New Home Forums Monthly Challenges April 2017 Girl Scout Journey Planning Made Easy

14 replies, 7 voices Last updated by  Andy Freist 7 years, 6 months ago
Viewing 15 posts - 1 through 15 (of 15 total)
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  • #37254

    Deanna Gibbons
    Adventurer
    @teenlaunchacademy

    I’m in. Originally I was thinking of getting my podcast out using this challenge, but I have been steadily working on it. I decided instead to do something that has been on my mind for some time.

    Several years ago the Girl Scouts changed up how they do things. They went from badges where girls had to take specific steps to earn a badge, to something called Journeys, which are longer, story-based, open ended projects. Most leaders I talked to hate the journeys, because they are too open and are not sure how to create a program based on the journeys. I really liked them because it left much more to the leaders imagination (which I have plenty of) and allowed for endless ideas on how to earn the journey badges. But most don’t know how to put together a program based on the journeys.

    I happen to be very good at it so I have been thinking about teaching others. I’m going to create a video series along with a worksheet and step by step guide on how to create a well rounded program from the journeys. Not sure about the details on how I will share it yet, but it’s something I have done on a small scale with friends that are leaders so I want to tweak it and share it with the world!

    I’m going to use Saturdays for the next 4 weeks and launch at the end.

    Week 1 – Planning
    Week 2 – Printable creation
    Week 3 – Technical creation (videos and blog?)
    Week 4 – Launch

     

    #37259

    Bradley Morris
    Mountain Guide
    @bradleytmorris

    This is so awesome Deanna. I absolutely love love love this! I mean, doing something like this for Girl Scouts gives you an enormous number of Girl Scouts clubs to reach out to and offer this program to. I’m really excited for you!

    Get get’em  😀

    #37414

    Bobbie Jo Van Den Plas
    Adventurer
    @bobbiejo

    Wow, that’s great Deanna!!! Way to share your skills and passion to help (many!!) others! Love that you have all your weekly actions ready to go!

    #37709

    Deanna Gibbons
    Adventurer
    @teenlaunchacademy

    Today was my work day on my Passion Project. I got so much done in one day. Here’s what I did and what’s up next week:

    1. First thing this morning, I posted to several of my Girl Scout Leader Facebook groups with a link to a survey asking what struggles they have with planning the Journeys.  I put a time limit on it so that I could continue working. I had 110 leaders fill out the survey.  (I was expecting maybe 25)Here are the results:

    85% felt the journey program takes too long (3-5 meetings) compared to just ea ing Skill badges (which can be done in 1-2 meeting).

    70% did not like having a Take Action community service project requirement to end the journey (because they incorporate service learning throughout the year)

    98% said the journeys were too much like schoolwork and not fun for the girls. (They need more engaging, hands on learning instead of stories and discussion. The exception is the older girls who like the discussion aspects.

    85% were interested in the course when it is complete. I threw in a cost questions just to gauge that aspect. While 45% said they would only want it if it were free, 39% said they would pay under $5 and 29% would pay $10-$20.

    2. Next, based on the feedback I received, I came up with an outline for the course. I identified resources with Girl Scouts national organization that I felt would be helpful to them.

    3. I sketched out course downloads including: planning worksheet, a mind map diagram to help them brainstorm program ideas such as possible crafts, activities, field trips, speakers and local resources that would go with the Journey theme and laid out the step by step guide (and the general design themes of the course)

    4. On the sketches, I filled in sample ideas for one of the younger girl journeys to show them as a guide.

    5. I decided how I will distribute the course. I thought I would use a domain I currently own, everythingscout.com that is currently just a placeholder page with no information that I was going to use as a resource for scouting families but never really got around to it. I was thinking about using that but decided against it. Instead I’ll be creating a landing page on a new site.  Right now I’m thinking the domain journeysmadeeasy.com but will decide next week (it is currently available)

    Next Sunday:

    I will create the PDF’s for the course.
    I will take video/ still images of the resource books I use.
    I will buy the domain  and add it in my hosting account.

    #37775

    Sara McCann
    Adventurer
    @saramccann

    Fantastic first day Deanna! You’ve achieved a huge amount! Really impressed with your survey too. Clearly, there is a huge problem with the current way of organising these journey’s so it sounds like you’ve found a fantastic topic to cover and something people are definitely going to want.

    Really looking forward to seeing it all come together.

    #37795

    Deanna Gibbons
    Adventurer
    @teenlaunchacademy

    Thanks Sara! I’m really excited about this project. I closed the survey but people have been leaving their email addresses so I can contact them when it is finished. I’ve already got a mailing list of 128 people!

    #37797

    Bradley Morris
    Mountain Guide
    @bradleytmorris

    This is amazing regarding the survey and response Deanna.

    You’ve got some amazing % survey stats to bring to Girl Scouts of America when your course is done. My mind is thinking, once you create a quality product, get feedback, etc you could go to Girl Scouts and license the course out to them for a monthly fee.

    Plus I’d imagine you could build an awesome online community and support system. I could even see in the long-run, gamifying the whole thing for the actual Girl Scouts with digital badges, challenges, etc…

    This feels like it has some serious momentum behind it Deanna. Really exciting!

    #37808

    Bobbie Jo Van Den Plas
    Adventurer
    @bobbiejo

    WOW! Great responses to your survey! That is awesome! So helpful and you are really filling a need. Way to go! So exciting!!!

    #37812

    Deanna Gibbons
    Adventurer
    @teenlaunchacademy

    Thanks for the encouragement @bradleytmorris. I’m very familiar with how Girl Scouts utilizes training like mine.  My guess is it won’t be a monthly fee type of thing. They will probably just offer the information on their website and in their service units(the local volunteers that oversees all the troops). It will be up to the troop leaders to decide. That is how they offer most of their training that isn’t created by the National Girl Scout organization. But I am certainly going to try going to the National organization on the off chance that they would want something like this nationally.

    Thankfully I have a ton of Girl Scout contacts through my 20 years of volunteer service.

    #37841

    Laura Woodmansee
    Adventurer
    @laura@starshipfamilyjourney.com

    This is great Deanna! I’ll definitely tell my daughter’s troop leader about your course. It’s been an issue for her too … such long journeys for girls to keep going with …

    #37853

    Andy Freist
    Mountain Guide
    @andyfreist

    Wow, way to go! What a great little niche of an opportunity you discovered 🙂

    Sounds like fun, and who knows, you may even earn some fun tokens (money)!

    #38399

    Deanna Gibbons
    Adventurer
    @teenlaunchacademy

    I forgot to post on Sunday after working on my challenge project for a half day I took half the day off to spend Easter with the family but plan on taking an extra half day this Saturday to make up for it. Here is where I am at:

    I bought the domain name journeysmadeeasy.com and added it to my hosting account.

    I took some brief videos & still images of some of the key pages of the Girl Scout books that they will need to reference.

    I decided to go with a travel theme since they are called Journeys. So I have a travel itinerary (the step by step checklist) with a handy map, a packing list (resources they need on their journey) and Travel Preparation plan (Review of the 3 keys of leadership and 3 processes Girl Scouts uses to be sure program is girl led and maintains consistent progression through the age levels).  The travel itinerary and map are finished PDFs at this point. I still need to finish the packing list and travel preparation plan (which I will do on Saturday).

    Next Sunday my plans are:

    Record video. (I’m going to do an intro of me dressed as a tourist, the main program planning video which will be part talking head, part instruction)
    Get the website landing page up.
    Get the draft of the video into the hands of some of my volunteers for feedback.

    I have to admit I am worried I won’t get everything done in time for the deadline. I may have to add in some more half days in the next couple of weeks to make my deadline. But I am really excited to get this out there!

     

     

    #38472

    Bradley Morris
    Mountain Guide
    @bradleytmorris

    This is amazing. Talk about epic momentum Deanna. So stoked for you.

    This sounds like it’s going to be such a useful service to the Girl Scouts community and what an awesome experience you’re getting of building something people want and getting it to them ASAP.

    WINNING!

    #38563

    Laura Koller
    Adventurer
    @laurakoller

    What a great project!  You certainly have enough contacts, the survey results are exceptional (especially since it was time sensitive), and the fact that you already have an email list of more than 100 people – that’s a HUGE step!  And the fact that you’ve accomplished so much in so little time.  It’s just so impressive.  Way to go!!!

    #41034

    Andy Freist
    Mountain Guide
    @andyfreist

    How’s the progress been Deanna? 🙂

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