Any tips for conducting an ILST?

[Jackdaws]

Our troop is about to have an ILST.  We have not yet done one to my knowledge(all new leadership).  We need to reestablish the patrol method and make it a fully youth led troop again.

I have the syllabus and am about to start going thru it.  Since our older scouts are next to non existent and are probably going to be absent, it will be an adult led course.  

Checking with my fellow scouters to see if you have any tips or tricks to running one and making it successful.

Thanks!

 

[qwazse]

16 minutes ago, Jackdaws said:

Our troop is about to have an ILST.  We have not yet done one to my knowledge(all new leadership).  We need to reestablish the patrol method and make it a fully youth led troop again.

I have the syllabus and am about to start going thru it.  Since our older scouts are next to non existent and are probably going to be absent, it will be an adult led course.  

Checking with my fellow scouters to see if you have any tips or tricks to running one and making it successful.

Thanks!

 

My experience is with venturers, but it still applies.

1. No powerpoints please!
2. Put as much of the materials as possible in the hands of the scouts. It's fine if they're reading from the teacher's guide for the first time. Mistakes are par for the course.
3. Think of as many wide games as possible. For example, if "telephone" is your illustration for communication: play it in a field with the scouts at as far apart as possible. Tell the message to the first scout, have him run and give it to the next scout, who runs and gives it to the next, etc ... Last scout writes it down. (Maybe on a very large board, with paint?) Score= # of correct words divided by time.
4. Food
5. Fun ... PL's pick an activity (hike, swim, float, fish) that can be done in the middle of the course.

Edited July 10, 2019 by qwazse

[SSScout]

Ditto to Qwazse…     You might contact your District Training Chair/Committee.  They might be able to recommend some "older Scouts" to help, be examples, from other Troops.  

I think the main thing is to encourage the Scouts to think that the SM wants them to lead, not just follow the SM.... "You mean I can make that decision??"   DUH ! ! 

 

[Rock Doc]

Ditto SSScout...  Our ILST is taught entirely by older scouts who are NYLT grads, so highly recommend reaching out to the District/Council or OA Lodge to find youth resources

[Sentinel947]

Like @qwazse said, please no powerpoints. If you feel like they are necessary keep them minimal. 

My opinion is it's best to have your Scouts be the facilitators, or team up with a more experienced troop for your first time through it. Focus on the games and activities, and have the "lecture" portions be more of a group discussion facilitated by the Scout lecturer.

In my Troop, we turn ILST into a weekend patrol method outing. The patrols play patrol games and have competitions. They also go through the ILST activities by patrol. We do ILST every other year, and have our SPL and ASPL's run it. 

Edited July 11, 2019 by Sentinel947

[TMSM]

I switched from using the guide to using powerpoint and have had more success. Make it fun, have lots of breaks, use slides only as a framework to tell the story or the point you are trying to make. In the beginning I used 2 or 3 adults but have done this enough years to have the scouts do most of the training. The "who is your potato" and paper airplane making are the best of the games.

Don't use every game every time, switch it up so it does not get stale.

Additional games - Say what I say, do the oppisite of what I do, balloons with responsibilities written on them, .

We go out for pizza afterwards (nice place) in our class As

 

[qwazse]

I would use a flip chart over a power point. It gives the scouts a chance to mark up your slides. (Although some of them a skilled enough to do that these days anyway.)

[Jackdaws]

Awesome thanks everyone.  We will be having the ILST during a lock in at our church.   Funny part is I was the district training chair for over a year.   Never taught one or got wind of anyone having one during that year which was kind of odd.   We did plenty of BALOO and IOLS courses but no  ILST.   

Most of the boys in our troop are pretty young.  Just 1st and 2nd year scouts so we are trying to get them to take the reins and start making their own fun.   Sadly the couple older scouts we have are Life Scouts and have actually said they don't want anything to do with the younger scouts and are unwilling to help guide them.  Should make their Eagle process a lot of fun.   I can't comfortably acknowledge that they have been an active member in the troop for 6 months nor give them my recommendation (requirement 2).   And getting volunteer help for their projects should be interesting since they don't want to deal with the other boys in the troop.   So I guess they are all planning on working on each others projects themselves.  LOL. 

So we are looking beyond them and just going to get the younger boys on the right path and move on and plan and get the younger boys trained and working the EDGE method.   Build from the ground up.

 

[qwazse]

One game for church lock-ins: sardines.

Unfortunate about the older scouts. But, make sure the 2nd years especially have a lot of fun, but carry responsibility. It is well within their reach to read sections of the course, then instructions for games and excercises, etc ...

The older scouts: back off things like EDGE or lecturing about the being examples, etc ... Instead, challenge them with a roll of twine and say, "Build a cool camp gadget. Try and impress ..."

[Jackdaws]

21 minutes ago, qwazse said:

One game for church lock-ins: sardines.

Unfortunate about the older scouts. But, make sure the 2nd years especially have a lot of fun, but carry responsibility. It is well within their reach to read sections of the course, then instructions for games and excercises, etc ...

The older scouts: back off things like EDGE or lecturing about the being examples, etc ... Instead, challenge them with a roll of twine and say, "Build a cool camp gadget. Try and impress ..."

Inquiring minds want to know.  How do you play sardines? 

[mrkstvns]

54 minutes ago, Jackdaws said:

...,   Funny part is I was the district training chair for over a year.   Never taught one or got wind of anyone having one during that year which was kind of odd.   We did plenty of BALOO and IOLS courses but no  ILST.   ..

Maybe not so odd.

It's not the district training chair who should be organizing or facilitating the ILST.  The "T" in ILST stands for "Troops" and it's at the troop-level that these are conducted. The scoutmaster should make sure they're happening and the instruction and activities that make up ILST should be led by the SPL and older scouts in the troop as much as possible (augmented by the scoutmaster and ASMs if the youth need help).  

I can't imagine wanting the district training chair to be involved in (or even aware of) our troop's ILST activity.

10 minutes ago, Jackdaws said:

Inquiring minds want to know.  How do you play sardines? 

You lock the scouts in a church.

Edited July 11, 2019 by mrkstvns

[SubSM]

Sardines is essentially reverse hide and seek. One person hides and the rest try to find him. The trick is, once he’s found the finder has to hide with him. It goes until only one finder is left, or the ‘sardine can’ explodes from the number of boys hiding there. 

[HashTagScouts]

28 minutes ago, mrkstvns said:

Maybe not so odd.

It's not the district training chair who should be organizing or facilitating the ILST.  The "T" in ILST stands for "Troops" and it's at the troop-level that these are conducted. The scoutmaster should make sure they're happening and the instruction and activities that make up ILST should be led by the SPL and older scouts in the troop as much as possible (augmented by the scoutmaster and ASMs if the youth need help).  

I can't imagine wanting the district training chair to be involved in (or even aware of) our troop's ILST activity.

You lock the scouts in a church.

Correct, this is not a training that the district/council should be conducting.  Years ago when I was a Scout, we had Junior Leader Training that the district did coordinate, but that was before the days of NYLT.  Troops are supposed to provide the basic instruction, and then NYLT is supposed to be the "advanced training".  I don't disagree with that, and think NYLT is an excellent idea for all to take.

[Jackdaws]

I agree.  No one ever asked the district for any advice or materials.  So it was pretty quiet on that front.  Granted you can just google search for the syllabus.  Its how I got all of the manuals I used for any trainings.    But I would have thought that it would have been reported to us so we could show that people were training during the year.    Thankfully I got away from training.  It was a bad year to head it up with the whole new YPT coming out and other changes from National coming down the line.  I was ready to pull my hair out and quit it all.   

The sardines game sounds fun!  Our charter org. isn't very big so hiding spaces are not abundant.   

We have already given them the criteria for the Honor Patrol rocker patch and have hopes that it will spark some teamwork and scouting spirit.   So the ILST should help give them the rest of the tools needed to getting them on the youth led path.  

[mrkstvns]

4 minutes ago, Jackdaws said:

I agree.  No one ever asked the district for any advice or materials.  So it was pretty quiet on that front.  Granted you can just google search for the syllabus.  Its how I got all of the manuals I used for any trainings.    But I would have thought that it would have been reported to us so we could show that people were training during the year.  

I would expect that as district training chair, you might have been involved with facilitating the Scoutmaster Position-Specific training.  That is where I would expect you to touch on ILST, so that the new scoutmaster is aware that there is an expectation for him to make sure scouts are enabled to successfully fulfill their positions of responsibility.

 

4 minutes ago, Jackdaws said:

I was ready to pull my hair out and quit it all.   

Now I understand why our district training chair is bald.