However, it was awesome and made me completely energized to continue working with these kids next year too. I got to be partners with MD which was great because we had such an energized time with the kids. We started out with our first activity being rock climbing
which I was completely not planning on doing. However, when the kids wanted MD and I to do it, we thought about it and I, kind of shakily, made it to the top of the wall. Whenever I tried something new, the kids were jazzed up and wanted to try it too. It made me realize that perhaps children aren't nearly as time-consuming as I previously realized. Either way, both MD and I made it to the top of the wall and almost all the kids did too. (Except they were spider monkeys).We did a lot of other completely rockin' stuff too, including building fires and touching snakes. I was really prepared to NOT do that activity, but after watching my kid, Motorcycle (which is his nickname), literally cuddle a snake, I realized that I could do it too. Initially, I touched the python, but after warming up a little bit, I let the moderator put it around my neck.
I look a little bit skeptical in the picture, but it was just because the snake felt so odd on my skin, it just....you can feel it moving which feels far stranger than I can describe. However, it was totally awesome and if I felt accomplished afterwards. I cannot imagine how the students felt.The entire experience brings out this other side of my kids, watching them hike, or take leadership roles or be generally excited about what they're doing. I watched certain kids conquer fears of spending a night away from home and others just be excited because they touched a chinchila. Whatever it was, they were thrilled to get to do it together and to get to do it with their teachers.
One of the neatest things we did was have a campfire.
I led a bunch of "camp" songs (ie songs from the video game Guitar Hero) and cooked s'mores (Kosher Style) for the kiddos. I'm always surprised when I listen to them, or when I tried to just sit down for a moment and they're crowding me because they simply want to be near me. I find myself in the classroom snapping a bit at them for always being up in my business (so to speak) but out there, I realized just how excited they were when it was just a little bit of attention from MD or myself. They didn't need anything incredible, just a feeling that we were watching them.I also got to do my favorite thing in the world and teach poetry. I did a neat bagging activity,
with shredded words, and they had to put them together to try to form a poem. We talked about word meaning how the same words can tell us such very different things. I worked with all three groups of kids (we mixed them up so they weren't in their regular gibush--homeroom--groups) and it was a good eye opener to different students' levels and things like that. But, mainly, I love it when I get to talk about words. There's something incredibly meaningful to me about watching students get "into" an assignment and wanting to share it with me. I like asking questions and listening to them intently, because they come up with things that just blow me away a lot of the time. Like Picasso said, sometimes we need to have eyes like a child. So, this was a really awesome experience to have eyes like they do.Overall, I had an amazing time with them. I got to hang out with my little baby E. And get constantly bombarded by the kiddos. But, I think it was a really good experience. I can't wait to follow them into the next grade! And most of the time, I can't believe how great it is to teach there.
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