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Hi, I would like to tell you about my experience with street law. I was interested in this subject from the beginning and couldn`t wait to get started. The weekend workshop with the street law people from Georgetown was amazing. I loved every minute of it. It was really interactive and fun, and we got to meet lots of new people.

LYIT Street Law. Photo Clive Wasson.

Going into the classroom on the first day was both nerve-wracking and exciting. Once I got the introduction over, I relaxed a bit and got a bit more confidence. The students were great and made the lesson fun and interesting so everything went better than I expected. The first lesson was based on anti-bullying which I felt was an important lesson for this age group.

Paper folding exercise. Give every person a blank piece of paper. Ask questions and get the students to fold the paper once for every, “yes” answer, for example:
1. HAVE YOU EVER TALKED ABOUT SOMEONE BEHIND THEIR BACK
2. HAVE YOU EVER CALLED SOMEONE NAMES? ETC  (add as many questions as you like)                   Now get the students to unfold the sheet of paper and flatten and smooth it out. Ask them if they think the paper is in the exact same condition as before they started folding. Ask the students if anyone knows what this exercise signified. (saying sorry isn`t always enough and that every spiteful word or action leaves a mark).

This was definately one of my favourite activities, one of the teachers said, “this is so simple, yet so powerful”. I believe if these simple activities were taught in schools, bullying would be significantly reduced.

The Morton murder case was the favourite activity for the students. They got to play the role of detective and solve clues to find the murderer. When they were told it was a real case, they got even more interested as they wanted to see if they got the verdict right.

All of these activities led up to a mock trial between the schools. Although there was a lot of work involved and many setbacks on the day, it was fun and the students enjoyed the entire experience, as well as getting a morning away from class lol.

I would most definately recommend the street law programme as it is an excellent way to teach young people that they too have a voice and rights. The experience was great, from start to finish and I would do it all again, but would use more of the lesson plans provided on the website, as doing them from scratch yourself can be very time consuming. However, it also gives you a sense of pride to teach a lesson plan that you created yourself ☺ 😊