Camp Kieve... Purrr!

I visited camp Kieve with the 8th graders this week. It was AMAZING. The kids were certainly loving it when I had to leave them yesterday. In fact, I think this will not be the LAST time I visit. This place exudes a magic power of participation and excitement over the students. They didn't even complain about working on activities in the pouring rain. I think it had a lot to do with their staff. They demanded a great deal in the way of self reflection and personal responsibility. It not only challenged them personally, but also as a team. They learned how to better work in a group and to really lead. I think it was also a great experience for me and the other teachers. We saw new ways to interact with the kids through games and methods of communicating. It is often hard to get beyond our habits, but I have some things to try.

One thing that I REALLY need to work on is offering more time to play. They offered some interesting ideas like "Find the Pig." It was kind of like "Steal the Bacon"but it requires them to work together to get the pig across an area while I try to figure out who has it. I was thinking that it would be cool to help them learn better communication skills. They would especially have to work on things other than speaking and also pre-planning.

I also want to work on giving time to write freely. I loved their "solo" time. It was structured and quiet, but they used it to reflect on themselves. They seemed to get a lot out of it. I think this would work nicely into the writer's journal that I want to do with them. I was thinking it would be more like a box of things that would invite them to write- quotes, fortunes, comics, bits of nature, etc. I see some great possibilities.