Students Train for Get Real Day
October 30, 2018
Susquehannock is switching it up and Get Real Day, for the first time ever, will be organized by the counseling office.
To sufficiently prepare the students to lead the sophomore class on Oct. 18, they attended a training session and gained advice from school counselors Matthew Shervington, Kate Miklos, Courtney Hinkle, and Erin O’Connor Rudman, as well as Diversity and Organizational Development Director Melissa Plotkin.
Matthew Shervington, Kate Miklos, and Courtney Hinkle walked future Get Real Day leaders through a day of training on Oct. 18, along with the help of others such as Erin O’Connor Rudman and Diversity and Organizational Development Director Melissa Plotkin, preparing them for the sophomores on Oct. 30, Nov.1 and Nov.6.
Melissa Plotkin introduces Get Real Day trainees to expectations for them as Get Real Day Leaders. She explains that a GRDL must have important attributes such as empathy, honesty and must treat the people in their groups equally. Photo by Melissa Chesnoski.
The expectations of each GRDL are projected onto a Power Point with the main focus on empathy, honesty and confidentiality. Photo by Melissa Chesnoski.
Students form small groups and participate in the human knot. In this activity the students, including Julia Kelbaugh, stand in a circle and attempt to untangle the knot without speaking to each other to demonstrate the importance of teamwork and communication. Photo by Melissa Chesnoski
Senior Shane Watson and senior Bre Kaiser model what happens when communication falters. Proper communication is a very important concept to be learned in how to fix a difficult situation. The human knot activity can lead to surprising-yet hilarious-complications. Photo by Melissa Chesnoski
Plotkin leads the trainees, including senior Samantha McGuire, through another activity. The trainees line up in four lines and witness a ‘rumor’ travel from person to person. Photo by Melissa Chesnoski
Senior Brody Cain and senior Lance McCrum laugh along with their peers throughout the activity. They realize that what they’re hearing from their peers can’t possibly be true though continuing to pass it down the line, much like rumors in real life. Photo by Melissa Chesnoski.
Seniors Ashtan Kall and Lyndsey Eagan thoroughly enjoyed their Get Real Day experience. Eagan “looks forward to deep conversations”with the sophomores on their Get Real Days. Photo by Melissa Chesnoski
The peer leaders use worksheets to complete part of the identity assignment. The identity activity was used to help the leaders understand their identities and how that may contribute to their own perspectives. Photo by Melissa Chesnoski
Senior Daniel Poole completes his work. Poole believes that the identity activity is “a great experience to understand the material before [they] do it for the sophomores,” along with “being really helpful to who we are and not be afraid of it.” Photo by Melissa Chesnoski
Shervington hands out papers containing what seems to be very different people and asks the leaders to guess their personalities from what they are given. The final two learning experiences for the trainees involve stereotypes and how you may perceive someone based on what you hear about them rather than by getting to know them. Some students call out the hypothetical people as white Republicans, troublemakers, nerds, etc., but they soon find out they’re in for a surprise. Photo by Melissa Chesnoski
Laughter erupts from many, including senior Anna Kirby and Samantha McGuire. Kirby says she “was shocked and very surprised” when Shervington reveals that all of the hypothetical people on the sheet of paper given to the leaders. This important exercise is an engaging rehash of the old, “you can’t judge a book by it’s cover” moral that many are used to seeing portrayed in films and books. Some students might see Shervington in a new light with many of his life stories revealed. Photo by Melissa Chesnoski
The students ended their day with a circle telling of their own personal experiences “Get Real day is a day to break down barriers between students and change the culture through activities and conversation,” said Plotkin. It’s a day to see “connections and the difference [these lessons] make in students,” according to Plotkin. Photo by Melissa Chesnoski
