One of the things the three seventh grade teams had to do before we left for our Christmas break was to select the twenty-four students per team that we wanted to invite on the annual camping trip in May. The trip costs money ($100 to be exact) and since many of our kids receive money for Christmas gifts, we wanted them to know about the trip in case they wanted to use their money to help pay for it.
Choosing the twelve boys and girls we want to take is not easy. Some years it is easier than others. The group of students we had last year was so unpleasant that we actually had the unusual problem of not being able to come up with 24 that we could tolerate and trust for a weekend. This year the problem was that we have so many neat kids that it was hard to narrow the list down to the number we needed.
We could, obviously, do it the easy way and just take a look at the kids' grades and work our way through the list of A and B students. However, this trip was originally designed to serve as a something special for kids that may not have a lot of opportunities in life and may not have ever done something like this. So, we tend to pick kids who have good character, who could possibly be leaders in the 8th grade next year, and who may not have a lot of economic advantages. (The $100 is paid for over a period five months so most of the kids can, eventually, scrape the money together - if not, the student council can help, and we've had donations from some of our PTO families and even a teacher or two has funded a kid's trip.) In short, nice kids. Kids you wouldn't mind spending an unpaid weekend in the wild with and who you know won't start a forest fire or create some other disaster.
I had the team email me the kids that they felt would be good candidates (including some alternates as some kids don't want to, or can't go), and came up with our original 24. This was not easy. However, when I saw the list, I liked what I saw - we had a good mix of kids with different academic levels, ranging from gifted to special ed kids, and including at least two who are in our remediation class. We had kids from single parent homes, military kids, and kids who live with grandparents. We had every sort of race and ethnic group represented, and we had a nice mix of personalities - quiet and steady, fun-loving and active, and everyone in between.
It is a really neat group of kids.
And as team leader, I got to hand them the letter inviting them on the trip and letting the parents know the details. (It also helps that I teach a subject that ALL our kids have so I see them all.) Mrs. Social Studies wanted in on the action so I'd pop my head in her door and she'd come out and join me in the hallway when I'd call the kids out for a discussion.
The first few groups of kids all thought they were in some kind of trouble when we called them out into the hallway. When they found out what it was for - "I'm invited on the Camping Trip! - the look on their faces was absolutely priceless. Eyes widened, mouths hung open, and they looked at those letters in awe. We impressed upon them that this was an honor, that we couldn't take everyone, and that we picked them because of their good character. In other words, don't come back to school in January acting like a heathen and getting in trouble or we'll take back the invitation.
They were pinging off the walls by the time we sent them back into the classroom.
By the end of the day, the kids in the last few periods had heard about The Letter and when we called them out into the hallway they were already bouncing and bobbing around. The last group could hardly contain their excitement as we handed them their letters. Mrs. Social Studies and I had a ball!
The next day I was nearly stampeded with kids bringing back the signed letters indicating they were going to go on the trip - these kids (especially some of the girls) are pumped!
I wish we could take them all. However, this group of kids this year looks to be very promising. It may be our best camping trip yet.
Showing posts with label Field Trips. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Field Trips. Show all posts
Friday, December 18, 2009
Monday, May 12, 2008
Final Reflections on the 7th Grade Camping Trip
I'm glad we do this.
I'm glad I work with a principal who believes in the importance of doing something like this with our kids. We have so many kids in our rooms with stories that would curl your toes. It's nice to be able to offer some of them a weekend away from whatever troubles them. (And every year I get at least one kid who comments about how they've never seen or eaten so much food in their life - that breaks my heart.) I know this has lasting impact. I had eighth graders changing classes as we herded our kids out to the bus that rainy Friday and they all remarked on how much fun it was last year and wished they could go again. They looked so downcast.
One thing we learned - every group of kids is different. Last year's kids were great, we thought, but this year they were fantastic. They never whined about cleaning up after meals and wiping down the tables and vacuuming. They never whined about getting their dorms cleaned up and they did a fantastic job with very little input from us. They showed up on time, did what we asked of them, and helped each other out. They were great. So great that the staff commented to us how well behaved, respectful and nice they were. We've often commented on what a great group we got this year, and this just proved it.
(On an aside, we've seen and heard about the current crop of sixth graders coming our way. Let's just say, the future looks very, very grim.)
Granted, giving up a weekend to spend with kids that we spend all week with, may not sound like a good deal to some, but it was worth it to us. All it took was the look on a kids face when he or she paddled that canoe for the very first time. Or made it up the wall with the help of his or her teammates for the challenge course. Or the squeal of delight when he or she caught that salamander.
It's sad, but I don't think some of my kids have much of a childhood. It was nice to give them at least one weekend of one.
I'm glad I work with a principal who believes in the importance of doing something like this with our kids. We have so many kids in our rooms with stories that would curl your toes. It's nice to be able to offer some of them a weekend away from whatever troubles them. (And every year I get at least one kid who comments about how they've never seen or eaten so much food in their life - that breaks my heart.) I know this has lasting impact. I had eighth graders changing classes as we herded our kids out to the bus that rainy Friday and they all remarked on how much fun it was last year and wished they could go again. They looked so downcast.
One thing we learned - every group of kids is different. Last year's kids were great, we thought, but this year they were fantastic. They never whined about cleaning up after meals and wiping down the tables and vacuuming. They never whined about getting their dorms cleaned up and they did a fantastic job with very little input from us. They showed up on time, did what we asked of them, and helped each other out. They were great. So great that the staff commented to us how well behaved, respectful and nice they were. We've often commented on what a great group we got this year, and this just proved it.
(On an aside, we've seen and heard about the current crop of sixth graders coming our way. Let's just say, the future looks very, very grim.)
Granted, giving up a weekend to spend with kids that we spend all week with, may not sound like a good deal to some, but it was worth it to us. All it took was the look on a kids face when he or she paddled that canoe for the very first time. Or made it up the wall with the help of his or her teammates for the challenge course. Or the squeal of delight when he or she caught that salamander.
It's sad, but I don't think some of my kids have much of a childhood. It was nice to give them at least one weekend of one.
Saturday, May 10, 2008
How to Take 60 70th Graders Camping and Live to Tell About it Part IV
Sunday, our last day, was another picture perfect day.
After a hearty breakfast - which was, judging from the conversations we overheard - a true highlight of the trip, we gave the kids a choice. They could stay back by the camp and play kickball on the kickball field, or go with the rest of us on a two and a half mile hike.
Now, truth be told, I figured most of these kids would stay behind and do kickball. Two and a half miles sounds real far to a typical 7th grader, and we're talking about the videogame generation. After spending all year looking out at classrooms of pudgy kids with well-developed thumbs, I'm convinced that walking, let alone hiking, is completely foreign to most of them. Hell, dirt is foreign to most of them. So, to say I was surprised when over half of them showed up with water bottles and tennis shoes and sunglasses and hats and tick spray and sunblock...was an understatement.
Mrs. Eagle and I looked at each other. "I didn't think we'd get this many," she said. I agreed.
One of the rangers had given us each a hiking map and outlined a nice hike for us. He did warn us that, due to the weather, they hadn't had time to check and clear the trail and we may encounter things like mud, fallen trees, and the like. We decided to go for it.
After a vigorous session of bug spraying, checking of water bottles, and a quick count of kids, we headed off. We figured it would take us a little over an hour to get the whole bunch around the trail.
We were wrong.
It barely took an hour. These kids, for the most part, didn't hike the trail. They practically ran the trail. We had to actually force them to stop once in a while to hydrate and to get the various groups of them all collected together as they had all stretched out into one long line.
We did encounter a few rough spots. A big tree was down right where two trails forked off of the main trail and it took a little looking to find the white painted spot on the tree that was marking our trail. We also found some slippery and muddy spots, as well as a few really steep and slick hills. However, for the most part it wasn't any hardy than walking through a city park except it was a lot more wooded.
What was refreshing to see were the kids that chose to go on the hike. We had the majority of the girls, including several who I doubt had ever played in dirt before. We also had a lot of the rather pudgy bookish boys who weren't exactly the first kids you'd pick to be on your team for an active game of basketball. (They would be great, however, on a chess team.) They kids did great on what, according to many of them, was their very first hike - ever.
After lunch, a clean up of the cabins, packing, and the arrival of the buses, we loaded everyone up and headed home. As predicted, the ride home was a lot quieter than the ride out. The kids, and most of the adults, were beat. Many of us were coming down with colds. Several had some pretty raw sunburns.
But we had an awesome time.
After a hearty breakfast - which was, judging from the conversations we overheard - a true highlight of the trip, we gave the kids a choice. They could stay back by the camp and play kickball on the kickball field, or go with the rest of us on a two and a half mile hike.
Now, truth be told, I figured most of these kids would stay behind and do kickball. Two and a half miles sounds real far to a typical 7th grader, and we're talking about the videogame generation. After spending all year looking out at classrooms of pudgy kids with well-developed thumbs, I'm convinced that walking, let alone hiking, is completely foreign to most of them. Hell, dirt is foreign to most of them. So, to say I was surprised when over half of them showed up with water bottles and tennis shoes and sunglasses and hats and tick spray and sunblock...was an understatement.
Mrs. Eagle and I looked at each other. "I didn't think we'd get this many," she said. I agreed.
One of the rangers had given us each a hiking map and outlined a nice hike for us. He did warn us that, due to the weather, they hadn't had time to check and clear the trail and we may encounter things like mud, fallen trees, and the like. We decided to go for it.
After a vigorous session of bug spraying, checking of water bottles, and a quick count of kids, we headed off. We figured it would take us a little over an hour to get the whole bunch around the trail.
We were wrong.
It barely took an hour. These kids, for the most part, didn't hike the trail. They practically ran the trail. We had to actually force them to stop once in a while to hydrate and to get the various groups of them all collected together as they had all stretched out into one long line.
We did encounter a few rough spots. A big tree was down right where two trails forked off of the main trail and it took a little looking to find the white painted spot on the tree that was marking our trail. We also found some slippery and muddy spots, as well as a few really steep and slick hills. However, for the most part it wasn't any hardy than walking through a city park except it was a lot more wooded.
What was refreshing to see were the kids that chose to go on the hike. We had the majority of the girls, including several who I doubt had ever played in dirt before. We also had a lot of the rather pudgy bookish boys who weren't exactly the first kids you'd pick to be on your team for an active game of basketball. (They would be great, however, on a chess team.) They kids did great on what, according to many of them, was their very first hike - ever.
After lunch, a clean up of the cabins, packing, and the arrival of the buses, we loaded everyone up and headed home. As predicted, the ride home was a lot quieter than the ride out. The kids, and most of the adults, were beat. Many of us were coming down with colds. Several had some pretty raw sunburns.
But we had an awesome time.
Thursday, May 08, 2008
How to Take 60 7th Graders Camping and Live to Tell About It - Part III
After the storms the night before, Saturday dawned clear and sunny.
The adults heaved exhausted sighs of relief. When the camp staff showed up that morning we heard that some tornadoes did touch down in our town, which caused some concern, until we found out later that they hit in the south part of the county, meaning that all of our families and homes were okay. In the meantimes the kids did whip out their cell phones and wandered around until they got a signal so they could call home and let their folks know they were okay. That in itself was kind of amusing...they'd walk around looking at their phone, screech to a stop, yell, "I've got bars!" and dial before they lost their signal.
Although the weather was wonderful we still were seeing the after-effects of the storms which caused yet another change in plan. Last year the kids had the best time doing the stream study where they got to wade in the stream with nets, catching all sorts of critters, look at fish, splash each other and generally have a ball. I was with the first group that got into the vans and drove to the stream only to discover a truism - three inches of rain can make a stream really dangerous.
Our guide, Erin, had on her hip waders and attempted to get a few feet into the stream while we stood on the bank and looked on. Not good. Even a foot from shore the current was too strong for her to get much footing. Last thing we needed was a kid getting knocked down and swept away, so there wasn't going to be a stream study this year.
What to do? Go to a pond of course.
So off we went to a pond, where the kids had a great time catching salamanders, tadpoles, water scorpions and all sorts of goodies. They were happy with that which is good. Sometimes I think this generation doesn't know how to have fun unless it's digital, so it was refreshing to see them get worked up over a salamander.
After the pond study the group I was in got to do what was clearly the most anticipated activity of the entire weekend - the canoing. I had heard the kids talking about it as soon as we gave them the tentative schedule and they could hardly wait. We didn't do this last year (out of fear, to be honest), but Mrs. Bunny and I figured we had a pretty good crop of kids, and that they could handle it. It was clearly the highlight of the trip for most of these kids. In fact, the big concern with the storms wasn't so much that we might have a tornado, but that we'd cancel the canoe activity.
The canoe instructors were actually two of our own. Mrs. Eagle has years of scouting experience behind her as she and Mr. Eagle did Boy Scouts with their three sons and it wasn't unusual for their family to go up to Montana for hiking and canoe trips. The other instructor was Mr. Math Dude, a very cool eighth grade math teacher who we convinced to come along with us. He also had canoe and scouting experience.
For the record, we have only one male teacher in the entire 7th grade, whereas there are six in the 8th grade. We needed males badly to help chaperon the kids and convinced three of the 8th grade teachers to come with us. We figured it would give them a good look at their future. Of course, that could backfire, but all in all, these guys were troopers.
The kids were just bouncing with excitement as very few of them had ever been in a canoe. We got them (and us) all decked in out life vests, gave them their paddles, spent some time instructing them in steering, and safety and off we went. The idea was to stay close to the shoreline, if possible, as the wind could still move them pretty far out into the lake. In addition, there was a little inlet with a beaver dam we wanted to show the kids.
One thing I learned is that when canoing with kids, you want to be behind them so you can see where they are. They tend to have steering issues and if you aren't careful it ends up like bumper cars on a lake. They aren't the most coordinated bunch and they tend to zig zag a lot, but if you're behind them at least you can avoid most of the danger. And you get to laugh at them as you get to see what a bunch of silly goobers they are.
Our group did pretty well - we only had one canoe tip over and the girls thought it was the funniest thing they'd ever done although they did end up soaking wet. The kids had an absolute blast. They were ready for lunch and a break by the time we took them out, went around the lake a bit, and got them back in. (Mrs. Eagle estimates that she and Mr. Math Dude probably spent six solid hours of paddling that day - they were pretty worn out and wind burned by the end of it.)
Another group, later that day, had a bit more of an amusing story to tell. It seems like two of our girls were doing pretty good until they got going a bit too fast and rammed into shore. It swamped the canoe, and over they went. Mrs. Eagle and Mr. Math Dude got over to assist them, got them back into their canoe, and it tipped again. Okay, this wasn't working. So, Mrs. Eagle took one of them, and Mr. Math Dude took another, and they were going to get them back to shore to dry them off. Only the girl that Mr. Math Dude took managed, somehow, to swamp that canoe and dump the both of them. The fact that she's a star basketball player and softball player made it even more amusing as one would have thought she would be coordinated enough to manage a canoe. Mr. Math Dude was livid (and his cell phone was pretty wet - when asked why he took it out on the lake with him, he responded, "well, I didn't plan on getting wet!"). Poor Tippy Girl is now living in fear that she'll get him for Math next year and he'll fail her simply because she managed to dump him in the lake.
As an aside, the cell phone is now working, Mr. Math Dude is getting teased for his swim, and Tippy Girl is still hoping she gets someone else for math. The fact that Mr. Social Studies had a picture of a swamped canoe on his PowerPoint on Monday morning was a source of much amusement. Tippy Girl is taking is all in stride because, as I told her, "we wouldn't tease you if we didn't love you so much.".
Later that evening we had our traditional bonfire and s'more event which was another huge highlight for these kids. It still just amazes me how many children never have had a s'more before and how few of them have been around a campfire. They loved them. We eventually ran out of chocolate and graham crackers but ended up roasting a lot more marshmallows until we ran out of those as well. The kids ran, played tag, jumped up and down and generally acted silly and goofy. I had a bunch of them that had heard about most ghost stories from the year before so I spent some time telling ghost stories for them.
That evening, despite the sugar fix the s'mores provided, they were pretty worn out. The teachers were as well. A number of us were feeling colds coming on (myself included) and were dragging our tail feathers. It was all I could do to finish telling ghost stories as my throat was giving me fits. We all crashed, after a very long, very fun, and very eventful day.
And Tippy Girl most likely had dreams of a very mad Math teacher.
The adults heaved exhausted sighs of relief. When the camp staff showed up that morning we heard that some tornadoes did touch down in our town, which caused some concern, until we found out later that they hit in the south part of the county, meaning that all of our families and homes were okay. In the meantimes the kids did whip out their cell phones and wandered around until they got a signal so they could call home and let their folks know they were okay. That in itself was kind of amusing...they'd walk around looking at their phone, screech to a stop, yell, "I've got bars!" and dial before they lost their signal.
Although the weather was wonderful we still were seeing the after-effects of the storms which caused yet another change in plan. Last year the kids had the best time doing the stream study where they got to wade in the stream with nets, catching all sorts of critters, look at fish, splash each other and generally have a ball. I was with the first group that got into the vans and drove to the stream only to discover a truism - three inches of rain can make a stream really dangerous.
Our guide, Erin, had on her hip waders and attempted to get a few feet into the stream while we stood on the bank and looked on. Not good. Even a foot from shore the current was too strong for her to get much footing. Last thing we needed was a kid getting knocked down and swept away, so there wasn't going to be a stream study this year.
What to do? Go to a pond of course.
So off we went to a pond, where the kids had a great time catching salamanders, tadpoles, water scorpions and all sorts of goodies. They were happy with that which is good. Sometimes I think this generation doesn't know how to have fun unless it's digital, so it was refreshing to see them get worked up over a salamander.
After the pond study the group I was in got to do what was clearly the most anticipated activity of the entire weekend - the canoing. I had heard the kids talking about it as soon as we gave them the tentative schedule and they could hardly wait. We didn't do this last year (out of fear, to be honest), but Mrs. Bunny and I figured we had a pretty good crop of kids, and that they could handle it. It was clearly the highlight of the trip for most of these kids. In fact, the big concern with the storms wasn't so much that we might have a tornado, but that we'd cancel the canoe activity.
The canoe instructors were actually two of our own. Mrs. Eagle has years of scouting experience behind her as she and Mr. Eagle did Boy Scouts with their three sons and it wasn't unusual for their family to go up to Montana for hiking and canoe trips. The other instructor was Mr. Math Dude, a very cool eighth grade math teacher who we convinced to come along with us. He also had canoe and scouting experience.
For the record, we have only one male teacher in the entire 7th grade, whereas there are six in the 8th grade. We needed males badly to help chaperon the kids and convinced three of the 8th grade teachers to come with us. We figured it would give them a good look at their future. Of course, that could backfire, but all in all, these guys were troopers.
The kids were just bouncing with excitement as very few of them had ever been in a canoe. We got them (and us) all decked in out life vests, gave them their paddles, spent some time instructing them in steering, and safety and off we went. The idea was to stay close to the shoreline, if possible, as the wind could still move them pretty far out into the lake. In addition, there was a little inlet with a beaver dam we wanted to show the kids.
One thing I learned is that when canoing with kids, you want to be behind them so you can see where they are. They tend to have steering issues and if you aren't careful it ends up like bumper cars on a lake. They aren't the most coordinated bunch and they tend to zig zag a lot, but if you're behind them at least you can avoid most of the danger. And you get to laugh at them as you get to see what a bunch of silly goobers they are.
Our group did pretty well - we only had one canoe tip over and the girls thought it was the funniest thing they'd ever done although they did end up soaking wet. The kids had an absolute blast. They were ready for lunch and a break by the time we took them out, went around the lake a bit, and got them back in. (Mrs. Eagle estimates that she and Mr. Math Dude probably spent six solid hours of paddling that day - they were pretty worn out and wind burned by the end of it.)
Another group, later that day, had a bit more of an amusing story to tell. It seems like two of our girls were doing pretty good until they got going a bit too fast and rammed into shore. It swamped the canoe, and over they went. Mrs. Eagle and Mr. Math Dude got over to assist them, got them back into their canoe, and it tipped again. Okay, this wasn't working. So, Mrs. Eagle took one of them, and Mr. Math Dude took another, and they were going to get them back to shore to dry them off. Only the girl that Mr. Math Dude took managed, somehow, to swamp that canoe and dump the both of them. The fact that she's a star basketball player and softball player made it even more amusing as one would have thought she would be coordinated enough to manage a canoe. Mr. Math Dude was livid (and his cell phone was pretty wet - when asked why he took it out on the lake with him, he responded, "well, I didn't plan on getting wet!"). Poor Tippy Girl is now living in fear that she'll get him for Math next year and he'll fail her simply because she managed to dump him in the lake.
As an aside, the cell phone is now working, Mr. Math Dude is getting teased for his swim, and Tippy Girl is still hoping she gets someone else for math. The fact that Mr. Social Studies had a picture of a swamped canoe on his PowerPoint on Monday morning was a source of much amusement. Tippy Girl is taking is all in stride because, as I told her, "we wouldn't tease you if we didn't love you so much.".
Later that evening we had our traditional bonfire and s'more event which was another huge highlight for these kids. It still just amazes me how many children never have had a s'more before and how few of them have been around a campfire. They loved them. We eventually ran out of chocolate and graham crackers but ended up roasting a lot more marshmallows until we ran out of those as well. The kids ran, played tag, jumped up and down and generally acted silly and goofy. I had a bunch of them that had heard about most ghost stories from the year before so I spent some time telling ghost stories for them.
That evening, despite the sugar fix the s'mores provided, they were pretty worn out. The teachers were as well. A number of us were feeling colds coming on (myself included) and were dragging our tail feathers. It was all I could do to finish telling ghost stories as my throat was giving me fits. We all crashed, after a very long, very fun, and very eventful day.
And Tippy Girl most likely had dreams of a very mad Math teacher.
How to Take 60 7th Graders Camping and Live to Tell About it, Part II
When you plan a field trip the one thing you hope for, and the one thing you have no control over, is good weather. Honestly, there's little worse than a bunch of wet and whiny kids (not to mention wet and whiny teachers). As luck would have it, we had three days of outdoor activities planned and the weather was definitely not cooperating.
The first raindrops fell as the buses pulled out of the parking lot. The kids screamed with joy and the adults heaved great sighs and crossed our fingers. The weather reports for Friday were not looking promising, although the rest of the weekend looked good. We all figured if we could make it through Friday, we'd be okay.
As luck would have it, the storms would race through, we'd have a window of time with no rain, and then another series of storms would go through. It was soggy, it was gray, but the kids didn't seem to care. When we got to the camp we managed to have a break in the weather long enough to get the buses unloaded and the kids moved into the dorms.
The idea this weekend was to get the kids broken down into five groups and rotate through a series of activities - canoeing, orienteering, a stream study, and some challenge courses. Friday was also to include a night hike where we would take the kids out on a hike without flashlights. It sounds crazy, but the kids love it and by the end of the hike they realize how easy it is to navigate in the dark once your eyes get used to it.
Obviously we had to toss all our plans aside as the weather wasn't going to cooperate at all. First off, it was so windy there was no way we were going to get anyone out on the lake, and the series of storms heading our way looked to be fairly large. We did manage to get them outside for some basketball and tag before supper (which they devoured - the food here is good), and then the rangers put together an activity on bats which involved a lot of moving around on the part of the kids. Bless their hearts for coming up with a tag game where some kids played trees, others were moths, and still others were blindfolded and played bats. They had to find their moths by listening (a skill most 7th graders haven't mastered yet) to the trees and moths who had to yell out "tree!" and "moth" as the bat got close. It was hilarious and it was great fun. These kids may be jaded 13 year olds, but they enjoy a good game of tag when given the opportunity.
Afterwards Mrs. Bunny and I did some consultation with the camp director who showed us the computer so we could watch the National Weather Service for warnings as these storms had already caused some damage out West. (I also had a mother send along a weather radio, complete with alarm). We were given a key to the lower dorms which were unoccupied and told that if a tornado warning did get issued to hustle everyone down there and into the bathrooms. We were crossing our fingers that most of the really bad stuff would head south of us and we'd just get some good thunderstorms out of it, but you never know in this part of the country.
Mrs. Bunny looks at me and says, "Freaking figures we'd be out here and they'd have a stupid tornado."
I agreed. That's just our luck. I could only imagine what some of the parents were thinking, let alone The Principal who was probably worried sick as well.
Fortunately, while the adults were worrying about a possible tornado, the kids were just having the time of their lives. They had worked out shower schedules, were playing charades, and cards, and just having a great time. Luckily none of them seemed to be frightened over thunder and lightning (or at least not enough to show in front of all their peers), so we didn't get any fussing about that. Around midnight we finally got everyone settled, calmed down, and quiet and we all drifted asleep to the sound of thunder rumbling across the lake and the flash of lightning.
Now if only Saturday would be clear and sunny...
The first raindrops fell as the buses pulled out of the parking lot. The kids screamed with joy and the adults heaved great sighs and crossed our fingers. The weather reports for Friday were not looking promising, although the rest of the weekend looked good. We all figured if we could make it through Friday, we'd be okay.
As luck would have it, the storms would race through, we'd have a window of time with no rain, and then another series of storms would go through. It was soggy, it was gray, but the kids didn't seem to care. When we got to the camp we managed to have a break in the weather long enough to get the buses unloaded and the kids moved into the dorms.
The idea this weekend was to get the kids broken down into five groups and rotate through a series of activities - canoeing, orienteering, a stream study, and some challenge courses. Friday was also to include a night hike where we would take the kids out on a hike without flashlights. It sounds crazy, but the kids love it and by the end of the hike they realize how easy it is to navigate in the dark once your eyes get used to it.
Obviously we had to toss all our plans aside as the weather wasn't going to cooperate at all. First off, it was so windy there was no way we were going to get anyone out on the lake, and the series of storms heading our way looked to be fairly large. We did manage to get them outside for some basketball and tag before supper (which they devoured - the food here is good), and then the rangers put together an activity on bats which involved a lot of moving around on the part of the kids. Bless their hearts for coming up with a tag game where some kids played trees, others were moths, and still others were blindfolded and played bats. They had to find their moths by listening (a skill most 7th graders haven't mastered yet) to the trees and moths who had to yell out "tree!" and "moth" as the bat got close. It was hilarious and it was great fun. These kids may be jaded 13 year olds, but they enjoy a good game of tag when given the opportunity.
Afterwards Mrs. Bunny and I did some consultation with the camp director who showed us the computer so we could watch the National Weather Service for warnings as these storms had already caused some damage out West. (I also had a mother send along a weather radio, complete with alarm). We were given a key to the lower dorms which were unoccupied and told that if a tornado warning did get issued to hustle everyone down there and into the bathrooms. We were crossing our fingers that most of the really bad stuff would head south of us and we'd just get some good thunderstorms out of it, but you never know in this part of the country.
Mrs. Bunny looks at me and says, "Freaking figures we'd be out here and they'd have a stupid tornado."
I agreed. That's just our luck. I could only imagine what some of the parents were thinking, let alone The Principal who was probably worried sick as well.
Fortunately, while the adults were worrying about a possible tornado, the kids were just having the time of their lives. They had worked out shower schedules, were playing charades, and cards, and just having a great time. Luckily none of them seemed to be frightened over thunder and lightning (or at least not enough to show in front of all their peers), so we didn't get any fussing about that. Around midnight we finally got everyone settled, calmed down, and quiet and we all drifted asleep to the sound of thunder rumbling across the lake and the flash of lightning.
Now if only Saturday would be clear and sunny...
Tuesday, May 06, 2008
How to Take 60 7th Graders Camping and Live to Tell About It - Part 1
This past weekend was The Great 7th Grade Camping Trip.
This one of the reasons why I haven't posted much. I'm trying to recover. And considering that I managed to catch a rotten spring cold along the way, that's another reason I haven't posted. I'm tired, I have a head full of snot, and my voice is gone. All I want to do is sleep.
Anyway. Enough of my whining.
The Great 7th Grade Camping Trip began last year, and was the brainchild of a few of us who thought it would be a great experience for some of our kids. We teach in a low-income building with a lot kids who have some pretty miserable stories. Many of them have never been away from home, never been in the woods, never sat around a campfire. Mrs. Eagle and I, in particular, have been reading a book, Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children From Nature Deficit Disorder, by Richard Louv, and we've come to believe that this generation of kids we're teaching needs to get off their butts and get outside a lot more.
Now this camp isn't exactly rustic. It has dorms, and showers, and flush toilets, and an activity building, and a darn good cafeteria-style eating commons. However, it does sit in the woods, on a lake, and there's hiking trails and birds and deer and it has spotty cell phone service. The spotty cell phone service is what freaked these kids out the most.
Last year it was only our team that went. However, with Mrs. Bunny getting moved over to another team to become team leader, and with Mrs. Eagle as team leader for the other 7th grade team, we decided to open it up to the entire 7th grade. The idea was that each team would select a group of kids and we'd go as a grade level. We ended up with a total of 61 kids which is nearly twice what we had last year.
Like last year we had the kids write an essay about why they wanted to go and why they, better yet, deserved to go. We actually had quite a few kids write about why they didn't want to go. Little League commitments, money issues at home, the inability to live without video games for an entire weekend, and just kids who freaked out at the idea of getting dirty were some of the reasons why some of our kids opted out. However, for the ones who wanted to go, the reasons were pretty, well, sad. Quite a few of our kids come from broken homes and wrote about how tough things were now that Dad and Mom had split up and how they'd like a weekend away from all that. A few wrote about how much they missed their deployed parent and would like to get away for a while. Some wanted to go because they'd never had a s'more. A few wanted to get away from babysitting their siblings for just one weekend.
We knew that money would be an issue and wanted to make it as inexpensive as possible. The seventh grade hosted a dance to raise money and managed to get the cost down to about $70 per kid. The student council paid "scholarships" for a couple, a few teachers sponsored a few other kids, the chess club paid for another, and the Jr. Civitan club sponsored another.
Permission slips were signed and notarized. Fees were paid. Bug spray purchased. Bags packed. Lunches ordered for Friday. The buses and the bus drivers were lined up. Everything was in order.
And then the weather reported severe thunderstorms with the possibility of damaging winds, and yes, tornadoes...
Stay tuned...
This one of the reasons why I haven't posted much. I'm trying to recover. And considering that I managed to catch a rotten spring cold along the way, that's another reason I haven't posted. I'm tired, I have a head full of snot, and my voice is gone. All I want to do is sleep.
Anyway. Enough of my whining.
The Great 7th Grade Camping Trip began last year, and was the brainchild of a few of us who thought it would be a great experience for some of our kids. We teach in a low-income building with a lot kids who have some pretty miserable stories. Many of them have never been away from home, never been in the woods, never sat around a campfire. Mrs. Eagle and I, in particular, have been reading a book, Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children From Nature Deficit Disorder, by Richard Louv, and we've come to believe that this generation of kids we're teaching needs to get off their butts and get outside a lot more.
Now this camp isn't exactly rustic. It has dorms, and showers, and flush toilets, and an activity building, and a darn good cafeteria-style eating commons. However, it does sit in the woods, on a lake, and there's hiking trails and birds and deer and it has spotty cell phone service. The spotty cell phone service is what freaked these kids out the most.
Last year it was only our team that went. However, with Mrs. Bunny getting moved over to another team to become team leader, and with Mrs. Eagle as team leader for the other 7th grade team, we decided to open it up to the entire 7th grade. The idea was that each team would select a group of kids and we'd go as a grade level. We ended up with a total of 61 kids which is nearly twice what we had last year.
Like last year we had the kids write an essay about why they wanted to go and why they, better yet, deserved to go. We actually had quite a few kids write about why they didn't want to go. Little League commitments, money issues at home, the inability to live without video games for an entire weekend, and just kids who freaked out at the idea of getting dirty were some of the reasons why some of our kids opted out. However, for the ones who wanted to go, the reasons were pretty, well, sad. Quite a few of our kids come from broken homes and wrote about how tough things were now that Dad and Mom had split up and how they'd like a weekend away from all that. A few wrote about how much they missed their deployed parent and would like to get away for a while. Some wanted to go because they'd never had a s'more. A few wanted to get away from babysitting their siblings for just one weekend.
We knew that money would be an issue and wanted to make it as inexpensive as possible. The seventh grade hosted a dance to raise money and managed to get the cost down to about $70 per kid. The student council paid "scholarships" for a couple, a few teachers sponsored a few other kids, the chess club paid for another, and the Jr. Civitan club sponsored another.
Permission slips were signed and notarized. Fees were paid. Bug spray purchased. Bags packed. Lunches ordered for Friday. The buses and the bus drivers were lined up. Everything was in order.
And then the weather reported severe thunderstorms with the possibility of damaging winds, and yes, tornadoes...
Stay tuned...
Saturday, April 28, 2007
Of Algae, S'Mores, Sunburns and Screaming 7th Graders - a Wrap up
So what did I learn from our field trip?
Quite a lot actually.
I learned that this generation of kids is not as familiar with the great outdoors as we are. I grew up in a city but I still had chances through scouting and visits to grandma's farm, to experience things like campfires and shooting stars and fishing. Many kids these days don't even get to go outside and play because there's no safe place to do so. I find this to be horribly sad.
I learned that many things we take for granted are new and different for these kids. It never occurred to me that there were kids who never had a s'more, who never sat by a campfire, who never rode a boat, or walked in the woods, or looked at a wildflower, or just sat looking at the sky at night.
I learned that I made the right decision to leave the corporate world and go into teaching because I never once got the type of satisfaction in business that I got from the look on a kid's face when he caught a crawdad in a net.
Moments that stuck in my mind:
Having a kid tell me that she's never had a s'more before and thanking us for giving her the chance to have one. (She loved it by the way).
Seventh grade girls like to play beauty shop just like we did. When I showed up in the dorm with my hair wet from having just washed it, they all wanted to comb it out and mess with it. I let them.
I had one girl tell me she couldn't remember the last time she actually ate three meals in one day. She was astonished at the amount of food she was given to eat. How sad that there are so many kids out there who consider three squares a day a rarity.
Looking out at the kids when I was telling ghost stories and watching the looks on their faces. I had them in the palm of my hand. Now if I could only do that every day in the classroom.
The look on the kid's faces when they put on their life vests and got on the boat nearly brought a tear to my eyes...their smiles were HUGE.
Watching the kids play with algae and realize that nature is fun, science is cool, and there's nothing so green as algae!
Watching one of my homeroom kids take off on the orienteering course like a gazelle let loose at the zoo. That was, by far, his favorite activity. I could give him a compass tomorrow and tell him to go find something and he'd be out the door.
So did it change the kids we took?
Yup. It did.
They seem a little more mature, a little more calm. They seemed to have found an inner strength in some respects. They take a little more pride in what they're doing.
I handed out progress reports this week and one of my homeroom kids that went on the trip needs to pull his grade up. I handed him his progress report and before I could say anything he said, "I can do a lot better than that." I agreed. "I know you can," I said. "Yeah, I know I can too," he said, and he smiled at me. He's never been that self-assured before.
Not one of them bragged about being able to go on the trip. They seemed to realize that what they received was something special but not something to use to lord it over their classmates who didn't go.
The most interesting thing is how they're relating to us, their teachers.
They don't swing by us and enter the room and then go chat with their friends. They're stopping. They're talking with us, asking us what's going on, how's the day going, what's new? They smile a lot more. I'll be doing a lesson and look up and find one of the kids from the trip looking at me, we'll lock eyes, and they'll smile. They won't look away. When class is over, kids who never once said a word are now saying "goodbye, see you tomorrow" before they leave. They're telling us about their day, about what they did at home, about a problem they're having with another kid or a class or just life in general.
One of the most amazing changes is in how some of the kids view Mr. Social Studies. He's not the warm, cuddly type of teacher - 26 years in law enforcement sort of erased any cuddliness he may have had at one time. He's a disciplinarian with high expectations and he's the teacher the kids love to hate. Later, after they've moved on to 8th grade and beyond they will sometimes come back and thank him for working them so hard and making them think, but during seventh grade most of the kids just can't stand him.
Except now the kids on the trip are bragging about how awesome he is. In my Third Period Class From the Very Depths of Hell Itself, one of the Losers made the mistake of making some sort of crack about Mr. Social Studies, which riled up some of the boys who were on our trip. They proceeded to inform everyone that Mr. Social Studies is truly awesome, that his class is cool, and if you would only pay attention you'd figure out how cool he is.
Amazing.
They're connecting.
The Principal has announced that her focus next year, and therefore the focus of our school, is going to be on building relationships. We did that this past weekend.
And it's created a little bit of magic for 32 kids and six grown ups.
And I'm glad we did it. So very, very glad.
Quite a lot actually.
I learned that this generation of kids is not as familiar with the great outdoors as we are. I grew up in a city but I still had chances through scouting and visits to grandma's farm, to experience things like campfires and shooting stars and fishing. Many kids these days don't even get to go outside and play because there's no safe place to do so. I find this to be horribly sad.
I learned that many things we take for granted are new and different for these kids. It never occurred to me that there were kids who never had a s'more, who never sat by a campfire, who never rode a boat, or walked in the woods, or looked at a wildflower, or just sat looking at the sky at night.
I learned that I made the right decision to leave the corporate world and go into teaching because I never once got the type of satisfaction in business that I got from the look on a kid's face when he caught a crawdad in a net.
Moments that stuck in my mind:
Having a kid tell me that she's never had a s'more before and thanking us for giving her the chance to have one. (She loved it by the way).
Seventh grade girls like to play beauty shop just like we did. When I showed up in the dorm with my hair wet from having just washed it, they all wanted to comb it out and mess with it. I let them.
I had one girl tell me she couldn't remember the last time she actually ate three meals in one day. She was astonished at the amount of food she was given to eat. How sad that there are so many kids out there who consider three squares a day a rarity.
Looking out at the kids when I was telling ghost stories and watching the looks on their faces. I had them in the palm of my hand. Now if I could only do that every day in the classroom.
The look on the kid's faces when they put on their life vests and got on the boat nearly brought a tear to my eyes...their smiles were HUGE.
Watching the kids play with algae and realize that nature is fun, science is cool, and there's nothing so green as algae!
Watching one of my homeroom kids take off on the orienteering course like a gazelle let loose at the zoo. That was, by far, his favorite activity. I could give him a compass tomorrow and tell him to go find something and he'd be out the door.
So did it change the kids we took?
Yup. It did.
They seem a little more mature, a little more calm. They seemed to have found an inner strength in some respects. They take a little more pride in what they're doing.
I handed out progress reports this week and one of my homeroom kids that went on the trip needs to pull his grade up. I handed him his progress report and before I could say anything he said, "I can do a lot better than that." I agreed. "I know you can," I said. "Yeah, I know I can too," he said, and he smiled at me. He's never been that self-assured before.
Not one of them bragged about being able to go on the trip. They seemed to realize that what they received was something special but not something to use to lord it over their classmates who didn't go.
The most interesting thing is how they're relating to us, their teachers.
They don't swing by us and enter the room and then go chat with their friends. They're stopping. They're talking with us, asking us what's going on, how's the day going, what's new? They smile a lot more. I'll be doing a lesson and look up and find one of the kids from the trip looking at me, we'll lock eyes, and they'll smile. They won't look away. When class is over, kids who never once said a word are now saying "goodbye, see you tomorrow" before they leave. They're telling us about their day, about what they did at home, about a problem they're having with another kid or a class or just life in general.
One of the most amazing changes is in how some of the kids view Mr. Social Studies. He's not the warm, cuddly type of teacher - 26 years in law enforcement sort of erased any cuddliness he may have had at one time. He's a disciplinarian with high expectations and he's the teacher the kids love to hate. Later, after they've moved on to 8th grade and beyond they will sometimes come back and thank him for working them so hard and making them think, but during seventh grade most of the kids just can't stand him.
Except now the kids on the trip are bragging about how awesome he is. In my Third Period Class From the Very Depths of Hell Itself, one of the Losers made the mistake of making some sort of crack about Mr. Social Studies, which riled up some of the boys who were on our trip. They proceeded to inform everyone that Mr. Social Studies is truly awesome, that his class is cool, and if you would only pay attention you'd figure out how cool he is.
Amazing.
They're connecting.
The Principal has announced that her focus next year, and therefore the focus of our school, is going to be on building relationships. We did that this past weekend.
And it's created a little bit of magic for 32 kids and six grown ups.
And I'm glad we did it. So very, very glad.
Of Algae, S'Mores, Sunburns and Screaming 7th Graders, Part V
On our last morning of camp, Coach decided to forgo the early morning exercise session for the boys and instead gave them another life lesson - on how to vacuum.
One of the rules at camp was that everyone had to help clean up and that included vacuuming the dining area after each meal. The kids weren't wild about this, but most of them figured out that the quicker they got it done the quicker they could go outside and mess around. Some of the boys, however, were overhead saying that they couldn't help because they didn't know how to vacuum.
Coach took care of that. He marched the boys to the dining hall, gave them each a section of floor, did a brief run through on how to operate a vacuum, and then they each had to complete their section before they could go outside. Another life lesson learned.
Each of our three groups had one more session to do before we packed up, cleaned the dorms, and left to go home. Our group finished the second part of the Challenge Course.
Challenge Courses go by different names, and different organizations operate them, but the basic idea is to have a group of people think outside the box to solve problems as a group. One of the goals of this trip was to develop some leadership skills in our students and this course was one of the tools we used to do this.
And it worked.
The group that I was with had a variety of different kids - boys and girls of different races, different backgrounds, different academic ability, and different economic levels. The only thing they really have in common is the fact that they have the same five teachers for seventh grade. Watching this team of twelve kids work together to solve a problem was fascinating. We saw a different side of these kids and they saw a different side of each other and of themselves.
I won't go into detail on what the course activities were (it would give away some of the solutions to the problems if I did), but suffice it to say that they were fun and challenging. The best part for Mrs. Language and I was listening to them talk with each other to solve the problems. They listened, made suggestions, tossed out ideas, tried things, regrouped when needed. It was amazing. What was almost as amazing is what didn't happen.
They didn't argue. They didn't criticize. They didn't disregard anyone's idea as "stupid". They didn't give up. They didn't call names. They didn't tease.
They were wonderful.
Mrs. Language looked at me at one point and whispered, "this is what it's all about." I couldn't agree more.
The rest of the morning was spent packing, cleaning, and loading up the bus. The kids were tuckered out, and so were the adults. The ride home was significantly quieter than the ride up. In fact, from our position in the front of the bus, we could look back and see 32 heads slumped against the seats, mouths open, eyes closed.
One of our girls roused herself and saw me looking back. "Mrs. Bluebird," she yelled over the noise, "can you tell us another ghost story?"
"Maybe some other time when it isn't so loud," I hollered back. She smiled, closed her eyes, and went to sleep.
We got back to school to find several parents already waiting for us. A few thanked us for giving them a weekend off, others thanked us for giving their kids the chance to do something new. Many of the kids gave us big hugs (and a handshake to Mr. Social Studies) and told us thank you.
It was an awesome experience for all of us. And we were somewhat sad to see it end.
I
One of the rules at camp was that everyone had to help clean up and that included vacuuming the dining area after each meal. The kids weren't wild about this, but most of them figured out that the quicker they got it done the quicker they could go outside and mess around. Some of the boys, however, were overhead saying that they couldn't help because they didn't know how to vacuum.
Coach took care of that. He marched the boys to the dining hall, gave them each a section of floor, did a brief run through on how to operate a vacuum, and then they each had to complete their section before they could go outside. Another life lesson learned.
Each of our three groups had one more session to do before we packed up, cleaned the dorms, and left to go home. Our group finished the second part of the Challenge Course.
Challenge Courses go by different names, and different organizations operate them, but the basic idea is to have a group of people think outside the box to solve problems as a group. One of the goals of this trip was to develop some leadership skills in our students and this course was one of the tools we used to do this.
And it worked.
The group that I was with had a variety of different kids - boys and girls of different races, different backgrounds, different academic ability, and different economic levels. The only thing they really have in common is the fact that they have the same five teachers for seventh grade. Watching this team of twelve kids work together to solve a problem was fascinating. We saw a different side of these kids and they saw a different side of each other and of themselves.
I won't go into detail on what the course activities were (it would give away some of the solutions to the problems if I did), but suffice it to say that they were fun and challenging. The best part for Mrs. Language and I was listening to them talk with each other to solve the problems. They listened, made suggestions, tossed out ideas, tried things, regrouped when needed. It was amazing. What was almost as amazing is what didn't happen.
They didn't argue. They didn't criticize. They didn't disregard anyone's idea as "stupid". They didn't give up. They didn't call names. They didn't tease.
They were wonderful.
Mrs. Language looked at me at one point and whispered, "this is what it's all about." I couldn't agree more.
The rest of the morning was spent packing, cleaning, and loading up the bus. The kids were tuckered out, and so were the adults. The ride home was significantly quieter than the ride up. In fact, from our position in the front of the bus, we could look back and see 32 heads slumped against the seats, mouths open, eyes closed.
One of our girls roused herself and saw me looking back. "Mrs. Bluebird," she yelled over the noise, "can you tell us another ghost story?"
"Maybe some other time when it isn't so loud," I hollered back. She smiled, closed her eyes, and went to sleep.
We got back to school to find several parents already waiting for us. A few thanked us for giving them a weekend off, others thanked us for giving their kids the chance to do something new. Many of the kids gave us big hugs (and a handshake to Mr. Social Studies) and told us thank you.
It was an awesome experience for all of us. And we were somewhat sad to see it end.
I
Wednesday, April 25, 2007
Of Algae, S'mores, Sunburns and Screaming 7th Graders, Part IV
I love Mrs. Language. Mrs. Language brought along her own coffee pot so we could have coffee in our room. This is a girl who knows how to do mornings.
It's six in the morning, the girls are beginning to stir and Mrs. Language and I are in our jammies imbibing in the first cuppa of the day. The fact that we both tend to look like something chewed on our hair all night, had no make-up and were in our jammies was a fact not lost on our little darlings. They were just astounded and somewhat amazed that they saw their teachers - yes! - in jammies, with no make-up, with hair sticking out everywhere.
Whatever. They looked pretty goofy too.
Mrs. Language peers out the glass doors to see what the weather is looking like outside.
"Oh my gosh," she hisses. "You have got to see this!"
I go to the door and look out to see Mr. Social Studies, hands clasped behind him like a drill sergeant, watching our sixteen boys as Coach was leading them through calisthenics. They looked like sleepy little puppets as they flopped and jumped and staggered around in the early morning mist.
You had to love it. Apparently they woke the boys up at 5:30 that morning, rousted them out of their bunks, and put them through their paces.
And all that before breakfast!
After breakfast we broke into our three groups and sent each group off to work on their day's activities. I tagged along with Mrs. Language and the group that had the highest number of our loudest kids - including three kids from My Third Period Class From The Very Depths of Hell Itself (but definitely members of the Non-Loser Minority). Our first assignment that morning was the class on wilderness survival. They learned how to put together an emergency survival kit, what to do when if they get lost, and how to build a shelter. They then got to go outside to an area in the woods and actually build a shelter using branches and limbs. The girls got organized and working together built a very nice, study, and large shelter with very few openings for rain. They even pulled in a log or two to sit on as furniture, and put sunglasses on the roof to act as reflectors for search and rescue teams flying overhead.
The boys put together a circular shelter around a large tree that featured openings so they could shoot at serial killers and bears, but would also allow rain and snow to enter the shelter.
I think the boys play too many video games and watch way too many weird movies.
Our next assignment was the Lake Study (which was my second time around and even better this time). After lunch we did an orienteering course which was an eye opener for all of us. For some reason, maybe because these are only 7th graders, I had the impression that the orienteering course was going to be fairly easy.
I was wrong.
We all got instructions on how to use a compass, how to target your heading, find a point, and walk to it. We were then divided into teams of three kids per adult, and were each given a different colored map. The goal was to find six locations (painted coffee cans) in one hour and to punch our map with the puncher at each can.
And not get lost.
We went to the starting point, the ranger checked our headings and off we went. Up hills. Down hills. Up ridges. Down ravines. Over logs. Through thickets. Into bushes with stickers. Up more hills. Up even more hills.
I had to give my girls credit. They were troopers. We found our first two cans with little difficulty, but the third one was not being cooperative. By this time we had nearly emptied our water bottles, my bad knee (which I twisted slightly on the first day by nearly tripping over a backpack) was acting up, and my girls were starting to slow down a bit. We looked at our watches and decided we didn't have time to continue looking for the rest of the cans, so we found one of the hiking trails that would take us back to the rendezvous point and headed back.
And found the elusive third can off to our left a few paces down the trail. We must have walked by that stupid can a dozen times looking for it!
By this time it was mid-afternoon, hot, and the kids were whining about how they wanted to go swimming. However, we had the Stream Study to do, so we loaded them up in the van, and drove to a nearby stream where our guide handed us all nets and we began to look at the species of organisms that lived in this stream.
This meant taking off our shoes and socks, rolling up those pant legs, and wading into the stream. Some of the kids (and teachers, thank goodness) actually remembered to pack extra shoes that could get wet for this very reason. I'm glad I brought my shoes because the streambed was really rocky and I'm not exactly good at walking across sharp rocks.
The stream area itself was lovely with trees bending overhead with new growth on them, although many suffered horribly in our late hard frost of a few weeks ago. There were ferns and moss along the banks, and wildflowers scattered around. Pretty soon the kids were busy splashing in the water, finding crawdads and fish in their nets. It didn't take them long to get soaking wet, and they all looked like bedraggled refugees from a disaster film. They had an absolute blast, however, and were such great little scientists. We spent well over an hour working our way up and down the stream, and we had a fantastic time. Kids who hadn't really been friends before the trip were now bent over a net checking out the crawdads, rocks and plant life they'd caught.
I was certain that they'd be beat by the time we returned to camp, but they weren't. In the hour to kill before supper they went out and played basketball, picked up rocks by the lake, and tossed a football around.
After supper, as soon as it got dark, we had a campfire for them and made s'mores. They decided to cap off the evening by a game of night tag where they ran around in the semi-dark (there were parking lot lights nearby) and chased each other silly.
But they weren't worn out yet.
Some of the girls wanted me to tell them ghost stories, and we ended up (I don't remember how) in a seating area in the conference center. I've collected ghost books and ghost stories for years and even do a ghost talk on Civil War ghosts for Civil War roundtables, so I was able to pull out a lot of these stories from my memory. I started with four girls, and pretty soon I looked up and nearly all the kids were there.
Listening.
Quietly.
Intently.
I'd stop a story and they'd yell, "tell another one!" and I'd remember another one to tell them. Of course, seeing as how most of them were Civil War ghost stories I had to throw in a history lesson as well, so they may have actually learned something. I finally ran out of stories, it was late, and we all wandered back to the dorms to go to bed.
The boys were dragging their feet and were asleep within minutes.
The girls, darn them, had hit a second wind and we didn't get them settled down until nearly midnight.
One more day to go...Boo!
It's six in the morning, the girls are beginning to stir and Mrs. Language and I are in our jammies imbibing in the first cuppa of the day. The fact that we both tend to look like something chewed on our hair all night, had no make-up and were in our jammies was a fact not lost on our little darlings. They were just astounded and somewhat amazed that they saw their teachers - yes! - in jammies, with no make-up, with hair sticking out everywhere.
Whatever. They looked pretty goofy too.
Mrs. Language peers out the glass doors to see what the weather is looking like outside.
"Oh my gosh," she hisses. "You have got to see this!"
I go to the door and look out to see Mr. Social Studies, hands clasped behind him like a drill sergeant, watching our sixteen boys as Coach was leading them through calisthenics. They looked like sleepy little puppets as they flopped and jumped and staggered around in the early morning mist.
You had to love it. Apparently they woke the boys up at 5:30 that morning, rousted them out of their bunks, and put them through their paces.
And all that before breakfast!
After breakfast we broke into our three groups and sent each group off to work on their day's activities. I tagged along with Mrs. Language and the group that had the highest number of our loudest kids - including three kids from My Third Period Class From The Very Depths of Hell Itself (but definitely members of the Non-Loser Minority). Our first assignment that morning was the class on wilderness survival. They learned how to put together an emergency survival kit, what to do when if they get lost, and how to build a shelter. They then got to go outside to an area in the woods and actually build a shelter using branches and limbs. The girls got organized and working together built a very nice, study, and large shelter with very few openings for rain. They even pulled in a log or two to sit on as furniture, and put sunglasses on the roof to act as reflectors for search and rescue teams flying overhead.
The boys put together a circular shelter around a large tree that featured openings so they could shoot at serial killers and bears, but would also allow rain and snow to enter the shelter.
I think the boys play too many video games and watch way too many weird movies.
Our next assignment was the Lake Study (which was my second time around and even better this time). After lunch we did an orienteering course which was an eye opener for all of us. For some reason, maybe because these are only 7th graders, I had the impression that the orienteering course was going to be fairly easy.
I was wrong.
We all got instructions on how to use a compass, how to target your heading, find a point, and walk to it. We were then divided into teams of three kids per adult, and were each given a different colored map. The goal was to find six locations (painted coffee cans) in one hour and to punch our map with the puncher at each can.
And not get lost.
We went to the starting point, the ranger checked our headings and off we went. Up hills. Down hills. Up ridges. Down ravines. Over logs. Through thickets. Into bushes with stickers. Up more hills. Up even more hills.
I had to give my girls credit. They were troopers. We found our first two cans with little difficulty, but the third one was not being cooperative. By this time we had nearly emptied our water bottles, my bad knee (which I twisted slightly on the first day by nearly tripping over a backpack) was acting up, and my girls were starting to slow down a bit. We looked at our watches and decided we didn't have time to continue looking for the rest of the cans, so we found one of the hiking trails that would take us back to the rendezvous point and headed back.
And found the elusive third can off to our left a few paces down the trail. We must have walked by that stupid can a dozen times looking for it!
By this time it was mid-afternoon, hot, and the kids were whining about how they wanted to go swimming. However, we had the Stream Study to do, so we loaded them up in the van, and drove to a nearby stream where our guide handed us all nets and we began to look at the species of organisms that lived in this stream.
This meant taking off our shoes and socks, rolling up those pant legs, and wading into the stream. Some of the kids (and teachers, thank goodness) actually remembered to pack extra shoes that could get wet for this very reason. I'm glad I brought my shoes because the streambed was really rocky and I'm not exactly good at walking across sharp rocks.
The stream area itself was lovely with trees bending overhead with new growth on them, although many suffered horribly in our late hard frost of a few weeks ago. There were ferns and moss along the banks, and wildflowers scattered around. Pretty soon the kids were busy splashing in the water, finding crawdads and fish in their nets. It didn't take them long to get soaking wet, and they all looked like bedraggled refugees from a disaster film. They had an absolute blast, however, and were such great little scientists. We spent well over an hour working our way up and down the stream, and we had a fantastic time. Kids who hadn't really been friends before the trip were now bent over a net checking out the crawdads, rocks and plant life they'd caught.
I was certain that they'd be beat by the time we returned to camp, but they weren't. In the hour to kill before supper they went out and played basketball, picked up rocks by the lake, and tossed a football around.
After supper, as soon as it got dark, we had a campfire for them and made s'mores. They decided to cap off the evening by a game of night tag where they ran around in the semi-dark (there were parking lot lights nearby) and chased each other silly.
But they weren't worn out yet.
Some of the girls wanted me to tell them ghost stories, and we ended up (I don't remember how) in a seating area in the conference center. I've collected ghost books and ghost stories for years and even do a ghost talk on Civil War ghosts for Civil War roundtables, so I was able to pull out a lot of these stories from my memory. I started with four girls, and pretty soon I looked up and nearly all the kids were there.
Listening.
Quietly.
Intently.
I'd stop a story and they'd yell, "tell another one!" and I'd remember another one to tell them. Of course, seeing as how most of them were Civil War ghost stories I had to throw in a history lesson as well, so they may have actually learned something. I finally ran out of stories, it was late, and we all wandered back to the dorms to go to bed.
The boys were dragging their feet and were asleep within minutes.
The girls, darn them, had hit a second wind and we didn't get them settled down until nearly midnight.
One more day to go...Boo!
Tuesday, April 24, 2007
Of Algae, S'mores, Sunburns, and Screaming 7th Graders Part III
One of the things we had scheduled for the first night was a night hike, guided by two of the rangers. Some of the kids, those who were pretty much city-bred, were not wild about the idea of taking a hike, in the dark, without flashlights.
They also were having a heard time being really, really quiet.
The idea was to help them learn about how animals survive in the night. We didn't use flashlights so that they could let their eyes adjust and acquire their night vision. We whispered and listened quietly to the sounds of the forest in the night. We had them use their sense of smell to see if they could identify objects the ranger handed them.
We split the groups into boys and girls and Mrs. Language and I went with the boys who were a bit wound up. We found out later that they'd located a soda machine and were sneaking pops and energy drinks until we put a fake "out of order" sign on it.
Pretty soon, however, they were surprised at how much they could see and at how bright the moon was and how many stars there were. Our guide took us to a clearing and we played a tag game, in the dark, with one kid as the owl and the others as mice. The owl was blindfolded and the mice had to be as quiet as possible and sneak by the owl. This worked pretty well until some of the mice decided that throwing a water bottle at the owl would distract him and they could sneak by. The owl, fortunately, was fairly good natured even when the water bottle bonked him in the head.
The high point of the hike for them was getting to chew Wintergreen Lifesavers in the dark and watching them spark in each other's mouths. Talk about cool!
After we returned to the camp, we gave them a snack and tried to get them quieted down for bed. It was past ten, they'd been up, most of them, since six, and we were hoping to get them settled down and to sleep. After all, the grown ups were pretty tired as well.
The girls settled down fairly quickly (amazing) but the boys were another story.
They paid for it the following day however. Unbeknown to them, Coach had brought his megaphone. Morning was going to come very early for them.
They also were having a heard time being really, really quiet.
The idea was to help them learn about how animals survive in the night. We didn't use flashlights so that they could let their eyes adjust and acquire their night vision. We whispered and listened quietly to the sounds of the forest in the night. We had them use their sense of smell to see if they could identify objects the ranger handed them.
We split the groups into boys and girls and Mrs. Language and I went with the boys who were a bit wound up. We found out later that they'd located a soda machine and were sneaking pops and energy drinks until we put a fake "out of order" sign on it.
Pretty soon, however, they were surprised at how much they could see and at how bright the moon was and how many stars there were. Our guide took us to a clearing and we played a tag game, in the dark, with one kid as the owl and the others as mice. The owl was blindfolded and the mice had to be as quiet as possible and sneak by the owl. This worked pretty well until some of the mice decided that throwing a water bottle at the owl would distract him and they could sneak by. The owl, fortunately, was fairly good natured even when the water bottle bonked him in the head.
The high point of the hike for them was getting to chew Wintergreen Lifesavers in the dark and watching them spark in each other's mouths. Talk about cool!
After we returned to the camp, we gave them a snack and tried to get them quieted down for bed. It was past ten, they'd been up, most of them, since six, and we were hoping to get them settled down and to sleep. After all, the grown ups were pretty tired as well.
The girls settled down fairly quickly (amazing) but the boys were another story.
They paid for it the following day however. Unbeknown to them, Coach had brought his megaphone. Morning was going to come very early for them.
Of Algae, S'mores, Sunburns, and Screaming 7th Graders Part II
One thing we all have learned in working with seventh graders is that you really can't afford to give them much, if any, down time. Down time means they get in trouble, or have the potential to get in trouble. The goal is to wear them out so they're awake enough to participate, but tired enough to not cause any mischief.
We succeeded in this goal.
After unpacking we met for a brief orientation, split the kids into three groups (their teams for the weekend) and started in on our first activity. I went with on group on the Lake Study which was something I was interested in anyway, since I happen to be a Project WET (Water Education for Teachers) facilitator and since this was sort of science oriented. Of course the kids were, at first, less than enthused about a Lake Study. After all, how fun could this be?
Pretty darn fun, they found out.
We took a huge net and dragged a portion of the lake to find out what types of organisms we would find. This involved a few kids holding one end of the net on shore, while our guide went out into the lake (gotta love those waterproof coveralls) and swung the net around and back to shore. All the kids had to help pull it ashore and then we went through the contents which consisted of an amazing amount of algae (unusual, according to our guide).
The kids loved the algae. We had to sort through it to find fish, then chuck what we didn't need back into the water. The kids took to this like you wouldn't believe. Kids I never thought would even touch the stuff are elbow deep in algae, marveling at its bright green color, its texture, how it dries on their skin, and how funny it smells. One girl was so impressed with algae that she still hasn't stopped talking about it. Nearly all the kids mentioned that they'd never touched algae before.
We found quite a few smaller fish which we put into buckets of water and the kids got to touch and handle before we freed them back into the lake. This was new for them as well.
We then all got into life vests and went out into the middle of the lake on a pontoon boat and took some water samples. We tested for nitrates, ph, phosphates, clarity, and dissolved oxygen. We took Secchi Disks and used those as well to see how far down into the lake we could see.
The best part? Our guide gave each of them a chance to drive the boat. At this point I asked them how many of them had ever been on a boat before. Two hands went up. I then asked how many of them had driven a boat before. No hands went up. The looks on their faces was just priceless as they steered the boat around the lake. After we returned to the dock and headed up for dinner I asked my group if the Lake Study was as boring as they thought it was going to be.
"No!" they shouted. To a kid, they all wanted to go again. I had to remind them that they had five other activities to do this weekend. That seemed to placate them but they all agreed that nothing could be as cool as the Lake Study.
They were wrong.
We succeeded in this goal.
After unpacking we met for a brief orientation, split the kids into three groups (their teams for the weekend) and started in on our first activity. I went with on group on the Lake Study which was something I was interested in anyway, since I happen to be a Project WET (Water Education for Teachers) facilitator and since this was sort of science oriented. Of course the kids were, at first, less than enthused about a Lake Study. After all, how fun could this be?
Pretty darn fun, they found out.
We took a huge net and dragged a portion of the lake to find out what types of organisms we would find. This involved a few kids holding one end of the net on shore, while our guide went out into the lake (gotta love those waterproof coveralls) and swung the net around and back to shore. All the kids had to help pull it ashore and then we went through the contents which consisted of an amazing amount of algae (unusual, according to our guide).
The kids loved the algae. We had to sort through it to find fish, then chuck what we didn't need back into the water. The kids took to this like you wouldn't believe. Kids I never thought would even touch the stuff are elbow deep in algae, marveling at its bright green color, its texture, how it dries on their skin, and how funny it smells. One girl was so impressed with algae that she still hasn't stopped talking about it. Nearly all the kids mentioned that they'd never touched algae before.
We found quite a few smaller fish which we put into buckets of water and the kids got to touch and handle before we freed them back into the lake. This was new for them as well.
We then all got into life vests and went out into the middle of the lake on a pontoon boat and took some water samples. We tested for nitrates, ph, phosphates, clarity, and dissolved oxygen. We took Secchi Disks and used those as well to see how far down into the lake we could see.
The best part? Our guide gave each of them a chance to drive the boat. At this point I asked them how many of them had ever been on a boat before. Two hands went up. I then asked how many of them had driven a boat before. No hands went up. The looks on their faces was just priceless as they steered the boat around the lake. After we returned to the dock and headed up for dinner I asked my group if the Lake Study was as boring as they thought it was going to be.
"No!" they shouted. To a kid, they all wanted to go again. I had to remind them that they had five other activities to do this weekend. That seemed to placate them but they all agreed that nothing could be as cool as the Lake Study.
They were wrong.
Monday, April 23, 2007
Of Algae, S'mores, Sunburns, and Screaming 7th Graders Part I
Our goal, when we came up with this wild idea of a "wilderness weekend", was to provide our students, many of them from broken and/or low income homes, with opportunities to do things they've never had the chance to do before. It was a lot of work putting it together, and Mrs. Language, bless her heart, did the bulk of it and did a fantastic job with it. We had the full support of The Principal because she believes that anything we do that is child-centered, that will help our kids, is a good thing.
Still, many people, including us, thought we might be just a little bit crazy.
And at 10:30 on Friday morning, in a bus full of screaming 7th graders, we thought they just may be right.
We weren't due to check in to the camp until around 3:00 pm, so we had time to do a tour of an 1850's homestead nearby. We broke the kids into two groups and toured the farm, which was a fairly new experience for many of them. Big revelation for them was that there wasn't any indoor plumbing, and hence no bathroom. The lesson that at 13, most of them would already know how to run their own household or farm was a big eye-opener for them as well. Many of them thought that the oxen were pretty impressive because they were so big and the sheep were also high on the popularity list.
We had brought along sack lunches which we ate there in a picnic area along side a little creek.
Lunch was gobbled down and pretty soon half the kids were wading through the creek while the other half had put together a football game using an apple as a ball. I've spent most of the year looking at these kids in a classroom so it was a real change to see them outside playing. First thing that occurred to me was how much energy these kids had to burn. It was almost exhausting just watching them yell and run and scream and jump.
We made it to camp on time, checked in at the desk, got the keys to the dorms and prepared to move everyone in. The kids were waiting, bags and sleeping bags on the ground, bouncing around, eager to get going. We gave the all clear to move into the dorms and the stampede down the hill to the dorms was a sight to see. I found out later that they were running to be the first to get a top bunk. It probably took them sixty seconds to get everything moved in. Bags flew, sleeping bags unrolled, kids screamed and giggled and laughed!
Funny, but at my age, I would have been running to get a bottom bunk!
It's late now, and I'm still not recovered, so I'll sign off. More to come!
Still, many people, including us, thought we might be just a little bit crazy.
And at 10:30 on Friday morning, in a bus full of screaming 7th graders, we thought they just may be right.
We weren't due to check in to the camp until around 3:00 pm, so we had time to do a tour of an 1850's homestead nearby. We broke the kids into two groups and toured the farm, which was a fairly new experience for many of them. Big revelation for them was that there wasn't any indoor plumbing, and hence no bathroom. The lesson that at 13, most of them would already know how to run their own household or farm was a big eye-opener for them as well. Many of them thought that the oxen were pretty impressive because they were so big and the sheep were also high on the popularity list.
We had brought along sack lunches which we ate there in a picnic area along side a little creek.
Lunch was gobbled down and pretty soon half the kids were wading through the creek while the other half had put together a football game using an apple as a ball. I've spent most of the year looking at these kids in a classroom so it was a real change to see them outside playing. First thing that occurred to me was how much energy these kids had to burn. It was almost exhausting just watching them yell and run and scream and jump.
We made it to camp on time, checked in at the desk, got the keys to the dorms and prepared to move everyone in. The kids were waiting, bags and sleeping bags on the ground, bouncing around, eager to get going. We gave the all clear to move into the dorms and the stampede down the hill to the dorms was a sight to see. I found out later that they were running to be the first to get a top bunk. It probably took them sixty seconds to get everything moved in. Bags flew, sleeping bags unrolled, kids screamed and giggled and laughed!
Funny, but at my age, I would have been running to get a bottom bunk!
It's late now, and I'm still not recovered, so I'll sign off. More to come!
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