By Flo Nicolas, Get Tech Smart

In this episode of Get Tech Smart, Flo Nicolas speaks with Kendra Bostick of Kikori, a platform for educators and parents alike to find experiential learning activities that focus on teaching social emotional skills through fun and play.

Flo Nicolas:

Let's dive into Kikori and what it is. How did you come up with the name? 

Kendra Bostick:

The name was just one of our stops on our entrepreneur venture. We had a different name we had picked out and our developer at the time didn't love it, so we spent a couple months thinking, What is this? What are we building? Is it a bag of tricks? Is it a toolbox? I grew up on a river and my partner led kayaking expeditions for 15 years, so we're both really connected to the river, and one of her favorite quotes is that “no person steps in the same river because the river is always changing”. So is the person, and that's a big part of experiential education in Kikori activities is, whenever you play them, they're always different because the students are always different. The leader is different. And so we found a river in Papua New Guinea, the most linguistically diverse country, called Kikori. The same way that a life force connects people who speak different languages from different backgrounds, so does experiential and social emotional learning connect people who come from different backgrounds, speak different languages, through joy and play and laughter.

Flo Nicolas:

Who is Kikori built for? What do you think is missing today that was the catalyst for this platform?

Kendra Bostick:

Kikori is built for K-12 teachers. It really can be used by anyone who is interested in leading team-building activities, like facilitators or counselors, but our key focus and the area where we see the most need right now in the country is in schools. In the early 2000s, schools made a move towards more standardized testing and removed a lot of play from our classrooms. It’s really interesting if you talk with teachers who went through this time period, and how they just had to focus on teaching to the test. And so that along with the social pressures, the screen time that is affecting all of our students, and COVID, our students and teachers are experiencing a mental health crisis now that's never been seen before, along with a learning loss – there have been reports that came out about the two years of learning loss, which hasn't been seen in the past. It's almost like two decades of growth has been wiped out, especially for our students who are historically marginalized. That scores are back to where they were in the 70s, like math scores. And so when we talk with any principals around the country, there are behavioral, social, and emotional needs that haven't been seen before from kindergarten through 12th grade.

Flo Nicolas:

What are some of the examples of the activities and resources offered on the platform?

Kendra Bostick:

We currently have over 1000 experiential, social-emotional learning activities. It is a community driven platform, which is another piece I think is really special. So the activities have been gifted to us from leading experiential leaders. We've got amazing books of curriculum with activities that are a part of the platform. And it's available to any educator throughout the country. We believe that our educators are creative and innovative, and so we welcome them to add activities and be part of this process with us. Instead of creating the silos, how can we all work together? The activities themselves follow Kolb's experiential learning cycle, which starts with a play – a direct experience – and then an intentional reflection on what happens in that activity – how does that connect with your life, what can we learn from this activity going forward, etc. There’s a difference between telling a kid what to do versus facilitating an experience or a game where they get to play and be intrinsically motivated. They're having fun, and they're learning from what happens in that activity. I think a great example is an activity called Clap Happy, which helps them learn multiples. Basically kids are sitting in a circle playing a game where they clap on, say 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6, but on the seventh the student that has 7 does not clap. Then they clap on 8, 9, 10…but say on 14, Susie says “14” and claps, which she wasn't supposed to. Maybe the students say, “Oh, Susie, why did you mess us up??” So while the students are playing a game and are engaged, now there's an opportunity where, if Susie shuts down from disappointing other students, the teacher can bring in these social emotional elements and she can say, “What just happened?” At this point students can say, “I was frustrated, I wanted us to win, I reacted, I said something that wasn't so kind.” And then what happened with Susie, “I didn't want to play anymore when students were mean to me.” That's the ‘reflect’, and then you moved to the ‘connect’, “Has this happened for anyone else?” A student might say, “I was playing soccer the other day and I kicked it the wrong way. Everyone was mean and I didn't want to play anymore.” Now we go to ‘grow’ – “Is this what we want? What do we want in our classroom? Do we want to be able to take risks? Do we want to feel safe? Try new things? What can we do next time?” They might suggest we can give each other high fives, say it's okay, no problem, we'll get it next time. And so then the next day when they're playing a game or doing an activity, and someone makes a mistake, the students are giving each other high fives, saying no big deal, we got this, we're in this together. And so that's, that's the magic of these experiential, social-emotional learning activities, where students are really getting to practice and live the skills instead of being told what they should be doing.

Flo Nicolas:

Do you feel like these types of engaged activities can help teachers really assess the needs of their students?

Kendra Bostick:

Oh, 100%. So when you're starting off the school year, that's one of the things we recommend: play a game. Play a lineup game and you can see immediately who are the students who have difficulty with self regulation, who are the students who have difficulty with executive functioning, who are the students who have difficulty working together. They are amazing assessment tools. And the really cool thing is that kids are involved and they'll talk with each other, because they won't be able to accomplish some of the things otherwise. And so they will actually be able to learn, I do have to wait my turn, or I do have to focus, or I do have to do these things. But again, they're intrinsically motivated because they want to win with their class, or they want to achieve together, instead of being told there's something wrong with you and you have to learn this skill. It's a different way of going about it.

Flo Nicolas:

I feel like in a corporate setting there's a lot of people who would need this.

Kendra Bostick:

With our team and our bandwidth we are focused on schools right now. But anyone i’ve talked to in business is like, oh my goodness, our HR would love this. And these activities are classic team-building activities that are often brought into corporate settings and can be really powerful. I'm getting a doctorate right now in learning about why these work, and when you enter into a game or activity you let go of a lot of your walls and your defense mechanisms, and you play and your real natural behavior comes out. Then you can assess, how does that happen in our real lives? Do we feel safe to make mistakes in our work? There are lots of reports out that companies right now are having a really hard time hiring and finding people who have social-emotional skills. The four critical skills of communication, collaboration, critical thinking, and creativity are necessary for workplaces. And students aren't able to get those by studying for a test, but they are when they’re actively engaged.

Flo Nicolas:

Where is Kikori today and what’s your vision for the end of the year? What’s your wish list?

Kendra Bostick:

We have a team of six hardest working women who are part of our team, and we've been brought into 28 schools and organizations across the country. We have put together a summer spark program that’s perfect for summer learning, summer enrichment, and extended school year programs, and some really exciting, comprehensive curriculum and training that's available for the fall. Our goal is for both teachers and parents to check out what we're doing. We're really excited about feedback, and since we are a small team we're nimble and really able to update the platform based on what our users are looking for. We have three or more users in 94 countries around the world as well so we are international. And the really cool thing about that is we have one of our partners, Play for Peace, has facilitators in communities in conflict from 20 countries around the world, and they're able to send in activities as well. We just had a facilitator in Afghanistan add five activities. So how cool is it that we can share activities that come from Costa Rica and Mexico and Afghanistan, and provide activities that come from different places around the world? Because in our country we are made up of people from all around the world. So yeah,I think just getting more kids playing. With our teacher training we actually facilitate teachers to experience these activities themselves. We call it a parallel process where they play just like you were talking about with corporate, they get to play the activities and connect with each other, build a sense of community amongst the staff. And then there's this platform of activities where they can find anything they need for their grade level variations based on what they're looking for and the skills they're working on in their classroom.

Flo Nicolas:

How are you vetting these activities before they get incorporated?

Kendra Bostick:

There is a quality approval process, so no one needs to worry if they submit an activity. It will come to our team and we've got 50 years of experience in leading these activities, so we make sure that the activity, all the steps, everything makes sense and that it aligns with the standards. We do align with Casel social emotional learning standards, as well as 21st Century Skills and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. so we're working on building out sustainable activities that align with those as well. And we go through the entire activity to make sure that it meets all the standards.

Flo Nicolas:

As we wrap up, what is your final shout out for Kikori? What do you want the people in New Hampshire to know about?

Kendra Bostick:

I think we're really focused on things like achievement and efficiency and productivity, and everyone I talk to is really tired and overworked. So 50% of the equation should be play and joy and fun and rest and reflection. So remember that and be okay with bringing it into our lives. I think if you do, watch how it really helps you and your family,

Flo Nicolas is an attorney, co-founder and COO of DEI Directive, a  Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion  technology firm that provides a comprehensive DEI Intelligence Platform. She also produces Get Tech Smart and Get Resource Smart, which she shares with partners in The Granite State News Collaborative