Character Development class

[Chatterbox]

Good morning!
I would appreciate any help I can get!
I am a senior member with CAP. I joined bacause of son, to help the squadron with different activities. I have zero experience . Due to unforseen circumstances I will have to teach cadets a class in character development "My word, My Bond". I read the book, but there is not much. I have not had a chance to sit thru any classes, so it's "sink or swim".
Any ideas/advices  would be so much appreciated!

[Walkman]

I've been teaching CharDev for a couple of years now. The most important things to remember:

• You are to LEAD discussion among the cadets, not LECTURE
• Political/religious bias and opinions have no place in the CharDev session

That being said, I focus most on the case study. Sometimes I'll do some intro exercises, but most often I move quickly into that portion. I'll have a few cadets read aloud the the text. Depending on the attendance and subject, I may or may not have them break into groups to discuss the related questions.

I spend quite a bit of time on the FAPS (Facts, Assumptions, Problems Solutions. There is a section in the Flight Time manual that goes over this) analysis of the case study. This is where I get the most discussion from the cadets. One thing I do with this is have them look at solutions from different angles. How would you handle this as a peer to the subject? How should someone in a high leadership position act in this situation? What about "middle management". Would your answer be the same as an adult as opposed a cadet.

I've been working in one manner or another with teaching and the youth for many years (college professor, scout leader, youth minister, etc) so I'm very comfortable getting up in front of a group of cadets and moving my mouth. The above is how I run my sessions with my background and experience. The last piece of advice I would give is think about what attributes & skills you posses and use those to build the class so you are comfortable. If you are comfy, they will also be relaxed, and the discussions will be much better.

I hope this helps. PM me if you want to chat further.

[NC Hokie]

The biggest advice I can give you is to take the FAPS analysis seriously, as this is what makes the difference between a lecture and a discussion. Do this analysis yourself as you prepare for the class so that you have some idea of the responses you "should" be getting from the cadets. They're bound to come up with things you never considered, but having your own list will help you move things along if the discussion gets bogged down.

Take particular care to keep facts and assumptions separate, as cadets (mine, at least) often like to read between the lines and come up with "facts" that aren't really there. This is an important distinction, as erroneous "facts" often identify false problems, leading to bad solutions.

Do NOT plan to call for volunteers during the FAPS analysis, as you'll quickly find two or three cadets monopolizing the discussion. Instead, start at the front of the room and have each person contribute to the list, and do NOT accept any variation of "She took my idea." In cases where this happens immediatly before calling on a cadet, move on to the next cadet or two before coming back to the one you skipped.

Finally, do not forget to cover at least a few of the discussion questions after doing the FAPS analysis. It can be easy to get caught up in the FAPS analysis and lose track of time, but the discussion questions help make things personal, which is really the point of the whole exercise.

[Eclipse]

+1 on both replies.

[Chatterbox]

Thank you so much!
Do you use any other material other than "Flight Time"?

[NC Hokie]

Thank you so much!

My pleasure, and thank you for stepping up to do this.

Do you use any other material other than "Flight Time"?

With three volumes, there's enough material for three full years of discussions, so there's really no reason to go looking for anything else, especially if you're new at this.

[Майор Хаткевич]

I've noticed people trying to use current events. I don't recommend this until you know how the class should flow and can structure the conversation beyond "this day in history..."

[NC Hokie]

I've noticed people trying to use current events. I don't recommend this until you know how the class should flow and can structure the conversation beyond "this day in history..."

Ditto that. Also, I just realized that there are even MORE lessons available at http://www.capmembers.com/cadet_programs/library/character, so I'll double-down on my statement that there's no real need to look elsewhere.

[Pylon]

I think you'll find additional materials aren't needed, too, because once you outline the FAPS on the board and start asking some of the prompting, thought-provoking questions and the discussion gets going, you'll have plenty to talk about with just the case study at hand.  Many of them (the good ones) I've found can easily prompt 45min-1hr discussions; when I was leading Character Development sessions, we were always cutting the discussion short to stay on schedule.

[Eclipse]

The best way to avoid the pitfalls is to stay with the provided curriculum.  Even if you wind up repeating them - that can be even more
productive since the FAPS will be the same, but the cadets won't be (both literally and figuratively).

[Walkman]

I've created some of my own classes. In two, I used TED talks that covered a somewhat military/leadership topic and then had a discussion on the cadets thoughts on the topic. They've had some very robust discussions. A few others I took a current event/news story and built a class from that. I wouldn't recommend you do something like that until you've covered many of the lessons from the manual.

NCHokie-Thanks for sharing the link. Didn't know about that resource.