Circles and Journals

(Facilitated by: Hanif, Teri, Team 2'21)

“Remember that the happiest people are not those getting more, but those giving more.”

H. Jackson Brown Jr.

The PD team has come up with a learning module to help us better understand and facilitate our Circles. Access it at your own free time to level up your facilitation skills! Find it on the LEARN app here.

Credits to Simon Tan & Jared Woon

Why circle? Why not square?
The 4Ps of a circle to get you started

All That's Needed for an Effective Circle ⭕️ & Meaningful Journaling 📓......

“The feeling was right” 😌

“Conducting night circle at the jetty got feels man” 🌙

“My pax cried while sharing his personal story” 😭

Sounds familiar? 🍃 We’ve all conducted circles and journaling before, creating environments inviting for our participants to reflect and/or share their deepest emotions, solve conflicts and brainstorm on solutions together.

And the following are the distilled wisdom about circles and journaling from our instructors shared over 5 sessions of peer-led learning sessions:

(1) STRUCTURE AND FLOW OF A CIRCLE

(contributed by Cluster 3, adapted from Workplace post by Lynnette)

Most of the time, we rely on our intuition and “feeling” to construct and facilitate the circles we conduct. These few weeks, Cluster 3 dug deeper into the science underlying circles, breaking down the Structure and Flow, as seen in the photos.

Structure: what makes a "circle"

Flow: how to keep the circle moving

(2) SEVEN INGREDIENTS FOR AN EFFECTIVE CIRCLE

(contributed by Cluster 2, adapted from Workplace post by Lynnette)

Cluster 2 built upon it and concluded on the 7 ingredients needed for an effective circle. For some interesting reads supporting how and why we conduct circles, click on the links! 🤓

Elaborating on the 7 ingredients of Circle

(3) JOURNAL, FOR WHAT ⁉️

[Contributed by Cluster 1, adapted from Workplace post by Sarah W.]

I'm pretty sure this phrase has rang in some of your heads a couple of times 😏

During a peer-led session on 6/03/20, Cluster 1 opened Pandora's Box into journaling. Through research, conversations and a lot of paper, we created the "whys" and the "how".

This base will allow the next cluster to build on the ideas, crush them, redefine them and ultimately bring instructors to find understanding in providing a meaningful journaling experience for their participants.

Why Journal?

How to Journal

(4) CIRCLE AND JOURNALING: 10 WAYS OF USING A JOURNAL

[contributed by Cluster 2, adapted from Workplace post by Nur Afiqah]

Picking up from where the previous clusters left off, cluster 2 went in deeper to the topic of Circles and Journaling. Are the two related? Can they be mutually exclusive? We sat down and thought about when you might choose to bridge the two, or when you feel that the two shouldn't mix.

Another question that often comes up in our minds when journaling; to share or not to share? There is no right or wrong answer to this. But we came up with several consideration on why you would choose to conduct a sharing or why you would choose to not conduct one.

Lastly, we took a look at the MOC 5 Day journal. It's something that we come across all the time, but how many of us have actually read through every page of the journal? Truth is, the journal is like a Swiss army knife, there are so many tools inside of it, you just need to know what they are and how to use them. The possibilities of the journal are endless, but allow us to share 10 ways you can use your journal for your course running.

Uses of Journal

Bridging Journal and Circle

Journal Sharing 101

(5) COMING A FULL CIRCLE - THE FINAL CHAPTER

[contributed by Cluster 5, adapted from Workplace post by Chua Wee Lynn]

Since the previous clusters had already touched on many topics, such as the difference between journalling & a circle, the ways to use the MOE-OBS journal, why we even journal in the first place, etc, the session was more of putting it all together. It was undoubtedly a time of great sharing and learning from one another.

To kick off the last session, we were asked to design a new journal, retaining as many elements we wanted, at the same time adding in new ones we would like to see. Through the designing process, we figured there were certain elements that were good to keep, some which may not be so beneficial, and others which could be added in to make it more engaging. Some of these include:

* A 'Collection of Quotes' page 📜

* OBS Bingo 🎯

* Framing the journal as a storybook 📖

Journal as a collection book (e.g collection of quotes)

OBS Bingo - Checklist and ice breaker

Journal as an adventure book 1

Journal as an adventure book 2

Journal as an adventure book 3

Journal as an adventure book 4

The question of 'whether the current OBS journal allows sufficient room for pax to express themselves freely' popped up. Some felt that the content allowed instructors to have a good guide to journalling, while others felt that 15-year-olds were unlikely to read them. However, the point of this session wasn't to come up with a new journal, but to see how we could make use of the content already present, and how we could further spice it up to make it even more meaningful.

Making content in journal more visible and meaningful

Towards the end, we each shared a memorable experience that happened during course running which led to a journalling session. As each of us shared our interesting stories, it dawned upon us the power in journalling with our pax, and showed us how the same elements of the journal could be used differently by different instructors. 😍

As we wrapped up, we were glad to discover that the session not only allowed us to explore different ways of using the existing content; how to make it engaging for participants, and also, the very reason why we journal with our pax in the first place.

Let's continue to strive to make every journalling session (and the whole OBS experience) for our participants memorable & meaningful! 😄💪🏻💪🏻💪🏻