CY 101: Hands Up

City Year Greater Philadelphia rolls deep. With 300 corps members serving in 2009-2010, that is a lot of people-oriented people in one place. Many CY corps members are natural talkers, which leads to a lot of conversation and a lot of noise. One of the power tools that has developed over the last 20 years is Hands Up. It is a straight forward, simple way to get everyone in a large group to quiet down.

Hands Up is just what it sounds like: The person trying to quiet the room raises his or her hand, others notice, put up their hands and close their mouths. Simply put, as hands go up, mouths go quiet. This is effective because even in a large group where people may not all be facing the same way.

Hands Up works well with students and Heroes as well as it does with corps members.