Odyssey of The Mind BC
Generating Future Problem Solvers
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Coaches' CornerHello ! For those of you who are new this year - Welcome! I'm Roberta Beck and it is my volunteer job to send out some valuable information and a Spontaneous problem every week. I rely on you to tell me what you need, give me suggestions and most of all share with me and your fellow coaches the ups and downs of coaching. A special goal I have for this year is to try and give you a Spontaneous problem every week- but I need your help! Please share with me any problems that you have used that the kids really enjoyed. We all don't need to be inventing new problems every week. With this in mind we included a new section in your Membership Binder where you can print and store these problems- using them over and over. Coaches' Training (Jan 21st) (Online registration is now closed. Contact odysseybc@gmail.com to see if there is still room available in the session that you want.) If you need you to ask questions email Roberta at odysseybc@gmail.com Check out The 'Unofficial' On-line Coaches' Training Guide (Large PowerPoint File) Resources: outside assistance, spontaneous problem of the week.
Check out Roberta's COACHING TIPS from previous years ... October 26, 2010Coach Extraordinaire, Gail Felton offers this fabulous activity… I was just glancing through the book The Smart Teens Guide to Living With Intensity, by Lis Rivero, and on her chapter on Creativity she details an interesting and simple spontaneous activity, that highlights the concept of divergent thinking: All Those Uses for a Paper Clip! Gather your team in a circle, with a bowl of gummies or smarties in the middle of the group. Hand them each a paper clip. Have them take turns going around the circle stating uses for a paper clip. After each answer have them take one treat out of the bowl. Once the treats are finished, talk about the ideas that they came up with.
Was your team able to look at the object with fresh eyes, as though they had never seen one of these little bendy wire things before? This is known as divergent thinking, using many areas of interest and bringing them together to form novel, creative or unusual solutions. With divergent thinking there is no single correct answer-- but rather an infinite number of possible correct answers. When we permit ourselves to look beyond the 'common' we encourage creative ideas; the more ideas you generate, the more creative you will become! With practise, your team will become comfortable with generating lots of creative responses and they will become faster and faster at responding creatively. Creativity can be taught! Ciao! Roberta October 19, 2010NewsClarifications have already been issued! If your team is working on Problem 1 or 3 you must to go to http://www.odysseyofthemind.com/clarifications/default.php ( the change for Problem 3 is major!). For the other problem just make sure you check that space from time to time. Also for High School Teams- the deadline for our Scholarship submissions is now March 1st. We'll remind you again but if you want to get a head start on your applications you can find the forms in your Membership binder SpontaneousHere's two I thought up a Kid's camp I am doing on Saturday, in a Halloween theme. Verbal: "It's Halloween Night, who would you NOT want to meet" Some more creative replies might be, my dentist, a real werewolf, Santa (wrong holiday) I'll let you know if the kid's give me any new/better answers. Hands on: make a Ghost Trap April 14, 2010What is the Coaches’ Role in receiving the team’s Long Term Score at the Provincial Tournament? Approximately 30-45 minutes after your team presents its long-term solution, the coach should return to the performance site to pick up the long-term scores. (The staging area judge should tell you exactly when to return for scores.) The Head Judge will go over the score sheet with you and let you know your team’s raw scores for the Long Term Problem. Have a look at the scores and feel free to ask questions if there is something you do not understand or a point that you would like clarified. Your role is to represent your team – so try to think what questions they would have if they were in your place, and then ask those questions. If you want to question a score – that’s fine. If you disagree with a penalty, go ahead and discuss it. The Head Judge can usually explain why scoring is as it is or sometimes they will have to go back and ask their problem judges for an explanation or clarification. The Head Judge will not give you an explanation of the reasons for a subjective score (for example, why your team got a 5 rather than a 9 out of 10), but will be able to explain penalties or any 0 scores. Once you have received your score, the HJ will make a note of the time, and you have 30 minutes from then to raise any additional questions your team has. So share the scores with your team as soon as you get them. If the team has concerns about a score they received, it is quite acceptable to return to the HJ and ask for an explanation - if it concerns how a rule was interpreted or why a penalty was assessed. If the question involves an interpretation of the rules and if the team is not satisfied with the explanation given by the HJ, the team may ask that a tribunal be convened. There is a tribunal form in your folder that you can fill in and hand back in to the HJ. The tribunal will review the rule in question and, if necessary, talk with the coach, team members and/or judges involved. Once the tribunal makes a decision, its decision is final. (Tribunals will not be convened for questions regarding subjective scores or questions in areas such as whether something or someone was across a line or within a certain area.) April 13, 2010....ta da... it's countdown to the Tournament.
April 16, 2010Next time your team practices – get out the video camera and tape them. Then have them watch. The next step is for them to become a Critic. (Be careful with this – the kids need to critique themselves- please don’t jump in with your ‘helpful’ ideas!) I found a checklist for Critiquing a Play on-line and pared it down to a checklist that your team members might want to use.
Mar 23, 2010Phew! The Qualifying tournament is over. Thank you to Starbucks Coffee Heritage Mountain at 330 - 221 Ioco Road, Port Moody for providing Coffee to our Judges and Safeway Canada for providing a $25 gift certificate to support our tournament. SHARE THIS INFORMATION WITH YOUR TEAM! Interpreting your RAW Qualifying Tournament Scores You will receive long term, spontaneous and style RAW scores, meaning that they are not scored in relation to the other teams. What does a score of 5 out of 10 mean? Is that a bad score? 5 out of 10 does not necessarily mean that your team did poorly on the task. It is critical to view the score from the Judges point of view. Scoring Scale If a category is 1-10 some judges will mentally use a grid that looks like this- 1- totally missed the mark However most judges will not award a 10 because if they see a better solution later in the days judging they have nowhere to go! They can’t give an 11. In my opinion if your team received a score of less than half the available score then they should concentrate on those items. How do you help your team figure out where to spend their time? 1. work backwards from the scoring grid for your problem. Take a look at each score and check it against your tournament raw score. Then ask these questions about each of those low scoring items:
2. READ the Program Guide for explanations
Some of your low scores can be avoided if, when reading the scoring grid and problem you ensure that you look up any words that are italisied. These words have specific Odyssey of the Mind definitions that will be found in the Glossary at the end of your problem and/or in the Program Guide Glossary. A reminder about Outside Assistance. Watching other teams perform has hopefully helped your team understand how Odyssey looks and inspired everyone to improve their solution, but don’t COPY anything you saw as that would be outside assistance. In any case just because you saw another team do something doesn’t mean that it’s ‘right’ - you never know - the team may have received a penalty for what they did. Mar 10, 2010How’s it going? Don’t be alarmed if your team still doesn’t have
This is normal. Remember that this Odyssey of the Mind experience may be the first time that they have been entirely dependant on themselves; no teacher to direct the play, no parent to help with costume sewing homework, no sibling help with ideas. It may be that they have simply ‘played’ during your meetings, meetings that were meant to get things done. What can you do (that doesn’t involve losing any more hair)?
If your teams are like mine at this point Spontaneous is taking a back seat to getting something, anything, ready for qualifying but if you really need a stress reducer spontaneous- how about bringing in a hula hoop (time the kids) (schools often have these in the gym) or a ping pong paddle and balls and see who can paddle the longest. Feb 23, 2010Only a few weeks till the Qualifying tournament so why not plan a All day or All-nighter! For those that meet after school how about asking the team (getting permission from the school of course) to stay after school and work right through. You can order in pizza and give the kids the time to tackle a large job. Or maybe your school has a pro-d day or Saturday when you could go in. Just make sure if you set this up that the team knows exactly what they need to accomplish and that they have all the materials they will need to get the job done. Does your team have a Program Guide expert? A Score expert? A Rules Expert? You might think about it- here is a ‘job’ description of each: PROGRAM GUIDE expert:
Do you know QUIZ… What is the definition of a PROP? This is the one time you don't use a dictionary! Use the Program Guide GLOSSARY. Last year, many teams lost points because they did not use the Odyssey definition of this and many other words (see Touch/Touching). SCORE Expert:
Do you know QUIZ… How much is the membership sign worth? RULES Expert
Do you know QUIZ… Can we take a toolbox (to fix anything that might have broken in transit) into the staging area? Spontaneous problem of the week Bring in a pack of gum (sugar free of course!) Part 1- no gum Name things that go bump in the night (monsters, trains- dreams colliding, nightmares (horses) going for a morning gallop) Part 2 – give each child a stick of gum to chew Name things that you turn off (faucets, lights – my brain when I sleep, the highway to nowhere) There is a scientific study that said that the act of chewing sends messages to the brain and stimulates it – was it true for the team? Feb 16, 2010As promised I will follow-up on the discussion from last week, focusing on the STYLE sheet and how the wording on the form can make all the difference in the score. Here are the three Las Vegas themed palm trees again. Team 1. The palm tree is made of a tube covered in brown wrapping paper with leaves cut out of green paper. It is very realistic and well made. What we are looking at now is the wording for their STYLE sheet. Let’s assume that all three teams have chosen the Palm Tree as their “Free Choice” style category and all three teams use the same wording- in which range would you score them?
Is this what your team came up with? As you can see each team has the opportunity of getting a HIGH score even though they built very different Palm Trees! Remember that these are my opinions, you may disagree and if you do please let me know we encourage lively discussion! Feb 10, 2010I want to share with you an example that I hope will clarify "creativity" in terms of scoring. This is one that Stephanie Hobson has shared in the past but now I will endeavor to put in writing so that you can share with your team. Three Balsa teams decide that their “theme” is Las Vegas and each builds a palm tree.
Be the Style Judge; the team style sheet asks that you score the “Creativity of the Palm Tree” on a scale of 1-10 ?
How could each team maximize their score? Ask your team for ideas and I will share my thoughts next week. Feb 2, 2010Renee Iacci was kind enough to share some notes from her session at Coaches Training. Charlie’s Guide to Effective Directing Good Organization
Good People Skills
An interpretation that will work
A good eye
Imagination
Things to Remember
Problem of the weekThis is like Charades but instead of acting out the words you act out the story and there is no speaking. Split the team in half, one group are actors the others are the audience. Make up some story cards in advance: Going to a baseball game, Going to the Olympics to watch skiing, Reading at the library, Taking a walk in the forest, Going grocery shopping (next time you play let the kids write more cards) Have the actors pick a card. They have 1 minute to think, 1 minute to act. The object is to get the audience to guess what the story is in the shortest amount of time, but the audience cannot start guessing until time is called (after 1 minute of action).Each member of the audience gets one guess and they must tell why they think their answer is correct. If the guesses are wrong the actors get one more minute to act and the audience gets one more guess. Scoring:
Jan 26, 2010Renee Iacci was kind enough to share some notes from her session at Coaches Training. If you weren’t there this may seem obscure!
Skeleton Script Have you had a look at the Cultural Olympiad? Check out Streb Raw Feb 22-24 – it is a dance, acrobatics with contraptions made of junk. Sounds like Odyssey to me! Speaking of theatre…I went to Best Before at the Cultch (part of the PuSH Festival). It was a preview and so the cast was reading their scripts but still very interesting. Everyone in the audience got a game controller and as the actors told a bit of their life story and some of the choices they had made, we in the audience made choices using our little characters. SO not a video game but with 200 little multi-coloured blobs doing things it was interesting. Its only $20 and youth 12 are $2 so worth a look (till Feb 6) Hands-on Spontaneous Problem: The Longest RopeTell teams this is a nonverbal problem. You will have 5 minutes to solve this problem. Your problem is to build a rope out of the materials provided Score will be as follows:
Give the teams the following materials to work with
(thanks Virgina OM!) Add a Verbal componentUsing the rope you just built as an example say “ my rope will be used for…” Buster Says
Jan 19, 2010Round about this time your team is either working well together or developing 'issues.' Here is a great teambuilding activity found by Holly. She used it at the coaches at the training on Jan 9th and many coaches asked for a copy. You can use this as your Spontaneous problem for this week! Every Fall the World organization sends out a newsletter. Included in it at the 'Problem Procedures.' Cheryl sent this around about a week ago. These are important because they deal with some issues that have come up since the problems were written and in all cases lay out quite clearly what your team can expect at the tournament. Please make sure that your team had read this! There's more in the newsletter that they should also read! Here is the link to the full Fall Newsletter (PDF). Here's your first reminder that the CLARIFICATIONS deadline is Feb 15. You can read the current general clarifications for all the problems via the above link for the Fall Newsletter and in fact as late as Jan 14th there were clarifications on 2 of the problems, so make sure that your team is on top of these and if they have a question- remind them to send it into World's soon! Problem of the weekBroken squares team building excercise (PDF). Jan 12, 2010Spontaneous Attack DATE Change ….new date FEB 20 at South Slope School NEW Judges PolicyAs you know all Teams must supply 1-2 Judges and 2-3 Volunteers- because that is how many we need to run the tournaments. However some teams have not done this causing excess work and stress to the rest. Therefore we are instituting a new policy, effective immediately: All teams must supply at least 1 judge who will attend in full:
Exception is made for out-of town and primary teams, though having a judge from your team would be helpful in future years. Failure to provide a Judge will result in a 25 Point Unsportsmanlike Penalty to the team and the team will be required to provide 1 additional volunteer on each of the two tournament days. As a BONUS for those teams who provide 2 Judges, they will have the option of not providing Volunteers. Problem of the weekYour Problem is to tell a story, each person continuing the story. Bonus points will be given for demonstrating what is happening in the story with your hands. For example, “One day I walked into the woods…” and you walk your fingers along the table top. Scoring:
Judges: the score
Bonus:
Jan 5, 2010It’s not too late to sign up for Coaches Training or Introduction to Odyssey for Parents and Novice Judges this Saturday, Jan 9th. Register here. Our special presentation will be: "Teaching Kids how to Direct their own Performances" - Renne Iacci. Renee Iacci is the Co-Artistic Director of Shameless Hussey Productions and a long-time presenter at our Fun Day. She will help us understand the role of a Director so we can pass on these skills to the teams. Directors cast the show, plot out entrances, exits and movements on stage (i.e blocking) and guide actors to make choices that help tell the story. One of the most important services that a director provides is to be the 'outside eye' so if something in the play is not making sense, the director can see that and say 'hey, let's fix that'. Even if a director is not sure how to fix it they can be the one to put up the red flag and say, "there's a problem here, I don't understand this part of the story." Problem of the week"Name things that are cold" Dec 15, 2009Hands-on Spontaneous - Candle, Book and MatchI just finished a book called Why We Make Mistakes, by Joseph Hallinan. It is a light-weight psycho-babble book. There was one study sited that pertained to creativity. A large group of people were given a candle, a book of matches and a box of tacks. The challenge was to attach the candle to a wall. If you want to do this with your team give them a candle stub that is about 1” circumference and 1” high, 1x 6” masking tape and a box of tacks –(the candle circumference cannot be larger than will fit easily in the box. And the tape should not be able to stick to the candle) Provide a shoebox placed upright and weighted and have them attach the candle to the box. The key is that you empty the box of tacks and use them to attach the box to the ‘wall’ and place the candle in the box. This is an elegant solution but not terribly creative – the fascinating part of the study was that when the people were ‘happy’ 75% of them were able to come up with the elegant solution. But if the people were ‘unhappy’ only 20% were able to solve the problem. The people were ‘made’ happy by watching a very funny cartoon jut before being given the problem while the unhappy group watched a film about how to find a math curve. Is a happier team more creative? Let us know your results! Maybe we should show cartoons in the Spontaneous Problem holding room at the tournaments! Verbal Spontaneous - Hit ParadeYour problem is to tell Who is in the Parade and where are they going? Oct 14, 2009By the end of the year we hear – “Coaching is a full time job!” “I was overwhelmed by all the work a coach has to do” “Getting people to help me is almost more trouble than doing it myself” The good news is that in the same breath these same coaches will go on to describe what an outstanding the experience was for themselves and their team. So what can you do NOW to avoid a lot of work later?
If you do this at the beginning of the year you will not only be helping yourself but you will be actively engaging the parents and this is critical in a program that is known for it’s hands-off messages to Parents. This week’s Verbal ProblemYour Problem is to : "Name ways you can attract wildlife in your backyard" Common: birdfeeder, plant a fruit tree Creative: Hold a Crazy Party, tear down the fence so the ‘alley’ gators can come, paint the grass purple so shy alien elephants can blend in This week’s Hands-on Problem(we did this at our 25th anniversary party last year – you should have seen the Statue of Liberty!) Your problem is to make a famous building out of the equipment given. You have 15 minutes. 1-10 points for the creativity 1-10 points for teamwork Supplies: {pens/pencils,crayons, scissors, masking tape } can’t be used in the solution The rest of the supplies can be anything to hand but if giving paper, give only one sheet. Other ideas, styro foam cups or plates, tin foil, 1 sheet of newspaper. Oct 6, 2009
Hi Everyone and welcome back for a fabulous year of creativity! Your Membership registration is on-line – the sooner you get it in the faster you will have the problems! Register now. As you may know I judged at World’s last year and what an eye-opener! I will be sharing some insights as the year progresses but remember if you would like a visit and help with your team- brainstorming is great to do now -I’ll try to make myself available- just let me know asap and keep in mind that I’ll be on holidays Nov 5-22! I have finally bitten the bullet and let Gail Felton talk me into something that I wished I had done long ago- that is, offer a verbal and hands-on or combo problem every week as part of this space. This week I gleaned a couple of gems off cyberspace (and have given the writers credit, thanks Don and Allen whoever you are!) . The intention is for you to use these problems at your team meetings. My suggestion is that you, the coach, should recruit a Spontaneous Parent so that each week you can email them the problem and they can get the equipment together for you. Please let me know any wild and wonderful solutions so that I can share them with the group. This week’s Verbal Problem: Animal Malady (Don Desrosiers)Think of a illness or condition that would be bad for an animal to have and why this would be a problem. For example: an elephant with a nose cold is bad because there is so much nose to put the cold into. Common answers – “obvious” answers like a frog with a frog in its throat, a horse that is hoarse. A giraffe with a sore neck. A chicken with the pox. Creative answers – Plays on words such as a toad with a frog in its throat, a pony that is a little hoarse. Things that are not illnesses per se but are more like unusual conditions, like a porcupine with an itchy back (who would scratch it?) This week’s Hands-on Problem: Squeezed Together (Allen Ball)Your problem is to place as many ping pong balls and tennis balls as possible in the square in front of you. You will be given materials to be used in your solution. No other materials may be used. Timing is up to you and as it is early in the year give the team 15 minutes but in competition they would only get 8 minutes tops. Each ball must be placed one at a time into the square. The ball must be completely within the taped off area to count for score. Balls that extend past the outside edge of the taped boundary will receive no score. After a ball is placed, a team member must say "done" for that ball before another ball may be placed. A ball may be removed after placement, but must also be removed one at a time. Score will be as follows: Each ping pong ball completely within the square will receive 2 points Materials and Setup 1 sheet of newspaper,1 piece of yarn 12" in length,4 straws,25 toothpicks, 1" square of clay,5 pieces of spaghetti,1 sheet of construction paper On a hard surfaced floor or table top, tape off a square for ball placement. For Division 1, the square will measure 6" x 6" Give each team a bag or basket containing 12 ping pong balls and 12 tennis balls. (You may vary this for practice, depending on what you have available, of course). The bag or basket may NOT be used as part of the solution. The team may use the given materials for containing the balls in the taped area. But be sure they say "done" after a ball is placed, before attempting to place another ball. When scoring, use a ruler placed on the outside edge of the taped boundary to determine whether a ball is entirely within the boundary. Balls outside the boundary will NOT count for score; however, a ball supported by one outside the boundary WILL count for score if that supported ball is entirely within the square.
2008-2009February 24, 2009FORMS It is time to get your forms together for the tournament! Copies of the basic forms; Style, Cost and Outside Assistance are in your Program Guide as well as on line. Important! If your problem has a 'suggested' form be sure and use it. These forms will make your Judging Teams job much, much easier and they will really appreciate it. (anything you can do to make a Judges job easier is a very good thing!) To find out if there are any of these special forms for your problem go to As a bonus all of the other forms are also there so you can print them out from the website. Also have a look at the Clarifications and if you haven’t got your own copy of the Program Guide yet you can download it here. Questions? Ask Roberta at odysseybc@gmail.com February 4, 2009Somehow I lost a few Tuesdays in between these little postings! Anyway I'm baaaack! How to make a play better! To begin talk about any plays or movies that the kids have seen – ask them what they thought made them great… A super example right now is Wall-E. In the movie there is no dialogue for the first 30 minutes and yet there is drama, sadness, mystery, tenderness – everything! Ask the kids how that was done and write the letters MAD CLAPS on a board. Have them tell you what the letter stand for – they are all things that make a play better. M=music/ sound effects Then ask what makes a bad play. H= can't Hear Good Luck! November 25, 2008Hi Everyone, I know that you are probably overwhelmed with the amount of material that you got at Coaches Training. Just remember that you are not alone – everyone starts out the same way. The best advice I can give is to spend the time reading the Handbook and your membership binder materials. It is a lot of information but you wouldn't go out and try to coach a soccer team without reading the rule book would you? If you haven't set up your team then use the Handbook for some ideas and forms that will make the job easier. If you have a team don't jump into discussing the long term problem right away! Make sure that all the students are committed, that they know the dates of the tournaments and are guaranteed to attend and most important of all – you can teach them all kinds of things, like MAD CLAPS and HISS before they start on the long term (hopefully they will remember something when the time comes!) Spontaneous – in case you missed my top site for generic problems: 2007-2008May 20, 2008The Odyssey of the Mind 2008 Scholarship application is available to any person who is in their last year of high school and has competed on a high school team. If you know of anyone who could apply please encourage them! Proudly presented by The Creative Problem Solving Society (CPSS) $250 Scholarship Guidelines: This scholarship is limited to persons who have competed at least one year on a Division III (Secondary School) team in Odyssey of the Mind in British Columbia. Interested persons must fill out this form in its entirety and send it to: CPSS at P.O. Box 18101 RPO Heritage Mtn., Port Moody, BC V3H 0A2. Included with the application will be:
All applicants must be in either grade 12 or their first year of post secondary education and attending a post secondary education institute the following year. Although the scholarship will be offered every year, it may not be awarded every year. The award will be made at the discretion of the judges and the judge's decision is final. Deadline for applications is those postmarked prior to May 30, the winner will be announced by June 30. To claim your award you will be required to provide the following by Dec. 31st of the year in which the prize was awarded:
May 13, 2008The world's teams and officials are going crazy but for the rest of us... The 2009 synopsis is now on-line – check it out for next year! www.odysseyofthemind.com Summer Camp! We have set up three this year at Aspenwood Elementary, SFU and Sacred Heart School in Ladner. Remember that these camps are not just for gifted kids – so please see that the information is distributed via your PAC, Principal, etc. The camp is designed for Grades 3-7 but we'd like to see if older kids might be interested so have left this off the flyer. Flyer for summer camps » Planning an Activity Day at your school? We have a new flyer for 1 or 2 hour workshops that would fit into this kind of format. Again please help us by distributing this information to anyone who can use it! Flyer for activity days » May 6, 2008We will have 9 teams representing BC at the World Finals in Washington, DC! It is an amazing feat for these teams to finalize their presentations, make travel plans and fundraise in only a few short weeks. Here's a timeline to help you- details of all these will be sent shortly: May 31 will be the Opening Ceremonies. Every year the ceremonies are presented live via the web – this would make great viewing for a wind-up party but in any case make sure all your teams members know so that they can be part of the action. Details and the link will be posted on www.odysseyofthemind.com. April 8,2008Last week I talked about SCAMPERING this week it is all about SCRAMBLING! Everyone is working very hard to make this tournament special. We have come up with a full day of activities with a team photo area, 7 new spontaneous problems for the Fun rooms, a Coaches and Officials challenge, slide show and lots more. We’ll need lots of people to help with running the day. The schedule with be published shortly and then you will be getting a call for the names and phone numbers of your volunteers. Please ensure that your volunteers know to expect the call! You might suggest to your team that they watch a video of themselves and then they can be the judges. Make up a simple scoring grid and have the kids each score each of the elements – if nothing else it will make for a lively discussion! April 1, 2008Here's an idea sent in by one of the coaches – thanks to Karen (and Cheryl for teaching the kids how to SCAMPER)! I think the team has named this idea "the Scamperizing machine" My team tends to get stuck on one idea and not be able to think bigger than that idea. They just get fixated with one solution, and when it doesn't work, they keep trying the SAME solution over and over again, without actually modifying it! So, I came up with this exercise:
This idea seemed to help them look at their problem/solution from different angles and think about how they could take new approaches to the solution. I tried this with my Div. 1 Dinostories team this morning (the team I'm struggling with, as they're all 9 and 10 year old boys with lots of energy), and it seemed to help them focus a bit more than normal. If you try this idea with your team, by all means, feel free to change it to suit your needs! Let us know how you used it, and any new twists that you came up with to help your team! March 29, 2008Class – the topic for this week’s lecture is Outside Assistance. Those of you who have been in my Coaches Training will understand what a struggle I have with this subject! Just so you know where I am coming from I hate OA. My ideas, skills, talents are NOT NEEDED, the team can do very well without me or anyone else butting in! OA is such a critical part of the Odyssey experience it is worthwhile to discuss. Outside assistance is never good. Even when a team chooses to use outside assistance and declare it on the form the question is always “how could they have done it without the assistance. What wild and wonderful solution could they have come up with?” It is a missed opportunity. They way I think about it is that for a team to take outside assistance is like an athlete taking perform-enhancing drugs. It is just wrong. So what is outside assistance? A coach/parent/teacher doing the kinds of things that might be “helpful” but are actually inhibiting:
Nobel reasons – just save your input for something else – leave Odyssey to the kids. Keep telling everyone involved with your team – The KID’S CAN DO IT soooooo… much better, more creatively, with more energy, they will take more ownership, feel pride at accomplishing a hard job, etc. etc. etc. – March 18, 2008SPRING BREAK! Depending on where your team is in their preparations now might be a good time to video tape their performance. The camera should be set up in one place and without zooming. Place the camera where the judges will sit. As the kids watch the video they will be able to understand better what the judges see and can make any adjustments they think are necessary. Also it might be a good idea to think about a performance in front of a class at school. The team needs the practice and this might give them more valuable feedback about their performance. It is hard not to want to help (talk louder etc.!)?we all have a bit of the director in us. But your job as coach is to give them opportunities to see for themselves what might need to be done, not to point out what they need to do. Providing that help, which is actually outside assistance, ends up hurting everyone. Have a Happy Easter. March 11, 2008Well the Qualifyier is over! There was a lot of excitement and a lot of last minute fixing going on! Now we have Spring Break and hopefully a few meetings were the kids can have time to work and have fun. I always think it is a good idea to have a BBQ day. My teams always got an amazing amount of work done when we took a whole day with the larger projects. Membership signs, painted items and intricate props always, finally got done! If you are looking to have a little spontaneous fun try the Ice Cream Tower of Success (it is in the back of your Coaches Handbook). This works especially well if it is the treat they get when they finish the dreaded forms! Have a Great Holiday! March 4, 2008FORMS!In the program Guide and the Membership binder under forms. Do you have all your FORMS? (keep a copy for your team to use for Provincials) For detailed instructions on how to fill out the forms teams should refer to the Program Guide; the forms required are: The forms that are required or suggested for your Problem are actually quite important. You need to impress to your team that while they have been working on their solution for some time now the Judges will have a total of 8 minutes to see the Performance and about 4 minutes to see and understand what is going on. That isn't a lot of time! So, anything the team can do to make the judges' job easier will be very much appreciated. By the way those 4 minutes include the time it takes to read all the paperwork you give the judges ?so make sure those forms are short, sweet and to the point! Last, remember that the forms are to be filled out by the team except in Div 1 where the coach can have the team dictate what they want on the form. See you Saturday! Relax, it will be fun! Feb 26, 2008Like most teams you are probably scrambling! You're not alone ?every coach knows that getting the team to focus is a major undertaking! At this point with the tournament just around the corner it's time to finalize what you can. With my teams this was the time when we tried to "get the job done" That is, make sure that the KEY elements of the problem are solved. What are the key elements? In order of importance, ensure that the team thinks about:
You'll have more time after qualifying tournament to add the frills and special touches to make your solution stand out, to make it creative, to give it style- right now it's time to GET THE JOB DONE! Feb 19, 2008Style – those forgotten 50 points It finally occurred to me, after years of coaching, that the ONLY WAY to get STYLE points was to fill out the form properly. Now this might seem elementary and maybe you can just skip to the end now….but when it came time to fill out the forms my teams were usually doing so with a crayon in the back of the van on the way to competition. They always thought all of the forms were just for back-up – that the real important part was the performance. For Style points they were wrong. For example, on the form there is always "free choice of team." What do you put in that? My team were Greek Gods and they had made crowns out of the leaves from a rhododendron bush. Their Free choice was "crowns." What they should have said was anything like As always let your team decide what they want to put on the form and how they want to say it, this is just an example. Get it? Got it! Now your team is stylin' ! Feb 12, 2008Balsa TeamsThe first year I coached it was a balsa team. We had no weights (we used books), no tester board (my talented husband built one) and no scale. What are you using? Scale ?postal stations have good scales (even they are wrong sometimes!) Tester ?Odyssey does have one that can be used for testing ?let me know if you want to arrange a pre-qualifier test. Another idea would to build as many structures as you can between now and the tournament and bring them to the qualifier ?we’ll try to find time for you to do some independent testing. Weights ?books work well ?especially a 'set' like encyclopedias Talent vs Creativity How would you score a gifted ballet dancer performing as part of the problem solution? Let’s say the score the criteria is “Creativity of the how well the dance is part of the problem solution?Score is 1-15. Everyone judges differently but I would ask these questions and then score each on a scale of 1-5 and add them up to get a score: Who choreographed it ? 1- 5 points , learned it at school (1 point) or they did it themselves (5 points) Was the prime purpose of the dance to showcase the dancer (1 point) or the solution (5 points) How well was the dance integrated into the rest of the solution ; it was there ?because it had to be (1 point) or it really made the whole solution fun and fabulous (5 points) The point is that the ‘Talent?of the dancer (singer, musician etc) is NEVER scored, so your kids should be encourage to strut their stuff! No matter how ‘talented or not they might be! Also posted on our WIKI... http://wiki.odysseybc.ca/ Feb 5, 2008Clarifications : last chance for getting a clarification is Feb 15 ? if your team has any problem specific questions follow the links from www.odysseyofthemind.com What is Odyssey Creativity? I like to think of it as an elevator. The building has 15 floors with the top floor a Penthouse with the most fabulous views. However the elevator only goes up. To go down you have to take the stairs where it is dark and scary and weird. Common...............................Creative................................Weird Thinking along these lines work with your kids suggesting that they ‘take the elevator?when making decisions about anything; jokes, costumes, story, props etc. For example, How would they score their main character costume? Did he/she get off on the 3rd floor and have to walk down? Remind them that this is how judges determine what is a 3 or a 15 on a ? to 15?item. Jan 29, 2008When you are shoveling the snow think about where you can find your judges. Volunteers are easy, Judges are more of a challenge. Instead of
approaching just your team members parents ask them to think beyond to: Your ‘dream?judges are those that volunteer year after year finding they love the program so much they stay with it long after their connection to the team has faded. Maybe it is the term ‘judge?that scares people ?you can assure them that for Odyssey of the Mind what we need are simply enthusiastic people who enjoy a creative atmosphere with wonderful kids. We’ll ‘teach?them everything they need to know. Your Judges needs to give up 3 days; for training Feb 23 , Qualifying tournament Mar 8 and Provincial finals April 19. We know it is hard to find these wonderful people but remember that without 75+ judges we cannot hold the tournaments ?it can’t be done physically and it wouldn’t be fair to your team. Roberta Jan 22, 2008Spontaneous ?in case you missed my top site for generic problems http://www.geocities.com/nepaootmspon/ Also, next time you do a verbal try giving the kid’s gum to chew- it really works to get the brain activated (and the kids love it!) Program Guide QUIZ Roberta Jan 9, 2008It is always sure fun giving a coaches training and knowing that all these enthusiastic people will be hitting the streets with the message that Creative Thinking Rocks! As promised here are a few tips I mentioned:
CPSS presents Odyssey of the Mind Spontaneous Problem Leaning Towers© Rules:
Team Score Sheet: Team Name: _______________________ School:_______________________ Structure 1: distance from dot to paper surface ______cm x 1 = ________________ Structure 2: distance from dot to paper surface ______cm x 1 = ________________ Distance between the two dots ____________________cm x 3 = ________________ Total: ________________ Dec 1, 2007Brainstorming #1
Nov 4, 2007Coaches…Pssst… “have you started yet?” NO?!…what a relief…neither have I! This year in particular everything seems to be delayed. The first Coaches Training will be at the Fun Day on Nov. 19th and will be all day. I’ll be teaching it again but am going to try something completely different this year. In the morning all the participants will be a ‘team’ and I will be your coach and in the afternoon we’ll do a ton of spontaneous. I hope that the new format will enable new coaches to jump right in and form their own school teams. The cost is $10 up to a maximum of $30 from any one school so bring anyone who is even remotely interested. If nothing else I guarantee that they will have fun! Sept 13, 2007I haven't read the problems this year but the buzz is the the Jungle Bloke is going to be popular. My High School team always wants to do the Primary Problem! Fundraising to go to World's is always a frantically stressful 4-5 weeks and so this year we're getting a group together to fundraise just for this. We had our first meeting last week and you really will want to send a representative to this group- fun is their middle name! Currently the thinking is to hold a huge fundraising dinner for the Saturday before Mother's Day, May 13, 2006. It will include raffles and auctions. Head Honcho for the event is Brian Babcock who has put this same event on for his own team and has successfully funded them to world's! Now he is lending his expertise so that all the Provincial winning teams can benefit. We need anyone interested in helping to email odydinner@googlegroups.com we need lots and lots of prizes for the auction - so put on your thinking caps and ask around. ps. if you want an Awareness Session at your school please let us know asap so that we can schedule a speaker and the materials. odysseybc@gmail.com April 7, 2007Only ONE week to go! 1. At your next meeting and have the kids do their forms for the tournament. Really have them think about what is best for each category and have them write clearly- remind them that the judges only have a couple of minutes to read their stuff – make it easy. 2. Remind your team that each and every one is responsible for keeping Outside Assistance at bay. This means all day of the tournaments – no parents doing make-up or a Dad helping with a repair! 3. COACHES : it is your responsibility to pick up your Long Term scores from the Head Judge after you compete. The Judge will tell you when to come back for it. When you get it- LOOK AT IT! If you have any questions now is the ONLY time you can bring them up. If you have a problem then you must use the PROBLEM INTERVENTION FORM: This form will be inside your folder. After you have received your team’s raw scores and discussed them with the Head Judge you have 30 minutes to fill out the form and hand it in to the Head Judge in your problem. It will then be taken to the tribunal and a decision will be made and an answer given to you. See Pages 31,32 in your Program Guide. 4. Encourage your team to stay and watch you make a fool of yourself at the Coaches Challenge! Tip of the weekIt’s getting down to the wire and everyone is stretched to the limit. Maybe now is a good time to have a little fun with spontaneous – you could try the spontaneous problem Ice Cream Tower of Success with your kids- my team thinks it is the best ever. Feb 16, 20071. The deadline for CLARIFICATIONS is nearing. (March 1) There is no such thing as a dumb question - don't guess! Get a ruling! Go to www.odysseyofthemind.com, click on the Members Area, and submit your clarification. You will need to know your membership number and your postal code to enter the site. 2. Keep in mind that the Official Odyssey of the Mind Exchange rate for this years problems is 1.26 Tip of the weekDrinking water before mentally challenging activities helps you stay alert and have more energy. The first part of the brain to de-hydrate is the memory area Jan 7, 2007Things to Do before your next team meeting: 1. go to http://www.odysseyofthemind.com/newsletter.php and download the Fall Newsletter (in pdf. Format) for all the Procedure changes that affect the Program guide and those that are Problem specific. There are things here your team MUST know. 2. Have a look at http://www.odysseyofthemind.com/clarifications/default.php and check out the clarifications that have been posted for your problem then ensure that someone on your team takes responsibility for checking this site periodically. Remember - don't be afraid to send in a clarification. If you have a question the only OFFICIAL answer is a clarification from World headquarters. Tip of the weekDoes telepathy work? When a member of Brian's teams gets stuck in a spontaneous then the team members close their eyes and "think" an answer. The stuck team member miraculously comes up with an answer! It may be telepathy or it may be that they don't feel as pressured as when 4 pair of pleading eyes are staring at them! |
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