to change our plans. There are polite ways to do this. This conversation is meant to help people learning English to change plans with someone politely. 

1. Do you agree with what the teacher is teaching? 
2. Practice the requests and come up with some of your own. 
3. What are examples of impolite ways to change plans?
4. Is it ever polite to just skip out on a plan and not communicate with the other person?

______________________________

What did we learn today? 

______________________________

What are we doing this afternoon? 

Thursday 

January 28th, 2021

Photo by Hello I’m Nik on Unsplash

Today is:  National Lego Day

A Visual History of Lego

Today marks the celebration of the iconic lego toy. At the link above, you can visually explore the history and design of Legos over the years. Do you have legos? 

Check In - 5 mins

Show & Share - (5-10 mins)

Planning things we want to do for others. Can you remember a great surprise, gift or outing that you planned for someone else to express your appreciation? When did someone surprise you with something that took a lot of planning? 

Tomorrow's Show & Share:

Review this month! What was your favorite thing about the month in (or out!!) of program? Be prepared to share about what you enjoyed in January 2021

Thematic Activity 01: Planning to Ask for Change (10-15 min)

When we want something to change, and someone else has to make that change with us, or sometimes for us, it can be hard to ask. But that is what self-advocacy means. Like our muscles, we get stronger at advocating for ourselves by practicing. 

Watch this video about the 5 steps for self-advocacy. 

Discuss the 5 steps. If your group is up for it, you can do a practice session about an issue someone in the group wants to solve. Help the person figure out how to do the 5 steps for their situation.

<Body Break> Make it a good one,

Thematic Activity 02: Planning to Protest (15-20 min)

There have been a lot of protests that are sometimes called "civil unrest." That's a fancy way to say people are not happy with what is happening in their community and won't cooperate with leaving it the same. 

You are an important part of your community. What happens in your community affects you every day. You have the right to be one of the people saying how things should be in your community.  

Aden is a caring community member too. They are angry. Last year the mayor took money away from the parks department for a parking garage to make money for the city. That money was supposed to make the parks accessible and now it's gone. People with wheelchairs and walkers can only go in a few small areas of the parks in town. The mayor wants to build another parking garage. Aden and their friends want to protest at the mayor's office and get that money for the parks instead. 

Use the information below to help Aden make a plan for their protest. For a protest to work it helps if the news reports about it.

• It is summer time and very hot outside
• Many of the people who want to protest can't walk around or stand for long 
• There is a short time when the mayor will see them as she walks from her car, but she will hear them inside the building

1. What should the protesters wear and bring with them?
2. How can they make sure people know WHAT they are mad about?
3. What can the protesters do to show that a lot of other people agree with them? 
4. How can the protesters get the news to report about their demands?
5. Do the protesters have to be careful in any way?

<Body Break> Do your bod a solid

Skill Builder 

Slogans and Affirmations

Look at these personal slogans and affirmations that people use to inspire themselves. When we have to advocate for ourselves, ask for change, or take on anything that is kind of scary, it helps to have a slogan we believe in to remind us we can do it. 

Do you have a slogan or affirmation? If not, try some out and see which ones make you feel ready to go!

____________________

What did we learn today? 

__________________________________

What are we doing this afternoon? 

Friday 

January 29th, 2021

Photo credit: Bianca Ackermann on Unsplash

Today is: National Puzzle Day

Piecing together the history of Jigsaw Puzzles

Today is national puzzle day. We've spent a lot of time at home over the last year, and many of us have started to finish puzzles as a hobby. Today we explore and celebrate puzzles

Friday Tech Tip - 5 mins

Do you ever run into audio issues during a zoom meeting? Learn how to test audio during a zoom meeting. If there is enough time, practice as a group on audio issue problem solving in action.

This slide show tells how to test audio in Zoom.

Presenter Note: Use the link to show people where the TEST audio option is in ZOOM. You don't have to go through the whole show unless your group finds it helpful. You can just show where things are located and explain that troubleshooting is a technical skill we can learn with practice. 

!!BIG REMINDER!! 

Next week is the first week of february. We will be discussing safe boundaries (both online and in person) and relationships for the month of February.

Check In - Show & Share (5-10 min)

What Did You Like Most This Week? - 10 Mins

What about this week did you find the most interesting? What about this month? This is the final week  of January in 2021. We've discussed a lot this month, what are some things you are curious about and what do you want to learn more about?

Presenter Note: Review this week's topics. Ask participants what they enjoyed most about the week and if they are looking forward to exploring February's topic. What are they hoping to learn more about?

Monday's Show & Share:

What relationships are important to you? Be ready to share a photo of you and a good friend, family member, or loved one. 

Body Break - 5 mins

Thematic Activity 01 – 5-10 mins

Who has their planner? If you don't have your planner yet, that's OK. You can get the idea by seeing the screen and preparing for NEXT month!

Rate the WEEK! Look at this page for January. Today is the last workday of the month. Let's look at that habit tracker.

PRESENTERS: Remind everyone that goals are made of habits, building a little closer every week to where we want to go in life. 

Have participants talk a little bit about positive habits they started in January. Demonstrate tracking a habit by coloring in the circles. Ask if anyone else has tracked habits, either in this planner or in other ways. Share your own habit tracking.

JANUARY WRAP UP!

Every month we'll do the  wrap-up page in the planner. 

PRESENTERS: Have people share their pride and learning. Demonstrate how to color in the pie slices in the annotation window. Use the highlighter tool to get transparent coloring.

• First item is to look at what we are proud of. 
• Second, things we learned. 
• And lastly we rate how satisfied we are with different areas of our life by coloring in the pie slice for that life area. 

Friday Fun: 15 mins

Babies are so funny.

Laughter is the best medicine

Use this one as a <BODY BREAK> to dance to--if you can read Spanish you can sing along. 

Spanish Animated Pop Song

Do you have a SQUISH on someone?

Romance is fun and having a CRUSH on someone is great. But there is another kind of crush you can have that is "platonic." That means you're not interested in being boyfriend/girlfriend-like, but you just really like them—A LOT! It's called a SQUISH. Learn about what a squish is and see if you've ever felt that way about someone. 

PRESENTERS: one way to support client choice is to teach language to describe things in more and different ways. Explain that the word SQUISH describes something people often experience and it's good to have a word that explains liking someone a lot but not romantically.

DRONE Tours

It's expensive to rent a helicopter to see interesting sites. But you don't have to have money to fly high and investigate cool places. Take these DRONE tours and see for yourself.

Mokuluka Island - Oahu

Amelia National Drone Tour (golf)

Santorini Island, Greece

Rome, Italy

South  San Jose

Monterey County Back Roads

____________________________

What did we learn today? 

__________________________________

What are we doing this afternoon? 

Need some help deciding on an afternoon activity?

Spin the Activity Wheel!  

The activities are numbered. These numbers corrospond to brief activity descriptions listen in the linked document below. 

Activity Wheel Details